Introduction
Consider this scenario - you are 17 years old, you have just completed your formal school education with decent marks, and you are now looking towards courses after 12th to pursue higher studies. You have two options - you can choose between studying a job-oriented course that lasts not more than a year, and a degree course that will take up not less than 3 years of your academic life. Which one should you choose? This is a question that a lot of students face in their day-to-day life when looking for courses after 12th, and it is quite understandable that they will be confused as to what path they should take. The purpose of this blog is not to say one is better than the other, but rather for a student to make up their mind about what they want to do in life and where their priorities lie.
Job Oriented Courses
Let us start with the first kind of courses after 12th students will look into: job-oriented courses and what they are. A job-oriented course can be defined as a course that has a definite career path such that a student can find themselves with a job after the completion of the course. For example, a course in computer science, information technology, or other related subjects can lead to a job in software development, web design, or IT engineering in organizations that provide those services. Because of the wide range of options available in these courses, job roles are variable and interchangeable in most of these organizations.
Who Would Take Up A Job Oriented Course?
Any person who is interested in a particular field of study can pursue a job-oriented course in that field in order for them to advance their career in that field. The best example of this would be digital marketing. There has been a significant rise in the number of vacancies for the role of digital marketers because of the rapid expansion of the internet and the increasing demand for digital marketing professionals across the board. So, when looking for courses after 12th, someone who is interested in learning something that they are interested in while at the same time also pursuing a career in it right after it’s over can opt for a job-oriented course.
Advantages of Job-Oriented Courses
There are a lot of advantages of opting for a job-oriented course, a few of which are given below:
- They take a very short amount of time to complete. Usually, most job-oriented courses tend to be somewhere between 2-12 months in duration, but hardly more than that.
- They offer valuable practical knowledge in a particular field of study, which is very much required in such a situation.
- Job-oriented courses tend to be much easier to learn because the theory is taught side-by-side with the practical application of the same, so it is easier for the students to follow.
- A person can get better at the job with experience. As newer technologies come into play, they can adapt better because they would know how to apply the same in that particular field with the maximum expected output.
Disadvantages of Job Oriented Courses
Every cloud has a silver lining, and so does this one. Here are some of the disadvantages of pursuing a job-oriented course:
- A lot of jobs demand that the applicant be a degree graduate in order for them to proceed with the application. This can pose a negative mark on a student’s resume as, even though the person might be qualified for the job, the company might not be in a position, as per company policy, to offer that job to them.
- The student cannot get jobs in any other field because of this. Since they have specialized in something specific, they may be good at that particular job and in that particular field, but not in any other job or any other field, limiting their flexibility.
- Comparatively, people who have done job-oriented courses tend to generally lesser paid than degree holders, although this trend is now occurring less because of the demand for people who have practical knowledge and experience in certain fields.
- Job security can be a concern because if some other technology can do the same job better, the person will find it difficult to find another line of work.
Degree Courses
Now that we have discussed what job-oriented courses are and their merits and demerits, let us move on to the second type of courses after 12th students pursue - degree. Simply put, a degree course can be defined as an educational course that awards degrees to students who complete it successfully. These are the most common type of courses that students opt for when looking for courses after 12th, and they are plenty in number and diversity.
Who Would Take Up A Degree Course?
A person who is interested in getting into the nitty-gritty of a particular subject and learning more about it in depth can opt for a degree course. Degree courses offer a complete idea about a particular subject from start to finish.
Advantages of Pursuing Degree
Pursuing degree courses are quite advantageous because of the following reasons:
- Degree holders can apply for a wide range of jobs since they have in-depth knowledge about a particular subject. For example, a person who has a mechanical engineering degree can apply for the job of a coding engineer because they have studied it as part of their curriculum.
- Degree holders can also apply for jobs outside of their area of expertise because most companies only have ‘degree holder’ as part of their HR policy. For example, a person who has a degree in Zoology can apply for a job as a social media marketer if they can prove their skills as one.
- Degree holders generally get paid more because of their qualifications.
Disadvantages of Pursuing Degree
Just like everything else, degrees also have their downsides. Here are a few:
- A degree takes a minimum of three years to complete, a valuable amount of time when it comes to today’s fast-growing world because everything about every aspect of life is changing at a breakneck pace that sometimes, by the time a person completes their degree, they might find that half of what they learned is not relevant anymore.
- People who are planning to pursue a degree need to be prepared for a hectic syllabus because the amount of knowledge the student has to study is quite a lot.
- A student’s value, if they drop out of a degree course, is quite low because they neither will have the skills required for a job nor a basic qualification for another one. So dropping out comes with a severe consequence.
- While students might have in-depth knowledge about the theoretical aspects of a subject, they might not be well-versed in the practical aspects of it, hence severely affecting their employability.
Conclusion
So, now that you have the pros and cons of both degrees and job-oriented courses side by side, you can take an informed decision regarding your future. Whatever be the courses after 12th you may pursue, remember that the decision must be made after careful consideration, weighing their own strengths and weaknesses and choosing the right career path for themselves.
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