Difference Between Knowledge and Skill

Two words that describe a person’s competence ‘“ knowledge and skill! At first glance, both of them seem synonymous but give it some thought and you would realize both of them are very different concepts.

Knowledge refers to learning concepts, principles and information regarding a particular subject(s) by a person through books, media, encyclopedias, academic institutions and other sources. Skill refers to the ability of using that information and applying it in a context. In other words, knowledge refers to theory and skill refers to successfully applying that theory in practice and getting expected results. For instance, a sales person armed with an MBA degree may have learned all the principles of marketing and selling in his business school. Going forward, in his work he would know more about his company, in the arena of its product line, target market, competitors etc. All the above is knowledge. Transferring this knowledge to create a successful sales strategy and pitch and achieving those sales targets is the sales person’s skill.

Trial and error methods are a great way of adding to your skills. Sometimes, certain skills are inherent in a person. For instance, some people are born carpenters. But skills can take a person only to a certain level. To move ahead, it is necessary that a person has the requisite knowledge as well. For instance, while a person may have a good hand in carpentry, acquiring an engineering degree can do wonders for the person’s skills. In the same manner, some people may have theoretical knowledge but may just not be able to use it while performing a task.

From a philosophical perspective, knowledge is intangible but skills can be made tangible by applying those skills to a context and getting the desired result.

Also, theoretical knowledge can be shared with other people. Some skills can never be transferred to other people. For instance, a good car mechanic may immediately know a problem with the car because of the intuitiveness he or she has built over years of repairing different cars. The same car mechanic may not be able to develop this intuitiveness in his apprentice.

Summary:

1.Knowledge refers to theoretical information acquired about any subject whereas skills refer to practical application of that knowledge.

2.Knowledge can be learned whereas skills require practical exposure and can also be in-born.

3.Ultimately, both knowledge and skill is required to master a field of study.