What is the true purpose of education? This issue can be a contentious one as many groups hold different views in regards to it. On one hand, there are those who believe that education exists to instill students with a value system, standards and a set of ideas. On the other hand, there are those who believe that education is more specialized in nature—that all the training and classes serve to prepare students for a specific job. I am in agreement with the former point of view as I believe that the purpose of education is to provide the basic knowledge of any disciplines and instill general values and ideas that would be beneficial to them as working professionals.
We spend a large part of our lives learning in formal educational institutions, moving from a lower level of education to a higher one. We learn the basics of mathematics, the use of language, and knowledge from various disciplines and as we move up to higher tier of the educational progress, the knowledge that we have gained from preceding levels serve as a foundation for understanding more complex ideas and theories. Though a student's scope of study eventually becomes more specialized as they move up into higher levels of education, it would be incorrect to claim that the educational process is meant for preparing them for a specific job. After all, we cannot assume that a student would know what sort of profession he or she would choose to pursue from a young age. The best thing education can provide is to instill the general ideas, skills and values that is beneficial for future use and help point students towards their area of general interest.
Education serves to hone a student's level of maturity as well as refine their method of thought and research. Through projects in school, students are taught to approach matters in a systematic and efficient manner. They are taught on the proper ways to present a project, the criteria on which a project should be given importance on, as well as foster other important values such a professionalism, teamwork, discipline, as well as time management. The process of education goes beyond the criteria of simply instilling knowledge and skills as students; it also essential for instilling the soft skills that are needed for a student to be successful as a person as well as a professional. For example, a student is able to hone his or her interpersonal skills from working in teams in school, or through interactions during extracurricular activities. Good interpersonal skills can be a very important tool to have as a working professional as it can make or break that great business merger for the company, or negotiate a favorable outcome during a job interview.
Though a student eventually branches out into a more specialized field, like choosing to major in accounting or electrical engineering, ultimately their real training comes from their jobs when they graduate, rather than from school. Why? For one thing, there is no such thing as a 'specific' job. Different organizations require different requirements from their employees. Therefore it is difficult, if not close to impossible to provide a single standardized educational form that can meet the criteria of all the organizations out there. There are many factors besides technical skills to be considered when a new person is hired in a company. Though knowledge and technical skills of the required area of discipline is required, there are many other factors that companies use to evaluate potential hires. Among them being the personality fit of the person into the overall company culture, the person's sense of professionalism to name a few. The educational process provides the minimum requirement that is needed for a student to perform the job, but ultimately it is the hiring organization that provides the specialized training that makes the individual an essential unit of the organization. For example, many companies like Toyota, or Goodrich, who hire fresh graduates from college usually require their new trainees to undergo a tailored rotational program that span a number of years to learn the company's system and values from the bottoms up.
For all the reasons I have presented above, I would like to reiterate my agreement that the purpose of education should be to provide students with a value system, a standard, a set of ideas, instead of just preparing them for a specific job. The purpose of education is to instill within students the basic knowledge, ideas and values that would be beneficial for the student overall, whether it is for personal or professional use. Education also serve to refine the maturity level of the student as well as instill other soft skills. Though education provides the minimum requirement and knowledge that is needed by a student to get a job, ultimately it is the hiring organization that provides the tailored and specialized training that is needed, as it is impossible for the educational process to provide a standardized training that meets the requirements of all hiring organizations.
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