About Certificates and jobs

Psychologists generally conceive of learning as a relatively permanent change in behaviour. This behaviour includes both observable activity and internal processes such as thinking, attitudes and emotions.



Employers, on the other hand, base their selection decisions on candidates’ knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs).



• Knowledge refers to acquired information necessary to do the job.


• Skills refer to acquired observable behaviours. A skill is defined as the ability to perform an activity proficiently. The skill can be acquired through education, through work experience and job training, or it can be the result of a talent, a natural "knack" for doing certain tasks.



• An attitude refers to a complex mental state combining beliefs, feelings, values and a tendency to act in certain ways.



A person may have a good knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary. This may be demonstrated through effective report writing skills. The contents of the report may be characterised by considerable depth and attention to details (attitude).



Thus, when a candidate is asked the following question in a job interview: “Please tell us about yourself”, what the interviewer wants to hear is not a list of certificates obtained by the candidate. In any case, this is already mentioned in the application letter and/or curriculum vitae.



What the interviewer is interested in are the candidate’s knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs), especially the ones that are relevant to the vacancy in question. It is of course assumed that the candidate would have given some thought to the KSAs that are relevant to the job for which s/he has applied.



In fact, the interviewer is interested in the certificates and grades only to the extent that they provide hints about the candidate’s KSAs. Certificates acquired through shortcuts and not accompanied by the required improvement in KSAs are as useless as counterfeit bank notes.



A candidate who has obtained good grades in English and Mathematics and fails to demonstrate that s/he has good writing and numerical skills at the workplace would not go very far professionally. Certificates alone do not guarantee professional success. In fact one may even acquire a range of useful skills without any formal education.



What does this imply to the way we approach education and training. Are these just means to accumulate certificates or should we view them as processes through which we increase our knowledge, sharpen our skills and improve our attitudes. The choice is ours.