> How do we marry secondary and post-secondary education with the
>needs of the work place in such a way that we condition individuals to be
>life-long learners by the time they enter the workforce?
I would like to ask the academics in this group what the rules of post
graduate education are? I have had an unfortunate experience that has
soured me on the ability of post graduate education to ready people for
business or industry.
Several years ago our company sponsored a masters level course at a local
university. Our subject was Business Process Engineering in which we
presented four businesses with four value streams and cultural problems to
be analyzed. The exercises were to be completed by student teams. The
information provided the teams was not black or white, value judgements
had to be made.
Our students consisted of half full time students and half part time
students (professionals trying to upgrade their skills). The
professionals recognized the business problems, made assumptions, set
measures, etc., and moved on. The full time students waited for the book
or instructors to give "the" answer.
In grading we judged the performance of some students to be 'C' and were
told that a 'C' for a masters candidate was considered failing. Basically
the acceptable grades were 'B' or 'A'.
How can universities prepare students for competition when there is no
clear indication of competitive success? Where in the education system do
students learn that the world runs on judgement or best practice?
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's better at sea ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
bhobler@cpcug.org Still a Submariner
William J. Hobler, Jr. Preferrably Bill
Real art is simple. Real artists make it look easy.
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