[ale] Ga tech

[Geoffrey]

mmillard1 at comcast.net wrote:
> With so much competition from On-line Universities and One Stop
> Specialty education shops it is now a case that traditional
> universities are being forced to produce and compete at a new level.
> It has long been my opinion that most universities in the US at least
> were failing to produce people with the real skills they needed to do
> more than very basic tech jobs. Their failure to keep up made places
> like ITT possible.

Which is a shortcut to a REAL education.

> There are clear exceptions like the MITs of the
> world. I am a little surprised because I thought GA was one of the
> more impressive schools. It doesn't change the fact that Degrees in
> our field are becoming less important and experience / certifications
> are proving more valuable.

Experience is a good thing.  Certifications, for the most part, are 
another sheet of paper.  Most certifications don't test your ability, 
but your memory.  Memorization is the lowest level of learning.

> The market is saturated with academic
> achievers who do not have the real skills they need to do the jobs
> they are seeking are holding. I will not be surprised if this is the
> beginning of a national shift. Universities that are not nonprofit
> may finally be figuring out that the quality of their product rather
> than the purity of their academic soul is going to make them money.

The shift is already in place.  Sadly, R/D is going to suffer and in the 
long term, so will all else.  Without the NEW widgets, no new skills are 
needed.

> Employers want more than many schools are producing. It's hard to
> pick out the degreed people who have the drive to learn the
> additional skills they need on their own. In my environment we give
> far more credit to experience and Certs than Degrees from anywhere
> except elite schools ( Which are people we usually can not afford lol

Experience counts, but certifications are not a tremendous indicator of 
skill.

> ) that define new technologies. I thought GA was one of these but
> apparently they were not happy with where they were.  From my
> perspective I am thrilled to see they want to change how they
> educate.  I just hope it doesn't become an experiment in hype rather
> than quality education.

As I've said, in the long run it will not be good.  We lose the 
education that drives research and development.

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey

War never solved anything, well, except slavery, fascism and communism