ACS Distance Education Newsletter

We’ve watched over 30,000 people from over 80 countries complete our courses, get jobs and develop careers. This is what we have learned:

Don’t take on more than you are motivated to finish! You’re better completing a short course than dropping out of a certificate, or completing a certificate rather than dropping out of a Proficiency Award. You can always upgrade later.
A qualification NEVER guarantees a job! Education is ONLY one piece of the puzzle. Employers and clients will base the decision to employ you on many things – your past achievements, how you present yourself in an application and an interview, your involvement with relevant organizations (e.g. professional associations, clubs etc), your attitude, and more. A qualification can get their attention, but a clearly presented CV and involvement in a professional body may count just as much.
The level of qualification is less important than its content and duration. We see people with 900 hour advanced certificates being employed over people with fast tracked Proficiency Awards.
Broad based courses produce the best career outcomes; for example, people who study broad based horticulture or business do much better than those who study just turf care or finance – they keep their work options open, and can adapt to changes in their industry.
Don’t base your choice of course on demands in todays industries – this is a fast changing world, and “what’s hot” now probably won’t be hot when you finish studies!
Competency based courses don’t tend to deliver as much of a learning experience as problem based or experiential based courses, and therefore don’t provide as many career options.
The best education develops strong life skills such as communication, networking, problem solving, and a capacity to adapt - not just knowledge or specific performance skills.
Formal accreditation is being promoted by accreditation authorities as being more important than it really is. In reality, for many industries, employers are far more concerned about who taught you, what you learned, and how long your course was.
Accreditations cost a college time and money, and in many cases they may simply mean the college or course has been able to satisfy the requirements of a particular lot of red tape. Sometimes this provides you with a guarantee of the courses value; but sometimes it simply adds to the cost of the course, and limits the college’s ability to be flexible and change the course as needed to give you a more up to date and relevant education.
Because of this, an accredited course could actually give you far less value for money, while at the same time the college is protected from criticism if you don’t benefit from what they are teaching (for example they could defend themselves by asserting that they have to teach certain material to satisfy a government accreditation authority).

ACS Distance Education

January 2008 Newsletter

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