As a businesswoman, I have had the opportunity to hire and work with hundreds of employees from all walks of life.  I have employed fresh, young upstarts straight out of college, and I have employed people who have spent years of their lives gaining experience in their respective fields.  The one certainty I have come to rely on is this: a traditional degree from a prestigious university does not mean you’ve found the best person for the job.

Recently, I came across an article on a rather popular Web site lambasting the online university system.  In particular, I was struck by an attack on Almeda University, an institution I have had the occasion to become familiar with.  Almeda, like several other online universities, offers degrees in what they call Life Experience.  The author of the Web attack seemed intent on dismissing these degrees as wastes of time and money, basically calling them shams.

This could not be further from the truth.  I have hired my share of workers, and while I am certainly not discounting the achievements and efforts of those who have earned a traditional degree from a brick and mortar university, it has been my experience that the people who are the best workers are those with real life know-how.  In general, these employees are better equipped to solve problems, think efficiently, and offer insight that it is just not possible to acquire through “book learning” only.

The problem seems to be that some, such as the traditional colleges and universities, are threatened by the emergence of a less expensive, more accessible avenue to learning.  They are, to put it bluntly, worried about the bottom line.  I’m a businessperson, so of course I understand business – but education should be about more than just business – it should be about everyone reaching his or her full potential.

From what I’ve seen, the idea of accreditation is weighed much too heavily, whereas elements that are actually valid, such as life experiences in the actual workforce, are discredited or demeaned.  It has been my experience that, when hiring for any position, a lot of applicants will look good “on paper” – a degree from Harvard looks pretty impressive on the resume.  Often, applicants without the degree, but with real world skills, are overlooked. Dig a little deeper, though, and it’s the person who has actually been working in the field that you want giving you input and working towards your bottom line.

These people have not always had a degree to back up their experience – now, online Life Experience schools give them the ability to quantify the things they have learned in the real world, lessons they can apply in a work setting with a proficiency and knowledge their traditionally-graduated counterparts will only learn from experience.