Persuasive Essay Example: Postgraduate Education ⋆ Persuasive Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

For many young people, college is mostly a way to get the education they need for further professional activity. Some students study eagerly, others drudge through it, but all of them understand that without graduating from a college or university, future perspectives are rather dim. Anyways, many students after completing higher education and getting employed in a company or starting their own business tend to think that attending an educational institution was the last time they had to study. What such people do not realize is that studying is, in fact, one of the biggest services one can do for oneself.

A certain set of skills obtained during the years in a college or university implies that a person continues working in the same field for years. This person may become highly proficient in their area of work, and may change companies he or she works in or climb the career ladder—and there is nothing wrong with that. However, if this person feels fed up with what they are doing, and would want to realize themselves in a completely new field, there is a drawback: a minimal amount of education obtained during one’s student years might not be suitable for this. For example, a person who studied journalism and worked as a journalist in a news agency feels that he or she cannot continue working there anymore; what he or she wants now is to become a designer. There are two options for such a person: either to keep dreaming about the desired job while continuing to work in a position he or she hates—because of the fear or unwillingness to start studying again, or because they think it would take too much effort—or to look for a design school and learn whatever is needed to become a designer and finally change their job. This is not an easy decision: changing one’s profession, lifestyle, and duties is by all means challenging—but studying can make this process go smoother (FSW).

If a person has no problems with their profession, it does not mean that postgraduate studying is not necessary. Any profession has, so to say, a basic level, and an advanced one. A basic level implies that a worker knows his or her duties, knows how to perform his or her functions in order to manage daily workloads, and is satisfied with the state of things. The advanced level implies that there is always something new to learn even within a profession a person thinks he or she already knows; that there are a lot of nuances, keeping an eye on which can not only improve the quality of one’s work, but help a worker get promoted, become a company’s valuable asset, develop business, and so on. And getting to this advanced level requires a person to study; nowadays, many companies offer their workers all kinds of workshops, seminars, conferences, and other events during which it is possible to develop new skills, obtain new knowledge, meet important people, and contribute to one’s own development in a number of other ways. Participating in such events can be a great benefit to a worker who wants to learn and grow professionally. Needless to say, companies value such workers, so this kind of studying can be a great way to enhance one’s career (IFR).

Besides, continuing to study even after graduation can make a person more diverse, versatile, better adapted to different life situations, and able to manage all kinds of complications. This is not to mention that being intellectually active is good for mental health. For example, in the case of such a dreaded problem as Alzheimer’s disease, studies show that people who have it and who continue engaging in all kinds of intellectual activities developed the symptoms of this disease much later than those who did not study. “If two people had the same amount of Alzheimer’s pathology, and one had higher education and engaged in more cognitively stimulating activities, and one had lower educational attainment and didn’t participate in as many mentally stimulating activities, then the symptoms [of Alzheimer’s] would appear earlier in the person with less cognitively stimulating activity” says Dr. David Knopman, professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (Time).

Postgraduate education is not only a great way to boost one’s career, but also a ticket to a new life of possibilities: if a person wants to change his or her lifestyle or profession (and they are often connected to each other), there is no better way than obtaining a set of completely new skills and fresh knowledge. Besides, mental activity can positively affect one’s mental health, and even in such difficult cases as Alzheimer’s disease, studying and using one’s cognitive functions actively can significantly decrease the pace of the disease’s development. Therefore, graduating from a college or university is not a reason to stop learning.

References:

Doe, Jill. “Changing Your Lifestyle 101.” FSW. N.p., 12 Nov. 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2017. .
Johns, Sarah. “10 Efficient Ways to Boost Your Career.” IFR. N.p., 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2017. .
“Preventing Alzheimer’s: Keeping the Brain Active May Affect Disease.” Time. Time, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.