Online Reporter
Gabriel Manyeruke
EMPLOYERS are right to value experience — it promises efficiency and reliability that sustain their brands. Yet one question deserves reflection: If every institution waits for experience, who will create the experienced professionals of tomorrow?
Every year, polytechnics and universities release graduates brimming with zeal, knowledge and ambition. Many step out convinced they are ready for the world of work, only to find the first door firmly shut.
Ironically, they are asked to possess the very experience that employment is meant to provide.
Where experience begins
Experience does not exist before opportunity; it grows because of an opening.
Every accomplished teacher once stood nervously before a class for the first time. Every respected school head was once a newly appointed educator learning the craft. Every expert was, at some point, someone’s first appointment.
The education sector understands this principle well. Junior teachers improve because experienced mentors guide them through lesson planning and classroom management, and learning from mistakes. Without teaching practice, there would be no confident teachers.
The same principle applies beyond education. That is why institutions must deliberately employ those who are qualified but inexperienced, then nurture them through mentorship and staff development.
Senior staff should supervise, train and correct, ensuring that excellence is maintained while new talent is groomed. In this way, organisations balance the need for quality with the responsibility to grow the next generation.
Seeing further through giants
Isaac Newton once remarked: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
His words remind us that growth is rarely solitary. Behind every accomplished professional lies someone who opened a door, offered mentorship or extended trust before success was visible.
My own journey bears testimony.
Institutions and individuals believed in me when all I had was curiosity and commitment. They did not mistake inexperience for inability.
Instead, they recognised that passion and character often predict excellence more reliably than a lengthy curriculum vitae (CV).
Mentorship and staff development
Genuine mentorship is patient.
It does not demand perfection at the beginning; instead, it leaves room for mistakes, correction and growth.
Excellence is not born overnight — it is cultivated through trial, error and resilience.
The giants who guided me understood this truth.
They expected not a flawless performance, but courage and willingness to learn.
By allowing space for imperfection, they created conditions where excellence could flourish.
Beyond certificates
Experience matters, but it is not the whole story.
Too often, institutions hire only for what is already visible — certificates, polished skills and proven records.
While safe, this risks overlooking hidden reservoirs of talent.
Passion, resilience and curiosity are harder to measure, yet they are the very qualities that transform learners into leaders.
Hiring on the basis of experience alone may feel comfortable, but investing in potential is courageous.
Institutions that nurture the inexperienced through mentorship create legacies that outlast statistics and rankings.
They produce not just employees, but pioneers. The question every leader must ask is simple: Are we selecting people for who they are today or for who they could become tomorrow?
The role of institutions
and the youth
Educational and professional institutions carry a responsibility greater than pass rates or profit margins. Their true legacy lies in the doors they open.
When schools admit learners for attitude, when companies hire for curiosity, they ignite transformation.
Young people, too, must play their part. Opportunity is only valuable when matched with diligence, humility and resilience.
Mentorship cannot replace hard work and potential must eventually translate into performance.
Newton’s wisdom is timeless.
We see further not because we are taller, but because others lift us higher.
Institutions and mentors who balance experience with potential create giants of tomorrow.
The challenge is simple but profound: Will we continue to hire only for what is already visible or will we dare to believe in what can be groomed, polished and unleashed?
Every generation stands taller because someone before it chose to open a door rather than close one.
Our greatest legacy will not be the positions we held, but the people we empowered to see further than we ever could.
Gabriel Manyeruke is an author and educator at Wise Owl High School in Marondera. Feedback [email protected]
