The truth about careers and education.

As proof of my bona fides to address this topic, please allow me to state for the record that I have been in the staffing industry since 1981 and the Information Technology industry since 1977. During this period, I have observed first hand how jobs have become increasingly specialized.  There are two very obvious factors that have been responsible for this ongoing trend:

•  As computer and communications technologies have advanced in speed, capacity and power, they have been applied to every facet of our lives and every domain of knowledge known to man. The sheer volume and usefulness of the information that has been unleashed by these technological advances have generated the need and accelerated the emergence of many new professions and job types – often replacing older, outmoded ones in the process.
•  The human brain has a relatively limited and fixed capacity for absorbing, managing and applying information. As a result, these limitations have necessitated that the primary focus of most jobs has been to become densely specialized and increasingly granular when considered within the contexts of the overall operational and information management processes that are employed by all modern businesses to achieve their targeted objectives.   It is not uncommon, therefore, to find organizations that are staffed by many professionals possessing a wide range of needed, specialized expertise. When combined within the larger team context, these professionals and highly trained front line workers collectively possess all the skills, knowledge and abilities to tackle and succeed in addressing complex challenges and/or delivery mandates successfully.

Changing the topic to the value of academic Education in the workplace, I contend that governments of all stripes generally place a great deal of emphasis on academic learning and state-granted degrees/ diplomas as a means of stimulating job growth – in particular, for high paying jobs.  In my view, this targeted academic Education emphasis is both short-sighted and naiive.

After spending nearly all of my professional working career as a “head hunter” who earns  a “finders fee” when successful in assisting a client employer to find and hire persons with rare qualifications, I know the truth about the value of academic Education in the workplace. I can summarize this truth as follows – first  for entry level positions and then for subsequent career advancement.

Entry level positions (generally applies to new graduates or job seekers competing for their first job).

• Some professions require highly specialized training and knowledge - such as a Pharmacist, Accountant, plumber, electrician, etc. For these professions, there is no substitute for having the right academic credentials to enter these professions as determined by the governing bodies who are part of a specific level of government or who are non-government bodies that  have been granted this legislated authority. Without the prescribed credentials, the barriers to entry in these types of regulated employment are insurmountable.
• Other professions (“blue collar” or “white collar”) also require specific academic credentials but for a different, less restrictive purpose – as proof of one’s ability to learn.  These often take the form of degrees, diplomas or certificates.  Sales Professionals in the IT industry, for example,  may be better able to sell products or solutions to customers if they are able to absorb and communicate the features and benefits of a sophisticated product line. Someone who has earned a subject-related university degree or college diploma will give potential employers greater assurance that the potential employee possesses the necessary learning capacity for this line of work.

Career advancement (generally applies to workers who have progressed beyond the “entry level “ stage of employment successfully and possesses the work history and  references and to prove it.  

• Acquiring a “track record of achievements” becomes the most significant factor in achieving career advancement in enterprises that reward staff on merit rather than seniority. In the private, ‘for profit’ business sector,  employee achievements must relate to specific contributions that an employee has effected towards helping the employer to attain specific business goals such as identifying opportunities for increases in workplace efficiency & cost savings or,  attaining a new major customer for the company.   In contrast, public sector enterprises, instead of seeking profits, are focused on maintaining or improving “public perception”. Their leaders hope that this focus will protect or improve the reputations of politicians and their parties. Consequently, individual employee achievements are hard to identify or measure within public service workplaces. This explains the focus on seniority for career advancement over achievements.
• Professional jealousy is common in performance-oriented, merit-based work places because promotions are often earned on the basis of many factors that can sometimes appear arbitrary or subjective. To be passed over for promotion is sometimes a subtle (or not so subtle as the case may be) sign that one’s career prospects may be brighter in  another organization  OR that one may best try to reflect on the reasons (possibly legitimate) that he/she may not be ready for the next level of responsibility, and then work constructively to enhance one’s preparedness. In a merit-based work culture, these options can bring out the best in people who can actually achieve results from their efforts to improve performance. The seniority system lacks the advancement incentives to encourage increases in work performance.

 Recommendations

All levels of government must focus their efforts to reduce all the various forms of labour legislation that continues to destroy the prospects of healthy careers for our citizens. Specific recommendations follow:

• Eliminate Minimum Wage Laws.  This will help foster workplace conditions where entry level workers can attain the first rung on a long term career ladder and enable these workers to acquire that track record that will enable them to advance to higher levels of responsibility, performance and  merit compensation.
• Reduce or eliminate Payroll Taxes. Employers will be more inclined to hire experienced workers on salary and provide the career advancement and merit incentives for each one to be the best that they can be in their chosen professions.
• Dramatically reduce Income Taxes. If  private companies can reward performance, shouldn’t the government do the same by allowing steadily rising success to be met with progressively lower income taxes? What better way for a government to  provide greater incentives for our citizens to excel and simultaneously curing our laggard provincial productivity record.   
• Shrink the government work force and simultaneously dismantle the gargantuan scaffolding of government legislation that prevents Ontario’s Citizen Entrepreneurs from competing on an equal footing with existing government services in all domains of government operation. These steps will open up huge work opportunities and create the kind of merit-based employment opportunities that will generate a much more innovative, productive and prosperous workforce in Ontario. It is the only way that Ontario will every regain its once proud reputation as Canada’s engine of wealth generation and shuck the embarrassing current position of needing a handout from other more prosperous provinces within Canada’s federation.   
• Last, but not least, eliminate all existing legislation that grant labour union leaders  the power to enslave (versus the right to work) workers and impose their exorbitant ATM (Anti-labour Taxation Mandate) fees (aka union dues). This will remove the “Us vs Them” gang mentality that divides business owners and organized labour.  All too often, these perennial adversaries spend enormous amounts of unproductive time, legal expenses and foot-dragging tactics that ultimately work at cross-purposes to one another . Its time to “play nice” in the work sand boxes of Ontario and share a common focus of winning increasing opportunities to expand prosperity for everyone rather than fighting over scraps like mongrels in the ally.

In summary, any political leader that promotes public Education institutions and their delivery programs while ignoring the most valuable strategies for greater personal and  professional  prosperity attainment  - career advancement – are failing to serve the public adequately.   Economic prosperity in Ontario is too important to be left in the hands of such short-sighted and naiive political hacks.