Before I ever wrote “MSc Engineering Management” after my name, I was covered in grease, working on massive machinery as an apprentice fitter and machinist. I still remember the smell of cutting fluid, the heat from the workshop floor, and the hum of equipment that didn’t care whether you had a degree or not — it only cared whether you respected it enough to know what you were doing.

The men who taught me were not university graduates.
Some never finished school.

But they were leaders.

Not because of a qualification, but because of what they carried in their hands, their minds, and their character. They taught me precision, responsibility, discipline, and how to think like someone who knows that mistakes have real-world consequences.

That foundation is the reason I eventually earned my degrees, not the other way around.

Yes, I believe in qualifications. They matter. They expand your world, deepen your thinking, and unlock spaces you might never otherwise enter. I worked hard for mine, and they mean something to me:

But the letters after my name don’t make me a leader.
They make me qualified — Not Worthy.

The problem in many companies, especially in Africa, is that qualifications have become a filter for identity. Organisations treat degrees like passports to leadership, and experience like something that must apologize to the room before entering.

I strongly believe — It’s A Broken System.

I’ve seen artisans and technicians who can strip and rebuild propulsion systems better than OEM technicians, but they can’t get promoted because they don’t have a diploma.

I’ve seen employees run departments in acting capacity, holding the whole operation together, but they get passed over for the job because “HR policy” demands a degree.

I’ve seen people who trained engineers in real-world application, only to be told they must “wait for the qualified person” to sign off.

Meanwhile, someone fresh out of university gets handed authority they don’t yet have the capacity to carry, and they drown under the pressure.

The system isn’t only failing the unqualified.
It’s failing the qualified too, by lying to them about what leadership requires.

Every time a company ignores experience, they lose:

• Practical intelligence
• Contextual decision-making
• Risk awareness
• Hands-on diagnostic skill
• Respect from the workforce
• Cultural continuity
• Operational memory

And worst of all:

The humility that comes from knowing what failure feels like.

Leadership without humility is not leadership.
It’s performance.

If we want to fix this system, we need both sides to accept uncomfortable truths:

• To the Degree-Holders:
  Your education is a tool, not a crown.
  Use it to uplift, not to separate.
• To the Skilled Tradesperson:
  Your experience is not less valuable.
  Keep learning, even if the system didn’t open the door.
  Your journey matters.
• To Corporations:
  Stop confusing HR compliance with strategic leadership.
  A policy is not a compass.
  A qualification is not a guarantee.
  A title is not a transformation.

Leadership should not start at a desk.
It should start at a point of understanding.

If I could redesign corporate development tomorrow, I would:

1. Remove degree-only promotion barriers
   Create dual pathways: academic track & experience track.
2. Introduce Competency Evaluations
   Test skill, not paper.
3. Apprenticeship-to-Executive Bridges
   Give technical staff structured management pathways.
4. Equalise Respect
   Make boardrooms walk the engine rooms and workshop floors.
   Make management put their ego in PPE.
5. Pay for Value, Not Status
   If a tradesperson performs at an engineer’s level, pay them like one.
   Because compensation is not charity.
   It’s recognition.

I didn’t start in a boardroom.
I earned my place there and the boardroom didn’t give me my identity.
The workshop did.

I know what it’s like to be underestimated because of a lack of qualifications.
I also know what it’s like to be overestimated because of them.

Education changed my life.
But so did the people without education.

If this platform stands for anything, let it be this:

Leadership is Not a Title.
Leadership is Not a Certificate.
Leadership is Not a Performance.

Leadership is what remains when pressure removes the mask,
when identity is revealed by responsibility,
and the work you’ve done stands behind you like a structure that won’t collapse.

Degrees can teach you what leadership is.
Experience teaches you what it costs.

The degree isn’t the leader.
The person is.

Please note:
I don’t think for one second that my account is a definitive account. I offer it no more than an opening round in a conversation that I hope you will join in.

End