Especially in the society we live in today where there are more students graduating from post-secondary institutions than ever, having an education background is not enough to get a job. The reputation of the school may attract employers, but it is the work experiences that land you the job.
In Ryan Zhou’s blog post “Apprentieships”, he states that apprenticeships are very helpful in allowing students to gain hands-on experience to allow a “better understanding of concepts.” I agree with him that real-life experience is necessary in order to better understand the concepts taught in lectures and seeing the application that the theories have in the real world. Simply sitting in classrooms and listening to the professor speak is not enough to allow a student to be ready for the face-paced world today. While apprenticeships are a great way to gain work experience, there are also numerous other ways to gain hands-on experience related to your field of study including internships or co-ops provided by most post-secondary institutions. Apprenticeships usually require you to work in a “workplace for 2 to 5 years” as stated in the Canada Business Network Blog, while internships and co-ops may only be for one semester (approximately three months) to one full year. With internships and co-ops, there is more flexibility to choose when to work such as during summer vacation or taking a semester off, while Apprenticeships do not usually provide the opportunity to choose the work term.