Certification or Experience?

RBBaileyJr
RBBaileyJr: Which would you choose as an employer? Why?
10 years ago Report
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DawnGurl
DawnGurl: Here in new york city you better have BOTH.......im a prof of music/piano with plenty of non academic experience PLUS BA/MA n sum day PhD
10 years ago Report
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RBBaileyJr
RBBaileyJr: Just here in Japan, the demand for english teachers is getting stronger, but the pool of certified teachers is small, because I think alot of foreigners don't come here to teach, but have to out of necessity.
10 years ago Report
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wildrose62
wildrose62: It's important to have both. Whilst certification is vital for teachers,for example, it is not enough to make you a good teacher. You need to try new strategies in the classroom and learn how to manage a large group of students with different abilities and aptitudes, with varying cultural backgrounds and ways of learning. They do not teach you this in university... it is only gained through experience. However, the reality is that young, inexperienced teachers are being employed in ever increasing numbers at the expense of older,experienced teachers because the young ones are cheaper.

As an employer, I actually did not hire on either certification or experience. After attempting to help some young, inexperienced people get a start in landscaping, I was forced to let them go because they were unreliable ( I was often left with no-one to help me with a job when they didn't show for work and didn't bother to ring to let me know), did not listen to my instructions (including safety instructions), argued about what they were asked to do, and were often rude around customers (swearing, poor manners etc). Not to mention refusing to put their phones away and being sent home, wasting my time, because they had turned up to work, yet again, without their safety gear.

After several of these, I hired an older, completely inexperienced man who had been retrenched from his previous job and who was willing to do anything to find work. He worked hard, listened to everything I said ,, would ask for clarification where necessary, and who I was able to trust to run errands or to leave unsupervised on the job when needed. He started to study externally to learn more about horticulture and landscaping. In the end, when I became too old to do the heavy work myself, I gradually allowed him to take over the clients until he was eventually ready to be handed the business entirely. He's doing quite well.

I know several other people who have now hired older (over 40) "apprentices" -including a plumber, butcher and electrician. they find older men, especially those with families to support, more reliable, harder working and more dedicated to learning a reliable trade.
10 years ago Report
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Captain Canada
Captain Canada: Older men (over 40) have different mentality in the work force than the young ones.
Us older men ( Myself) have in place the competitive attitude of """whatever that kid does I can do better"""
And to the question I hire with both but totally lean more towards the experience rather to academics
10 years ago Report
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attitude_check_1
attitude_check_1: Im a welder with 20+ years exp. and have worked with younger people with welding certs. and most of them didnt last a week because they didnt realy know how to weld, hell most of them couldnt even read prints or welding schematics, so to answere the question would rather have someone with experience over someone fresh out of school with a cert.
10 years ago Report
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