h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is it as hard as we're led to believe?

So far I've worked only in Care, which is getting more bogged down in qualifications, but NVQs and other on the job training. So I don't really know, but reading job adverts it seems you need a degree to earn even just enough to scrape by on.

Is this a fair view of things? Or am I just reading in the wrong places?

D

I suppose it depends...

Personally I haven't a single qualification above an A level to my name - I'm now in my mid-thirties and working alongside people (doing the same job for the same pay) who are the same age as me, but who spent 5 or more years at university, then started working for peanuts - only now are they actually earning half decent money...
Some jobs (accountancy is one that springs to mind) you just can't get into unless you've the right piece of paper - with others, experience seems far more important.

Having said that, the piece of paper does often open the first door on your career path - after that you can virtually throw it away. If you've got the chance to go to university, take it... You might regret the lost opportunity later on. On the other hand, if you can't get to university, don't panic, there are plenty of us around who didn't and aren't stocking shelves in a supermarket.


Whisky

self emplyment is the key to self wealth and pensions.

Gigabane - been there, seen it, done it, got the T Shirt (and the ulcers)...

It might be the key to self wealth, but the lock's extremely dodgy and jams from time to time.

i hav seen engineeris with degrees call selftought or aprentice as hedge wizards
and i have seen some really skilled self taught's moan that the pecil pushing habits of degree and diploma, style leaves them with a rather large gap of common sence.
a degree student of electonics should be able to pat test with out thinkibg, but that is not always the case, as i saw from a full employee where i took my aprentiship.

i think you should have both an nvq and a degree type education just to be sure.
but then that is a waste of life.

Oh, well that clears that up then

When I didn't have a degree, they all said (I worked for IBM at the time) "you'll get nowhere without a degree". I got a degree (OU, enjoyable, educational). It took three years before anyone noticed, and it never made the slightest difference.

If you want to study for a degree, then it's probably best to do it because you want to put the effort into that particular discipline, and for no other reason.

If you need to study for a degree, then think hard about what you do actually need.

perfectly said JB
i would have said identify your core educational needs, then find the approprite courses to match.

Dastardly, sure the advert does'nt ask for "degree calibre?" An employer may be looking for somebody that can apply themself to understanding a subject. Not just relience on external (to company) testing of an individual.
¬
There may be some degrees that have no value beyond being 'a degree' in practical terms... What do you say to a sports scientist graduate? You say: "Big Mac, strawbery shake, no fries."
¬
Well, G. Maybe that's something for you map to Zion.

More and more businesses are turning to in-house testing to see if the candidates for the jobs who have all the firsts have actually got any knowledge of the subjects or wether than just learned how to pass an exam a chose a college that give out a first to 90% of it students.

I really don't know what to say to that. I am actually 3/4 of the way through an engineering degree, and I really didn't know much about engineering before that, so hopefully this should help me alongg. If you understand the stuff without college (university to probably most of the worl), more power to you!

in the perfect world, our educationalist would have eximined every thing we know by now and tidied it all up into nice little packages. the recipient of the education, would be perminantly analised by the state, to ensure that the individual has access to all skills wanted by that indavidual aswell as feeding any 'gift' that that person may have.

in my world, education is just part of a life long jouney, with a state provided carer to work along side parents right through till the carer retires.

too often i have found that on their own;
parent, social workers, child carers and teachers are not able to individualy probide the best life. if all of these had a common link though it would be much more affective.

i cant speak for every one, but i pretty sure that almost every new person in this world, needs to bond to people not of their family.
for some it may be the school nurse, helped you through a crisis.
or maybe, as an adult you had a midwife that became a long time friend.

each 'watcher' i dont have a name for them yet. has a group of people in their responsibility, but this would be as small as profits would allow for increased one on one.
anaway, you would be first introdused to a new watcher when you got pregnant, i would attemp to match a watcher to the personalities of the parents for maximum smoothness...lol
anyway, whilst you are pregnant the watcher acts as full midwife/health visitor. from birth they will remain in contact with the child throughout the first months to allow a slight bit of bonding.
not trying to take anything away from parents here, its just an every now and then thing. as the child grows and developes an education plan will be formed.
innitialy the plans would be a hybrid of what the parents want and what the state wants(wich is tempered by the compassion of the watcher).
once thece initial negotiations are set. education begins post haste.
from this point on the indaviuals education package wiil adapt to the skills and deficits of the individual, modified by the individuals own personal requirements, which cannot really be comunicated until a certain level of education has already been reached.
this watcher, would be with the child right through to old age.
i feel that not only would it be of great benefit to all of us in general.
it also works as a direct communication feed for me.
if i have an employee then in principle they have my/the business's intrests as the focus of their career, however it also works the other way.
all citizens in the empire would have a watcher, and as such i couldnt really miss the public voice which has been intergrated into the whole modal.

now a days a lot of the new business of the world are starting to realise that customer relations is more important than anything.
you may laugh and think that that should be obvious, but it hasnt always been.

managment by numbers
theoty x
theory y
talorism
and many more systems
but almost always it been a neumerical value.
x defects per %
no of complaints
output
time and motion.

i hate to say it, and i know i will get shouted at for doing so, but its all rubish.

all that has ever benn needed to run a proper businessis;
a profit margin (of any size, it just indicated no backward step)
happy staff
happy customers.
as long as you can acheive these, the business will work.

they are the core principles to follow.



damn, ive lost my though now.



just to declare to you guys, one of the biggest troubles i have with my brain matter is i lose memories...
dont get me wrong, i dont mean i forget things, i mean ill be thinking about somthing, and then it will be gone and for my life i cannot access that info again. at some point in the future, it could be days it could be years, but it comes back clear as day.
without humor please, has anyone heard of things like this.
i really would be a lot more knowlegeable and confident and smarter if i could just controll my own memory.

Re your last paragraph.

Welcome to normal human life!

i wish that it were normal.
but i am talking about a plague of missing data.
if i could summon every thing i have learned i could easily pass A levels in maths and english, never mind gcse.

i have read all the key stage 3+4 books and all of the knowledge is in there but it evades me every time i try to focus.
my memories normaly return at irrelivent times.
i know other people suffer the same problem, but on a whole not nearly as much as me.

i forget the name but some bloke recently re3leased his findings about the inteligece and blame stuff with regard to blair and his minions.
the point is, he had a q&a with the reporters, and one of the reporters spewed out this huge question list to him, and he was able to not only remember everything that was said, but respond to it all.

where as i would not even be able to hear the first paragraph, without stopping hime to address that question.

now dont laugh, but i had an accident as a baby (between 0 and 3) and a small metal rod about 4mm radius and about an inch long, was inserted directly into the front of my brain.(dont ask how because it is a very unique accident and could identify me).
thing is though, that part of the brain is meant to be about concentration, not memory.
however as far as concentration is concerned, i can sit at a task for 20 hrs before sleeping hevily, then i can wake and do another 20.
i never really get bored as such, i get frustrated when i cant use my time satifactorily. i have been focusing on this busines model of mine with at least ten hrs a day for the last five years and more light heartedly for a few years before that.

sometimes i go for drugs from the doctor because the neurosis can go too far and cause me to spend time procrastinating about averything.
a lot of work and no results.
but too much of their drugs and i lose the ability to imagine, and i become suicidaly deppressed with the world.
no thats wrong,i was suicidal when i was young, until i understood the value of life.
lets just call it manic obssesive.

i know i have several levels of insanity, but so have many many smart people.
and i must keep my imbalance in order to be even a little power of good for this world.

I've been having a great deal of frustrationm with my memory too, I don't know if it's the depression or the drugs I'm on for my BPD, it's affecting both my long and short term memory whatever it is.

About your idea of pefect world, I think it's quite the opposite, in the perfect world there would be a greater commitment of the parents to educating the child for the first 7 years of life before entering a state eductaion system, the state eduction system should be flexible a deal with the childs natural talents rather than the current system of trying to make children 'more rounded', that just leads to underachievement in areas that they would have once exceled at for to many children today. "Watchers" only involvement should be a minor supporting role to help parents be the best that can for their children, and prevent neglect or abuses.

i like your idea, but it implies that the parent knows what is best for the child, which is not always true.
if i think the teachers of the world dont recieve enough education, why would i assume that parent do.
if my education was left to my parents,
i would batter my wifes, sleep with who i please, take what i want with as much force as i please.
ide almost certainly be an expert shoplifter, something i remember doing a lot of for my mum.

im not saying that too many parents are like that its just that,THERE ARE too many for life to be harmonious).

as to the 'watchers' there are there to protect the children from the parents, hey lets be honest. we all have our own unique issues.
they are also there to ensure that the system knows how best to serve that individual.

It does seem nowadays you need a degree in chemistry just to do cleaning. It´s getting a bit ridiculous.

It depends on the field. I can say that, in the computer sciences, a degree is worth little, and an MCSE certification is worth nothing. But both will get your foot in the door. Once you've gotten that first good job and built up your resume, the rest is easy. I've seen a lot of terrible techs with good resumes get good jobs.

If you want a real education in this field, you're better off getting it at a trade school, or the military.

To give you an idea of what a degree is worth... a coworker of mine once told a supervisor with a bachelor's in electrical engineering that the problem with a computer was that it had sprung an electron leak, and that if your turned off the lights you could see the resulting electron shower. As soon as we traced the source of the leak and patched it up, the computer would be back online. The supervisor believed it.

The reason these degrees count for anything is that hiring is not usually done by people who actually understand technology and the requirements of the job. It's usually done by Human Resources people with college degrees in French Macrame History, 14th Century African Drama, or Biological Noises.

Well, in my experience (late thirties, no degree) a degree is useful in getting a first or second job in your twenties. But, by the time you're thirty, your experience will start counting for more. Certainly by the time you're thirty, whether you have a degree shouldn't be a major factor in getting a job, outside of those disciplines that require it - the professions etc. Contrary to popular perception, you don't need a degree to do accountancy. You *do* need to pass one of the professional bodies' examinations, though.

RF