Degrees Are No Longer Enough: It's Time To Learn A Skill

Today, and once again, I'm writing on a very familiar issue. Degrees are out rightly overrated - especially down here in Liberia. This system churns out thousands of graduates every single year, and almost all of these graduates have the same mindset of seeking and getting a job somewhere. Whether or not we accept it, the JOB MARKET is overcrowded and government won't give everyone a job. Actually every serious government should be more concerned with creating a supportive and enabling environment than creating jobs for its people. Every individual has a talent and a passion, and their wealth and fame lies in their vigorous pursuit of those passions and talents. It's about time everyone begins learning a skill OR start to develop some latent ability within them. There's nothing wrong with adding a skill to your degree. It could be learning plumbing, professional driving, wiring a house, tailoring, selling, carpentry, painting, fashion designing, etc, or it could developing some soft skills like becoming a great communicator, writer, or even becoming a motivational speaker or personal development expert. I had gone to give a safety briefing to some contractors and other management staff some months ago. After the briefing, one of the managers approached me, appreciated the manner of the talk and asked, " are you a motivational speaker?". Of course I sad NO. And she enthused I would make a good speaker if I could put my heart into it. I laughed away the talk, but the speech replayed later in my mind as I was preparing to retire to bed in the evening. I Googled on the topic and started to read almost all the materials that came up. That was how I started on the journey to personal development and motivational speaking. Months later, I went to give a give a talk to some youths at a church. Although I refused to take a dime but I left there very fulfilled and I know I'm on my way to adding another skill to my skill pool. In this era, there's no limit to the skills we can acquire. At the moment, an old man is fixing some plumbing works for me. As we talked, he told me how he's been looking for youths to assist in learning that skill, but none has shown any interest. As an undergraduate or graduate, you can still make plans towards learning a skill while on campus or at home wasting time and waiting for the millions pay job. Skill is the way forward. No great nation ever took skill development for granted. It's time to learn a skill. Any skill can be a temporal source of income. Men are losing their jobs; competition is fiercer now than ever. Even if you're seeking to be the best in your chosen field, you can still add a skill. Any skill. WAKE UP LIBERIANS!