Wow. Troll day already?
Bobs wrote:
> A co-worker of mine whom has a degree in computing at Auckland
> University can't even install a cd-rom drive for ****s sake.
Universities are not *supposed* to teach practical skills - and this is
where the tertiary education system is so horribly broken. Universities
should be about laying a solid theoretical foundation for a career in
.... whatever. Not changing cd-rom's, as it turns out. Polytech's were
supposed to be about teaching skills and an apprenticeship was about
gaining those skills from someone who knew WTF they were talking about.
Somewhere along the line it became "common knowledge" that a University
degree was a "better" one. They had harder input criteria, for a good
reason, and hence a University education was regarded as a sign of being
.... well ... educated. Like wot I is. Consequently, and unsurprisingly
lots of people started wanting University degrees and competition formed
between the Universities to increase their rolls - because that's how
they got funded.
We got lots of crap like this from it:
http://www.cynicalbastards.com/ubs/
In the middle of this competition for students the Universities sussed
that if they started advertising that their courses taught practical
skills as well as the theoretical stuff, then students would take this
to mean they'd get a job upon leaving. Not such a bad competitive
advantage, eh?
The Polytech's got ****ed over, and apprenticeships became associated
with coal mines, ship yards and the eighteenth century. Which is a
shame, really.
>
> I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that degrees mean slightly less
> than the semen stains on Breens arsehole.
Oh no, a degree is a valuable document. In England a degree means that
you managed to go out drinking damn nearly every night for three years.
In New Zealand, where the academic environment is obviously
significantly tougher, I understand that this period of time is more
commonly five years and reasonably often drags out to six or seven.
Jesus! Seven years on the ****!
It's also a certificate of entering your working life already in
significant quantities of debt. So, obviously, we build our society
around virtually *needing* one in order to get anywhere.
D'you know the funny part? There are people who are genuinely amazed
that lots of successful businesses are run by early school leavers.
> Uni's just hand out ****ing
> text books, get these cretins to read them, and then test them on
> ****ing paper.
Yup. There are some things called lectures too, where some people who
failed to leave university stand up and summarise the book a chapter at
a time.
> Do ****ing
> plumbers only do their tests on paper?
No, they have apprenticeships. Or learn at Polytech.
> Does a doctor only read about
> disease and never attend pratical classes? ****, I hope not.
Doctors are made to work in several different areas of the industry
before being allowed to even think about working alone. It's a bloody
good idea, and the sooner IT starts to turn itself from a bunch of
cowboys into a profession, the better it will be for all concerned.
> So why the
> hell are computing graduates leaving our universities without even
> knowing how the hell to install things such as floppies or cd-roms?
And what are you daft bastards doing giving them jobs?
Dave
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