Some people believe that university education should focus on skills for employment in the future. Others think they should focus only on academic study. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
In contemporary times, there is an ongoing debate over whether university education should teach employment skills for students’ future careers, while others believe that academic study should be the main focus. Although academic study is particularly important, I still believe that practical skills are indispensable as well when it comes to career paths. This essay will discuss both perspectives before presenting my own stance.
There are compelling reasons why hands-on education should be applied to university education programs. First and foremost, when schools allow organizing practical lessons for university students, they can easily gain more working experience than other students. For the long-term period, they can have more possibilities to be hired by potential and large companies that require a huge amount of practical skills. Take Pedagogy students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education as an example. Every year, after acquiring enough academic foundations, pedagogy students are permitted to take an internship in becoming a free tutor or in their specialized subjects, which will provide more working opportunities and widen their career trajectory. Although it is beneficial for students’ future jobs, students who have financial problems may find it hard to pursue hands-on lessons. Spending time concentrating on improving practical knowledge can lead to certain drawbacks, and money matters stand out among these. Both the government and university students need to make a huge investment in either upgrading facilities or training employees.
Because of the aforementioned underlying drawback, most of the students nowadays tend to spend most of their expenditures solely on academic programs. If students can have a strong knowledge base in their majors, it is possible for them to combine professional input and working experience. By contrast, they can face serious challenges when applying their insufficient academic preparation to their long-term career. Besides this unwanted limitation, university students may also encounter emotional problems in such a high-pressure working environment. Having not been trained to put up with pressure from colleagues and people in head positions, undergraduates may feel upset and thus result in low productivity in work.
In conclusion, despite witnessing potential positive aspects of academic study, I still hold the view that students also have to set aside time for practical learning. To be more specific, students should take a more balanced approach, which requires them to maintain a balance between formal studying and hands-on working.