What if you could use a written exam to assess a soldier’s ability to fight in combat? No? That’s what I thought. To isolate your best people, you would probably simulate a real-life situation. Otherwise, you’d be giving your enemy an enormous advantage.
Unfortunately, this “field-ready mindset”, which is the sole purpose for rigorous military training, doesn’t translate well to the educational system. Instead of educating and qualifying people on the basis of real-world skills and knowledge, most institutions give people a written test to pass and then claim that they are “ready”. What are you ready for?
We all know that the workforce is not able to experience real combat directly or indirectly. Businesses, unlike the military, have a limited budget and stockholders. Therefore, they must be laser-focused on efficiency.
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In order to “ensure” that employees have the minimum qualification to do a job, many companies rely on certifications and other types of training. However, these certifications are often based on written tests that, while they are extremely specific and require a lot more study, do not guarantee that someone is job-ready.
Take the IT industry, for example. Cisco Certified Network Associates (CCNA) are certified in certain fields such as routing or switching. However, they do not have to touch a router or switch or set up a basic local network (LAN).
Imagine a Navy SEAL being deployed to a war zone with a CCNA certificate! He wouldn’t survive very long, would it? Not only would he not last long, but the other SEALs would have to shift some of their focus to their partner who isn’t well prepared to help him get through the day. Talk about putting all those involved in a mission at risk!
This is more subtle in the corporate world where large companies spend a lot on training programs. This could help to allocate these resources more efficiently if the entry-level staff were trained to be more efficient and able to get on the ground quickly.
Related: How to get 6 figure job offers at top tech companies in 2-4 years, even if you don’t have any experience.
Every company is in some way similar to the SEAL program, contrary to popular belief. They strive to attract the best people to their teams and maintain a competitive advantage. If this is true, then why hasn’t the educational system caught up to military training?
I’m not suggesting that the entire system should be identical to combat training. There are some things that can be incorporated into education to make a huge difference in people’s skills and their ability to advance their careers.
NexGenT prepares students for the real world. We teach them the skills they need and certify that they can perform over 100 tasks in person using real equipment. This is done through a self-paced online program called Zero to Engineer and a 5-day boot camp in person.
We also teach them about the IT industry, the latest trends, how they can land their dream job, and give the best foundation possible on the full stack. This allows them to better understand their career options and communicate effectively across all areas of IT.
We have eliminated all the unnecessary fluff in traditional degrees and certifications so that we can teach our students more advanced skills such as how to set up a HQ network with 2 branches or how to configure Private WAN failover for disaster recovery.
These skills are just a few of the many that network engineers use every day in their jobs. This is where paper certificates reveal all their weaknesses, making people feel like all the effort and hard work they put into studying wasn’t enough to prepare them for “combat”.
We have incorporated the field-ready mindset that our founders had when they served in the Air Force to our award programs. This is to empower people to get into the IT industry and advance their careers. Our students are equipped with the skills to get the job done, just like American soldiers.
In many ways, the educational system is broken across different industries. It is expensive, doesn’t prepare students for the real world, and many graduates are left in debt for many years after graduation. We are trying to change this in the IT industry. It is where knowledge and skill sets really matter.
Is it really possible to learn how to do real-world things, or just theory?
Leave a comment below and we’ll be happy to help.
