Does higher education affect the salary of the employee?
Wednesday, December 2, 2015, 6:00 AM | Leave Comment
This is an age-old question that has been asked many times over the years, and if you cast your mind back to when you were a youngster you will most likely remember your parents saying to you ‘knuckle down and work hard as you will be rewarded in the future’ and that statement couldn’t be much truer.
Now, obviously experience and age does help you command a better salary but what affect does higher education really have?
Well, we are about to answer that question for you.
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The Value of Higher Education
The value of higher education can never be overlooked because it provides a platform for students to gain further knowledge in their chosen subject areas.
It’s essentially a way of gaining intellectual fulfilment. When we speak about higher education we are talking about the impact of degree subjects, taught by local tutors.
If we look at the United Kingdom alone we can see that on average those that have taken higher education on are more likely to double the salary of those that haven’t.
Not only that, but a recent government white paper also shows that the chances of someone who has gone through the higher education route are more likely to be in an employed status rather than an unemployed status.
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Why Higher Education is Important
We are all constantly learning and you can never learn enough about a specific subject matter, and what higher education does is break down the barriers to ultimate knowledge, and this is what employers like to see.
If you stop at A levels then you aren’t getting complete fulfillment as there is a lot more to learn from a subject, both theoretically and practically.
This is where higher education steps in to take students to the next level of learning, and as they begin higher education many other benefits play a part, including employment opportunities and higher salary offerings from potential new employers.
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Years of Experience Play a Major Part
One of the underlying factors to salary and employment levels in today’s society is down to the years of experience a certain individual has.
Sometimes it’s great having a higher education qualification under your belt but employers want to see physical factors as well as theory, and this is why experience does play a major factor in how much your salary expectations are.
For example, someone with 10 years of experience in a certain field is going to have much more opportunity to progress and find work than someone who is fresh out of university with just a qualification to their name.
However, once the door of opportunity open for a student then the years will start to increase and the amount they can then command as a salary in the long-run becomes negotiable.
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The Gap is Closing
However, when all is said and done the gap between the earnings of someone who has gone through higher education and someone that hasn’t is very much closing in.
During the last ten years alone those that hold a bachelor’s degree earn an estimated $1.5 million in a lifetime, whilst those with just a highs school diploma earn $1.3 million in a lifetime, showing that over a lifetime there isn’t much between the two overall.
