I like to think so, since I have only a minimum high school education. In market terms experience sometimes falls short in terms of certification though. The purchasers of labour power like to have quality assurance these days, so the certificate is worth something.
Aside from that minor quibble, you're right. Getting experience still requires a lot of work and informal training hours though. So the same sort of investment is involved in refining labour to actually make it more valuable.
>Also, what is the actual point of comparing skilled to unskilled labor, as in the paragraph above?
The point is to understand why, in spite of appearances, all labour is fundamentally of equal value. Both in terms of use value and exchange value. The value of a person's labour-power can only be increased by adding more labour-power to it. This doesn't just apply in respect to skilled work either, it also applies to mechanised work. One person operating a machine might be able to do the work of ten with their bare hands, but only because a large number of labour hours have already been invested in designing and manufacturing the machine.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas