[Sussex] IT qualifications advice

[nik at wired4life.org]

On Sat, Nov 29, 2003 at 09:48:38AM -0000, Mark Harrison wrote:
> The question of whether a degree is useful rather hinges on what you want to
> do....
but my comments were not about "is a degree useful" or "are degrees
pointless". No this is a classic tactic I see used in many arguements on
and off line. Youve taken a point, issue X, and focused the discussion
on that area , spinning the topic up or down as you wish. 

you'll note that I suggested further education as a means to gaining
certs and qualification.

so lets just recap where the thread originated.

"

This brings me on to my question, would an A level in "ICT" actually be
useful for a career in IT? It's important to mention I'm not particulary
going for IT as a career path, or any other right now, just trying to
keep
a good range of options open.
"



My commnent was simply that A certficate of any kind will not ensure
better earnings or opportunities than 

Drive, Determination, Professionalism, and Communication. 


and you reflected that comment in 

"
Now he works as a programmer
for an annual salary at roughly equal to the "graduate starting
salaries" -
ie he's not made any progress in 8 years.

"

you also pointed to some studies, which dont actually say anything at
all except to reinforce the desire of the goverment to apply tuition
fees  but since they dont actually show the sample set then the link and
the qualification of the study is not submissible.


so please dont take this thread down a degree baiting flame and instead
lets respond to the issue by saying. 

Any qualification will not ensure or aid employment. if they did then
employers would always hire the first candidate who matches the
qualifications.


By all means Alan, take the A-levels you wish, but match them to how you
intend to progress your own desires and aspirations. Dont be focussed by
what other people say. I never did. Neither did any other succesful
individual in history. Since your not looking directy at a career path
in IT then as geoff suggests go for the basics in maths and english
since they do give you great basic skills. Since we are on that topic I
believe w had this thread a while back. Alan your reflecting my comment
quite well when you said the IT course would offer wordprocessing and
spreadsheets. When it might be better if the course offered an
understanding of networks, computer architectures and programming
langauge syntax. So I will point to that previous thread  and repeat as
I do in life " See Nik, was right".

I remember being at school and college and being told very clearly by
English teachers, Maths Teachers, Year Heads and careeer advisors 

"Nik, in order to get a job in computers you MUST have a alevel in
maths, since you dont have that why not consider this job at clerical
level ?"

They were ignorant of the individual, seeing, as many people do the
certificates and qualifications of class. 


But if your looking for approval or direction from your peers then dont
ask them what they did, or how they did it. Because,  they are not you. 

Instead look to your own strength and weaknesses. Play to your strengths
since your weakneses will change as you move through life. 

If you have access to software and computers and communication then use
this to contribute and raise awareness in the community, local, real
life and internet, of your skills and abilities whilst you study. You
can use one of your strenghts , computing , to further open your options
down the road.

Many qualifications you need to aid development in  employment are actually work
related and your not going to see those at university or college. Maybe
if Colleges were offering courses in CIMA, FAA, FSA, CIAA CIII, CMA, LSE
, etc etc etc then businesses would feel they were getting qualified
individuals able to apply skills their industry needs.


So thats my peice. to recap for the comment disabled.


Individuals make the qualification. 

The qualification does not make the individual.




-- 
nik at wired4life.org	http://www.wired4life.org/	Wired4Life, an Answer.

Q: Divide 14 sugar cubes into 3 cups of coffee so that each
cup has an odd number of sugar cubes.
A: 1,1,12
Riposte: 12 isn't odd!
A: It's an odd number of cubes to put in a cup of coffee (groan)