yolland
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- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
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Well, as I granted there are exceptions, plus I can only speak from the perspective of an American (retail) business manager who hired, reviewed and fired probably a couple hundred employees during my time. It may also be the case that the Irish equivalent of our K-12 education is notably superior, and that that's relevant here (again, from an American perspective--a secondhand one this time--every professor of 25 years' or more experience that I've ever talked to about this, without exception, felt strongly that the competencies, particularly regarding writing, of the average incoming freshman had declined markedly during their tenure, in ways that couldn't be adequately explained by the increased numbers of young people enrolling in college).I would have to say my experience was different. I didn't really learn any of those real world skills you mention at college, but rather by trial-and-error and being thrown in the deep end in the workplace. For me, the only real advantage of having a degree was getting the foot on the career ladder in the first place. Granted, that's not insignificant. Of people I've worked with, my impression is that the caliber of the college graduates is generally better than those with only high school certificates - in particular, they tend to be better at adapting to change, IMO the single most important attribute for success in a modern workplace - but that may be simply because people of high ability are more likely to go to college in the first place.
ETA--It's not that college students here learn the actual skills you mentioned, per se; it's more along the lines of what BVS said earlier about the lessons being implicit: broader knowledge base + better analytical skills + more practice in speaking and writing + interdisciplinary work + more independence in defining and pursuing your own goals = better preparation to learn, communicate and innovate in the workplace. As a generalization.
(Also, in referring back to my post you quoted, I realize I went a little overboard in my crankiness about failures to use the career counseling system. That's on my mind right now because of a particularly exasperating situation at work, which is probably neither here nor there with regard to this thread. Sorry about that.)
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