[Gllug] VACANCY: Junior Systems Support

Hari Sekhon hpsekhon at googlemail.com
Mon Sep 7 13:56:30 UTC 2009


Thomi Richards wrote:
> Hi,
>
> 2009/9/7 Peter Corlett:
>   
>> Wait! Why does it need to be for career skills? What about the sheer
>> enjoyment of learning something new and interesting? And it's "only"
>> about five to ten grand over three years. Many hobbies will cost you
>> more than that.
>>
>> If you just want something to advance your career, might I suggest a
>> technical college or a vendor qualification?
>>
>>     
>
> *exactly* - I was waiting for someone to say that. As a proud graduate
> from a technical college I'm fed up with the perception that
> university degrees are supposed to get you a job. In my opinion, uni
> degrees are not, and never have been about getting a job. They're
> about learning to learn, hopefully instilling some work ethic into the
> students and just maybe learning some deep theory from whichever field
> you happen to have chosen.
>
> Anyone expecting university graduates to have current, industry level
> skills is dreaming - sure, you might get lucky once in a while, but
> most universities just aren't interested in teaching that.
>
> Personally, I don't think this is a failure of universities - rather,
> it's a failure of marketing. People expect vocational skills from a
> university, which is just not going to happen any time soon (certainly
> not while the funding model employed by many governments around the
> world (not sure about the UK, but certainly in Australia and NZ) is
> based on lecturer _research_ output). Universities are, and should be
> focussed on theoretical research, which rarely becomes a vocational
> skill in the short time it takes a student to graduate.
>   
A good view, and interestingly ties in to the original job post. You 
have to ask the original poster why then ask for a degree at all if it 
has no real world value and why take a degree as a student if it gives 
you back no quantifiable value and doesn't help you in your career?

This is also the fault of decades of "education, education, education" 
culture with belief that getting a degree will entitle you to a good 
job, good money, good life etc... which turns out to bitterly not be the 
truth for the very latest generation who just get saddled with debt and 
not much else. The older generation for whom it was true, to which a 
friend of mine belongs and remembers it was a time when only 5% of 
adults went to university and that was the point. It was simply because 
you expected smart people to go to university and hence make it a quick 
way of separating the chaff from the wheat. Since that's no longer the 
case, it's still the older generation perpetuating the old myth and 
doing a disservice to the very latest generation who can easily come out 
of university and end up very disillusioned.

-h

-- 
Hari Sekhon
http://www.linkedin.com/in/harisekhon

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