What's better – exams or experience?

For many years, we’ve been told by career advisers that the best way of securing a job is through formal qualifications. But staying at school and studying isn’t for everyone, and some of us wanted to get out and work as soon as we possibly could. We cut up our school ties as we boarded the bus outside school and never wanted to see a whiteboard or teacher again.

To counter this, the government has been coming up with an increasing number of vocational qualifications such as those offered by City & Guilds and other ways of encouraging you to stay in work – like reducing the amount of benefits you can get, or keeping the minimum wage at little more than £3.50 an hour for those under 18. Of course, having a qualification will mean that you have a wider range of jobs to choose from, many of them at a higher pay rate.

Experience is everything - or is it?

But surely experience counts for a lot? So if you’re already in work, why bother going through the hassle and stress of studying all over again? You’re earning enough, after all. You’re in your comfort zone. So what would happen if you were to be made redundant, or a new manager started? How easy would it be for you to find a better job, with more money attached?

If you search for hospitality jobs on Caterer.com you'll see that many of the more senior positions require at least some experience – in fact, of 4500+ hotel jobs, 3000+ restaurant jobs, 600+ contract catering jobs and 800+ pub and bar jobs available now, around 70% insist on experience, many of the others say it would be beneficial, and hardly any say none is needed at all. So does that mean you’ll be okay with just what you’ve learned on the job? Well, actually, no, since many of the ones which ask for experience also ask you for some qualification or other.

So where does this leave you?

Well, by going out there and working, you’ll be fulfilling half your side of the bargain: it proves you can be trusted and that you can get on in a team, it proves you can do the job. But it doesn’t prove that you know more about, say, food hygiene, than anyone else applying for the job. This is the sort of thing a qualification can help with.

Knowledge is key

What employers are really looking to find out is how much you know. Qualifications provide knowledge, but experience also leads to knowledge. You might find an employer happy to help you along the road by not asking you know anything already – but, of course, your pay will reflect that. So, to maximise how much you’re about to earn, for your first job, you’ll probably find it best to go to college and get that all important first qualification. Even if it’s just an NVQ Level 1, it’ll help give you a leg up, from which you can then gain valuable experience.

Once you’re in the job, you can then make the decision as to how much more study you want to do – you might even decide that you want to do a part-time course so you can study and work at the same time. Many employers will give you time off to do this – and some will even pay for it – they'd just ask that you don’t resign as soon as you’ve completed it!

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