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Success: Self-taught or Formally Educated, Advantages of self-education

If you are in a pickle about being self-taught or getting a formal education, you have come to the right web-page. In this Buzzle article, we note the advantages of each of these to help you decide which one would be best for you.

Did You Know?

A self-taught person is also known as an autodidact.
Today, knowledge can be found anywhere and everywhere. With Internet having become accessible to nearly everyone, it is now possible to study and acquire knowledge on any subject without having to attend a college, or enrolling for a university course.

But as convenient as it may seem, can learning on your own really match or be even better than traditional education? In the following lines, we examine the advantages of both formal education as well as being self-educated.

Advantages of Self Education

Less Expensive

Perhaps the biggest advantage of being self-taught is that you are able to save a lot of money.
With each passing year, the cost of getting a degree is on the rise. Today, one has to shell out tens of thousands of dollars on college fees, books, room rentals, transportation, etc.

As a result, many students these days tend to graduate from college with a significant amount of debt. This makes it imperative for them to get a job as soon as possible, failing which a number of serious issues arise.
Being self-taught means that most of the above-mentioned expenses are automatically canceled out. You are only required to spend on important books and perhaps on subscription for on-line tutorials.

If your budget is very limited, you can put in extra effort to go through the numerous free articles, tutorials, and videos on the Internet, which are sure to provide you with all the knowledge you could hope to gain.

Less Time Required

Learning by oneself is quite likely to require a lot of time as compared to formal education where the curriculum is planned and teachers and other helpful resources are available to you. However, it is possible to learn faster on your own, by focusing on only those areas that you are interested in.

The curriculum in formal education is typically very generic, and therefore, will include a number of subjects which perhaps have no direct relation to the specific field that you wish to get into. But, since it is part of the course you have signed up for, you will have no choice but to learn these.

On the other hand, if you choose to be self-taught, you will be able to avoid unimportant subjects and instead focus only on those that you are interested in and which are necessary for the field which you want to get into.

Earn While You Learn

Another big advantage of being self taught is that you can earn while you are learning.
Unlike a formal education system, there are no set rules when you choose to self-educate. You aren't supposed to read a particular book, watch a video, take a test, etc., at particular times. This lets you manage your study time as per your own convenience.

You can thus work full-time and simultaneously learn part-time. The work could be something totally unrelated to the subject you are learning, or better yet, could be an entry-level job int the very field you are preparing yourself for.

Thus, by working and learning simultaneously, you will be able to generate income, as well as acquire valuable real-time work experience. This will better your job prospects in the future and also help you tailor and streamline your learning process according to actual industrial requirements.

More Confidence

Learning on your own can be a great confidence builder. Unlike formally educated students, you have nothing handed out to you. You have to struggle to gain knowledge but once you clear the basics on your own, you will find yourself become much more confident about your capabilities.

This proves to be very valuable in the working environment where one cannot expect to be spoon-fed. Being self-trained, you will be game for the challenge, and thanks to your previous self-training experience, you will know where to look and how to find the answers that you seek.

More Relevancy

Today, technologies change like the moods of mother nature. It becomes important therefore for the student to keep his/her knowledge updated accordingly, which is more feasible if he is self-taught.

In case of formal education, the process of updating of curriculum and syllabus simply cannot keep pace with the technological changes. As such, once you enroll for a course, you are stuck with learning what is scheduled for your batch, even though the current technology might in the meantime, undergo a significant change.
On the other hand, a self-taught student reserves the flexibility of altering the subjects of his study at any given time as per the needs of the industry. This allows him to keep his knowledge updated and more relevant to the industrial requirements.

Source :buzzle article
Published by Maurice Nshuti

posted on: Monday January 18, 2016 by Maurice Nshuti

Success: Self-taught or Formally Educated, Advantages of self-education

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