Let’s talk about the top 5 alternatives to college for developing serious professional skills.
We tend to assume that higher education is limited to college degrees, Masters and PhDs. But you might decide that college isn’t right for you, or you might be unaware of the more practical and cost-effective ways of gaining skills and knowledge.
In many professions, skills are what count: not the college you attended or the degree you studied. So in this article, we run through the main ways to build professional skills that don’t involve college. These work particularly well for careers that colleges tend to poorly cater for.
In considering these alternatives, keep an open mind and don’t assume that college is your best option. Your school might never present these alternatives to you. What’s most important in your professional life are your skills, not your degree titles, and there are many valid ways both to gain skills and use them to generate income.
The key is to know what you want to do, know the niche, and then create a plan of action based on that.
Self-Study
Self-study is a powerful way to pick up skills and knowledge. The idea is that you use books, tutorials and courses to master a field in your own time. You can enlist the aid of teachers or even take a longer course of study here and there, but in the end, self-study means that you organize your learning and take responsibility for it.
For careers that require formal qualifications, self-study is a good way to pick up essential knowledge and skills. You can then take professional exams. If your self-study is of a supreme standard, you may even be able to convince employers and institutions to grant you entry without fulfilling the bureaucratic requirements.
On the other hand, if you want to start a business or enter a field that isn’t so rigid in terms of entry requirements, self-study might be all you need to gain the core skills. You might not need formal qualifications. We at College Pirates have mastered many subjects through self-study, and we’ve used these skills to receive get paid work and build businesses.
Specialised Courses
If there’s a very specific field you’re keen to work in, often you can find specialised courses run by industry experts. You can find excellent courses online, in colleges, in your local city, and more.
Often these are more practical and shorter than standard university courses. You also won’t pay the same astronomical fees as a typical college graduate.
Choose wisely, and these will enable you to bypass the college degree and go straight into your field. You’ll likely be better prepared than the students who go through the college meat-grinder. The key is to know your field and find your own way to meet employers’ requirements.
Professional Exams
Another option is professional exams, which are available in all fields. The requirements vary, but often you can simply sit an exam without studying with any official institutions. Like specialised courses, this option is perfect if there’s a very specific niche you want to enter.
If you want to get an official language certification, for example, you can usually sit an exam whenever you like, so long as you judge yourself to be ready. This can then lead to specialist linguistic work.
Again, if you do plenty of research, choose wisely, and work hard, you could land a job in your field without attending university, and be way ahead of the university graduates who enter the market when you do.
Start Your Own Business
This is the option that will let you bypass formal education the most.
It’s a core fact of business that customers do not care about qualifications. How many times have you asked any business person or consultant for their qualifications? You don’t ask, because you want results. You could care less where they studied or what their majors were.
Sure, there are some fields where it’s illegal to start a business without formal qualifications. But in most cases, they’re completely unnecessary. Customers don’t want qualifications; they want results.
If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, consider self-teaching, doing specialist courses or professional exams, or working under someone’s wing, then start your business once you have the skills you need.
Pet Projects
Another option is to work on pet projects. This works wonderfully in tandem with self-study. Let’s say you want to be a web designer. What you can do is use books, articles and videos to learn the skills, for very little money, then start your own websites as pet projects. Make them high quality. Ask friends for feedback.
Once you reach a good level with your own projects, perhaps you can do projects for friends or acquaintances. Slowly, you’ll build a portfolio of websites that proves you can design them to a professional level. This works brilliantly in creative niches.
We hope this has inspired you to start investigating the different pathways to becoming a professional in your field. Keep your mind open to many different options, do plenty of research, and build skills. Over time, you’ll build up an awesome resume without paying the exorbitant costs of college.