Decline of the Educational- Industrial Complex?
My colleague J.D. Tuccille looks at a promising innovation in employment. A couple well regarded employers in the United Kingdom and the U.S. are "lowering" their requirements for new hires. The U.K.'s Ernest and Young- a well known accounting firm- and America's Price Waterhouse won't be using higher education qualifications as criteria for hiring anymore:
"....they’d 'found no evidence to conclude that previous success in higher education correlated with future success in subsequent professional qualifications undertaken."
Something I've felt for years and have written about before. That's not to say that some jobs don't require higher education. If you want to be an engineer or doctor, you'll still have to spend the time in school.
Many jobs that require or prefer a degree in one thing or another can be filled by people that just have ability. When I applied at Humboldt County Juvenile Hall, the then- superintendent told me that although they preferred a Bachelor's degree in some sociological field or another, they really just wanted someone that had a way with kids.
We need more of that sort of thing and kudos to those two businesses for breaking ground. Let's hope more businesses follow.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:08 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
In my experience, "higher education" usually relates to daddy having "higher income", not "higher work ethic" or "higher iq".
Makes sense. Ernst & Young (originally a US firm) and Price Waterhouse now realize that they doesn't need no stinkin' degreed persons to fudge the books of sub-prime, derivative mortgage selling companies no more. Anyone can do it!
Except we've all heard the stories of heavy debt being accrued to get through college. Imo, a lot of that debt is taken on just by younger folks that think it's something they have to do to succeed in life when it really isn't necessary as they sometimes find out years later.
I can think of one guy older than me. He supposedly has more than one degree. He's also an education worshipper, thinking college is an absolute necessity of life. Yet he successfully works in real estate. The only actual education he really needed for that is 6 months to a year at a local community college.
Some of his kids: One graduated from HSU in some film oriented major. She went on the direct (and produce?) a film that won some big award at an overseas film festival. Maybe college helped with that, but I tend to wonder if she couldn't have done it on her own?
Her brother didn't go to college. I'm given some credit for that. He's making his own way as a musician.
His brother, though, went through college at his father's urging. He can't even feed himself now. Yet he has the ability- although not the psyche- to succeed at probably anything. College was a waste of money for his father and time for him.
In fairness, the other brother: Home schooled thru high school, then went to college and graduated as a philosophy major. He's working on his Masters and works teaching philosophy at an out of state high school. Yep, I suppose even teachers need some college. Whatever he wants to do, I suppose, but it almost seems counterproductive to me to get an education just to stay in school.
"doesn't need no stinkin' degreed persons to fudge the books of sub-prime, derivative mortgage selling companies no more."
Ha, ha. I guess those college graduates did it well enough.
Probably has more to do with lowering hiring standards, thus saving the big accounting firms oodles of $$$, which can then be credited to the CEO's No-Fault Severance Package. More 1%er BS, aka, The Carly Effect.
You would think that to do an honest and quality job of auditing, with myriad tax codes and regs being what the are, would require people with higher academic skills and knowledge.
But they are saying, not necessarily? Hummm. Something sounds fishy about this, no matter how great the "common man" appeal might be. Should improve job prospects in India a lot though as accounting personnel will be obviously out-sourced.
All the shaky audits that led to up the big bust in 2007, as well as the inflated ratings from Moody's and Standard & Poor's, etc, were not conceived at the bottom of the corporate rong, but at the top. And they all skated. More of the same to come.
And look who wants to deregulate The Street even more. Jeb! $ Company
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