Do public servants need a Master’s degree?

This post is written by Davia Carty, Senior Director of Strategic & Corporate Planning at the Forestry Department, Jamaica.

• The problem: Determining whether or not a Master’s degree is needed to accelerate one’s professional career in the public service.
• Why it matters: Knowledge is power. The knowledge of where and in what one should place their investments (time, resources) can make all the difference to a professional journey.
• The solution: Recognition/acknowledgement that a Master’s degree is not a panacea. What is more important to career growth in the public service is a willingness to learn and attention to professional self-development.

I have always wondered if it should be a requirement in senior Government jobs for officials to hold a master’s degree. Is there truly value in having a degree, or is it something one just does for self-fulfilment or self-actualisation? Is it more of a help or a hindrance to professional development?

In my view, the response is not simple or clear cut. It is also, however, not especially complex. A Master’s degree is as valuable to a government official as that official seeks or wants it to be.

Here is why…

To succeed in life you must work hard, undoubtedly, but you must also be prepared. That is the objective, and for many, it is also the problem as it is often unclear what is required, or what it takes to be “prepared”.

In many spheres of government, a master’s degree is often seen as a requirement, but is it really? Having successfully achieved the requirements for the degree, is a master’s candidate suddenly equipped to hold a senior government post?

My own story

For the current position I hold (a position which is two levels from the head//CEO post of my entity) a master’s degree was not a requirement. Having acquired a master’s degree relatively early in my professional career, in the minds of many, I had entered government service ‘overqualified’. What was an essential requirement for a senior position such as mine was not specifically a master’s degree, but rather a combination of degrees with specific lengths of service. With a bachelor’s degree (or even a professional certificate) and more than five years of service in the specific field, a candidate could be considered. Where there was however less than five years of service, the combination of years of service plus a master’s degree was considered a suitable ‘equivalent’.

But how useful has my master’s degree been to my professional development? Since joining the government service 10 years ago I have been promoted twice, neither of which I believe was specifically linked to my qualification, especially since I had obtained it before entering the service. What was critical to my promotion was my work ethic and professional skills (including on the job training), which though strengthened by the process of reading for a master’s degree were also compounded by several professional development courses. Throughout my professional career, though they were armed with three and four degrees, I have seen people unsuccessfully navigate job promotion or upward professional development owing to their inability to translate learned and theoretical knowledge into functional work skills.

A Master’s degree is as valuable to a government official as that official seeks or wants it to be.

To pursue a master’s degree should therefore be a personal choice one embarks on with no other expectation other than self-fulfilment and actualisation. It should not be felt that simply by holding a master’s degree one is ‘automatically qualified’ for a position. The process of engaging in higher learning undoubtedly broadens one’s horizons, but to truly open doors one must seek to not only learn but train for the professional success they seek.

I have often heard it said, and believe it is true: “Education makes you trainable, but it is training that makes you employable”. Ultimately, this is what gives you success.

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