-- Law, Marketing, Business Management, I.T, HR and Accounting, these are areas of interest for most matriculants who intend studying further. But ask them about studying a BA degree and most would just laugh in your face. I dont want to spend 3 years studying Bachelor Of Art(BA) specializing in chilling and partying theyd joke. Dont kid yourself about BAs Jonathan Jansen:Excerpt So whats the difference between a BA degree and a large pizza? one of my student leaders recently asked a large group of parents inquiring about sending their child to university. A large pizza can feed a family of four, she joked. I laughed, then cried. Laughed, because of the obvious wit of the comparison. Cried, because this is one of the most misleading pieces of information about BAs in South Africa today. It was not that I had not overheard BA jokes. At my previous university, there was rampant talk among female students of a BA man-soek specialisation (BA find-a-husband). After all, what other reason could you have for doing a BA than to prowl the campus for a life mate? Sadly, many parents buy into this myth about the uselessness of a BA. The actuarial science degree gets you a specific job, as do degrees in marketing, optometry or accountancy. With this common-sense, though often wrong understanding of a degree, parents guide their children away from a BA towards something more practical or something that can get you a job. The truth is I have seen as many BA students get good jobs as I have seen BComm Accounting students without jobs. In fact, I would argue that a BA from a good university is likelier to get you different kinds of jobs - not a bad option in an economic recession - than a single-career job that comes with a degree in physiotherapy or in law. Why is that? A good BA qualification from a good university would have taught you generic competencies seldom learnt in narrow occupational degrees. A good BA would have given you the foundations of learning across disciplines like sociology, psychology, politics, anthropology and languages. A good BA would have given you access to critical thinking skills, appreciation of literature, understanding of cultures, the uses of power, the mysteries of the mind, the organisation of societies, the complexities of leadership, the art of communication and the problem of change. A good BA would have taught you something about the human condition, and so something about yourself. In short, a good BA degree would have given you a solid education that forms the basis for workplace training. So the next time you hear people make jokes about a worthless BA degree, tell them about Bobby Godsell (the BA graduate who served as the CEO of AngloGold Ashanti), Vincent Maphai (the BA graduate who rose to serve as chairman of BHP Billiton), Clem Sunter (the famous scenario planner and former chairman of the Anglo American Chairmans Fund), Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (the former deputy president of South Africa) or Saki Macozoma (the chairman of Stanlib and Liberty Life).
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 17:18:11 +0000
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