SKILLS RATHER THAN JUST DEGREES

 Opinion of Muhammad Bello Hardo 

On the book:

SKILLS RATHER THAN JUST DEGREES 

We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are. Alhamdulillah for our struggle.

Many people have been questioning me for not taking part in the discussion of the book "SKILLS RATHER THAN JUST DEGREES" written by Sheikh, Professor Isa Ali Pantami Although I have not had the opportunity to read the book, I agree with its main idea based on the title. Having a degree without a skill is like having a part of a system that does not work. It does not matter what kind of system it is, be it human, IT, politics, or others.

For instance, in the IT sector, we need the following skills to excel:

1. Business foundational skills;

2. Domain skills;

3. Functional skills;

4. Technical skills;

5. Professional skills.

On top of that, soft skills are very essential in the IT industry. Imagine someone who graduated from Harvard University with first class honours, having a second degree, and a PhD. in Computer Science in 2000. He might be proud of his academic achievements, but without acquiring modern technology skills, he would be left behind in the fast-changing world. We are living in the fourth industrial revolution, where digital transformation and advanced technologies such as AI, ML, IoT, and Blockchain are reshaping the economy and society. His first class degrees at Harvard would be useless in this scenario.

Let us take the above-mentioned IT skills as a system, and each of them as a subsystem. Suppose his degree is a business foundational skill, which means he has the certificate and basic knowledge of the business environment. However, he lacks the functional skills to work on specific needs, such as interactive AI design. He also does not have the domain skills to specialize in a particular field, such as robotics or blockchain ecosystems. In the IT sector, we need all the subsystems to make a complete and effective system, including the degree.

Therefore, I support the book "SKILLS RATHER THAN JUST DEGREES" I do not believe the lies that some people say in Nigeria, "CONNECTION RATHER THAN JUST DEGREES." Have you ever been to CBN, NNPC, NCC, or any finance-sensitive area? If you have, you will realize that connection alone is not enough to get you a job there. You need to have the skills to perform the tasks and responsibilities. For example, if someone has a pass degree from the so-called University of Cotonou in Benin Republic, and he has the connections, can he work at CBN as a data engineer to migrate the CBN database from Azure cloud to SAP S4Hana cloud? I say it is impossible. No matter how strong his connections are, he must have the skills.

He can only work as a non-technical staff, but as for me and those who have no networks or connections, our priority is skills. I think that is what Sheikh, Professor Isa Ali Pantami  meant in his book.

Note:

Remember the statement of Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim, CON, that even "connection" is a skill. The word "connection" is a Nigerian term in that  context.

However,  Pantami said, it is also called "exposure" by IBM, "connecting with others" or "networking" and it is part of the soft skills that the book promotes. Connection doesn't come naturally in most cases. You need to learn thr skills of attaining it. We are back to the issue of skills.