Potential beyond credentials 10 May 2021 / 21:49 H. STUDENTS aspiring to work in the public sector must strive to obtain the right paper qualifications to secure government jobs at officer levels for decent salaries and benefits. Their academic qualifications would also determine how far they could advance in their civil service careers. Qualifications are also a must for licensed professions such as accountants, architects, doctors, engineers and lawyers, in both private and public sectors. In 2019, the civil service was bloated with 1.71 million government employees and efforts have been made to trim the excess fat. Hence, it would be a grave mistake for jobseekers to rely on the public sector for employment, although government jobs do provide security of tenure, and now made even more important by this pandemic, with huge numbers in the private sector out of jobs or incomes reduced.