“Knowing does not make one skilled”, Yes! There is a difference between Skills and Knowledge. The two are concepts are related but quite different.
Difference between Skills and Knowledge
Knowledge means acquiring information through our sensory inputs like Watching, Listening, Reading, etc. The concept means to gather familiarity with the facts and theory. It can be passed to one person to another or can be acquired through sharp observations and deduction (like Sherlock Holmes!).
Skills on the other hand means the capability of a person to apply or use the knowledge, he/she has learnt to a particular situation. The skills are developed through a lot of practice and a combination of sensory output and input. For example, communication skills are developed through interacting with people, participating in debates, group discussion and listening. In the process, step by step by rectify the errors and learn and ultimately master the skill.
In a Layman’s language, Knowledge means theoretical and Skill means practical as we have in schools and colleges, theory classes and practical labs. A person can know all the rules of Cricket, all statistics and related current affairs. But it does not make him/her a cricket critic as he/she doesn’t play that game. He/she only know about the sport only and is not good at it.
The same concept can be applied in a Professional job. A person can know all the details regarding the matter, but he/she might not have those skills to tackle and solve the matter. While developing skills, one learns many things which is quite opposite to gaining knowledge.
Mismatch
Today even though our country has so many engineering colleges, but the number of quality engineers is very less. The reason is the majority of students are more focused on getting a job than learning engineering skills. Very few colleges and faculty take Practical Labs seriously. In most of the colleges, the aim of the Practical Lab is to get the experiment done and collect the data anyhow. Many colleges don’t even practical labs. Speaking of school students, a large number of students join the Coaching Institute for preparation of different exams. In this process, the student gets detached from the school activities. Their communication and social skills are affected more.
There are many graduates who are even though having graduation degree fails to get a job due to the absence of basic skills, like coding, communication, editing, etc.
NEEM Assistance
NEEM stands for National Employment Enhancement mission, which is a central government program. It helps in training India’s youth through various programs at a very nominal fee. One can enhance his/her skills by undergoing a course of NEEM. After the course is completed, the trainees will be skilled and will be able to counter situations more precisely.
