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Category: Education / Topics: Hopes & Dreams Opportunity

Diploma vs. Passport

by Dan Seagren

Posted: April 13, 2014

I often admonished my students to consider their diploma as if it were a passport…

Fifty years ago when I was a college teacher and counselor, I often admonished my students to consider their diploma (degree) as if it were a passport. Today I would do the same. Why? I'll explain in a moment.

But first, let's define the terms. Diploma: certification, credential and sheepskin. Passport: permission, recommendation, legal document. Those of course are synonyms, not real definitions. Yet similar. We think of a diploma as a certification that a college gives for completion of a prescribed curriculum. A passport gives an identification of who the person is allowing an entrance like into another country. These are typical understandings.

One has to do with education; the other with a legal permission. Now we can move on. It is a known fact that many students who graduate from an institution, high school or college or university, are not always trained for a specific task. Further, some actually are gainfully employed in a position where their undergraduate work plays little if any role in their new position.

Their diploma or degree can act like a passport admitting them into their new role even though they are not specifically trained for it. The employer looks for the diploma which shows that the prospective employee has finished the course and now can be trained specifically for the task at hand. Consequently, the student may have majored in economics but is hired to teach the fifth grade in a private setting. Or, another majored in English Literature and is hired into a sales position.

Today there is a concern that the marketplace has changed more than schooling causing a misfit requiring a change in curricula. This no doubt has an element of truth. However, there is still the opportunity for hiring beyond the major involved. The element of a passport concept should not be underestimated.

Then there is the hidden element of minor subjects. A potential history major may have taken a couple of courses as electives in mechanical or electrical studies but quit school for one reason or another only to discover there was a good opening for him as a technician.

This can be an oversimplification, even a contradiction. But let's not forget that a student's interest, aptitude and skills may not always match the diploma. Yet, the diploma reveals an element of success but may hide the talent or passion needed to succeed. So, can a diploma double as a passport? Perhaps it can because it may happen more often than acknowledged.



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Dan Seagren is an active retiree whose writings reflect his life as a Pastor, author of several books, and service as a Chaplain in a Covenant Retirement Community.

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Posted: April 13, 2014   Accessed 137 times

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