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Some people who have been successful in the society do not attribute their success to the theoretical knowledge they learned at university. What is your opinion on the factors contributing to one’s achievement?

Some people consider tertiary education is a prerequisite for success as companies often look at qualifications before hiring their employees. In my opinion, higher education itself will not guarantee one’s success and there are other elements combined to create a successful individual, importantly practical experience and personality.

Firstly, hand-ons skills or tangible work experiences is one of many major factors to success. Knowledge, an essential factor to success, is usually acquired through formal education but it is not the only approach. A more effective way to gain the mastery of skills is through a full participation in a job since experiences and rules of thumb are non-transferable in theory classes. This can be best illustrated in manual jobs when skilled workers such as plumbers or carpenters do not need further education to master the scope of work they deal with. Instead of going to university, junior labour workers should work in the fields with supervisions provided by seniors to give direct advice for improvement on their performance.

In addition, characters can be a more reliable factor to predict success than education. As today job markets are filled with more qualified graduates, employers gravitate more towards other qualities of candidates such as interpersonal skills, adaptability and self-motivation. It is increasingly believed that the most successful are normally those who can work with different people across disciplines. With communication, not only they can exchange ideas and solutions, they can also efficiently utilise each other's’ strength and eventually limits weakness. In addition, individuals who are persistent and fast adapt to changes are considered flexible and more likely to succeed.

In conclusion, even though tertiary education is generally favoured in professional careers, other factors are also as important to one’s success such as experience and character. In fact, in manual professions the requirement of university education is unnecessary.