When things just don't work

There are so many things that everyone would like to achieve and there are times that it is going to work and then there are times when we just need to accept that things might not go the way that we would like them. 

One of my past goals was to get a degree in Business Administration and then I started to look into this program on a part time basis I was nicely informed that all the education that I had in the past was no longer valid because it was too far in the past. So, in a lot of ways that is a very nice way of saying why are you going for a degree when you are older. Well, for some people it isn’t a matter of getting a degree for work it is just a personal goal.

Looking for part time/consulting work – this is something else that I have been trying to investigate and what I have found with every job that is listed no matter where you look, says you need at least one degree and multiple years of experience. Maybe what the job should be looking at is how much experience you have because real life experience can be far better than a degree which is only based on specific textbooks.

Looking at experience is what people should be looking for instead of thinking that a degree is a filter because a degree is paper based and not real life. I understand that I have said that I would like to achieve a degree and part of that is just a personal goal and doesn’t have anything to do with job requirements. It has been a challenge to figure out why I wanted to even think about getting a degree and so much of it is just something that I have wanted to achieve for myself.

Something that I have figured out in the last few years is that colleges/universities are not looking at education and experience for a mature student. They look at how long you have been away from formal education and say you have been away too long so therefore all your education isn’t valid, so you need to start all over again. 

For me what I have found is that education for mature adults isn’t working because unless you have education less than five years ago you are going to have a challenge to get any of your education validated. Individuals that have focused their career moving their position forward have to understand that experience doesn’t count for future education, and any previous education may not count at all.  

If you are a mature individual and would like to try and achieve a degree, please know that you are going to have to start from the very beginning and pay a university thousands of dollars to prove that you know what you know and then learn some new things.

Education and continual learning

You hear so many young people say that when they have finished high school or university that they have finished learning. I always laugh when I hear that because I don’t think you ever finish learning new things.

For some people once they have finished school they are finished with the formal learning but that may change over time. I know that when I finished college I was immediately looking at what else I could be taking to further my education. Now I didn’t take full time school any more but I was one of those people that found going to school, even night school enjoyable. Now that courses are offered online it means that I am taking online classes instead.

I always joke with people and say that I am not sure what I going to do when I grow up because I have taken a variety of courses through the years. I have taken Accounting, Fundraising, Instructing Adults, Project Management and other courses along the way. I find that when I am not learning I am one of those people that gets frustrated. Sure I don’t enjoy the stress of the exams at the end of some of the courses but the reward is nice.

Having the variety of courses behind me means that I have the knowledge in a bunch of different areas and that makes me happy. I recently decided that I wanted to try for a certification that I had heard about and so that is what I did. It was a bookkeeping certification offered through the Institute of Professional Bookkeepers of Canada and to become a Certified Professional Bookkeeper you needed to understand some material and then write an exam to achieve your certification. With having my accounting knowledge from before I figured it might be something that would be useful to have for work so I did some checking into the certification and figured out what I needed to learn and then when I could take the exam. I took the exam in September 2017 and passed it which means I now have the initials CPB behind my name but in order to maintain my certification I am required to take 20 hours of courses each year. So, even with a certification it means that the learning isn’t over but that doesn’t bother me because I enjoy the continual learning.

Learning is something that happens even when you finish school because there will be things that you are going to learn on the job and learn for hobbies. Sure you might not take any more formal courses but the actual learning will not end.