Comment by Mengkudulangsat
10 months ago
> If students find a way to get a diploma without doing the work, it will soon be worth less than the paper on which it is printed.
Amen.
I look forward to the era where we train professionals the old fashion way: apprenticeships. It sure worked for blacksmiths and artisans for hundreds of years.
That is how many professionals are training in many European countries, and they still want a diploma to go with it.
In many countries, regardless of how learning it was achieved, you still need a paper to prove that you actually did it.
And in countries like Germany, better keep all those job evaluations close at heart because they get asked for as part of many job interview processes, additionally have them reviewed by lawyers, as they legally can't say anything negative, there is an hidden language on how to express negativity which to the reader sound positive on first read.
He regularly turned up to work. He attempted every task that he was given. His manager evaluated the results.
Techbically even those hidden phrases arent permitted by law, and you have the right to get those phrases removed/have it be turned into a basic evaluation (just from when to when + what job)
The employers that do use those hidden phrases just hope they arent challenged/the employee doesnt notice.
Thats also why most evaluations are entirely written in the superlative.
Unfortunely they are common enough to keep lawyers and book publishing businesses going with dictionaries "evaluation => real meaning", exactly for that little help to go though it and validate its correctness.
Many employeers profit from foreigners that aren't well versed in these nuances, and have to be educated this is a thing.
An example for others not used to German work market,
https://www.karriereakademie.de/arbeitszeugnis-formulierunge...
Just go through the site with your favourite translation tool.
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"Missing" information is a huge red flag as well, though. If an Arbeitszeugnis only lists the dates and what the person worked on, and nothing about results or behavior, we would never invite them for an interview.
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PhDs are apprenticeships. Students perform original research under the supervision of a doctoral advisor, and submit their work to a "guild" of external reviewers (peer reviewed journals or conferences). Once the student has three peer-reviewed publications, they graduate.
"Once the student has three peer-reviewed publications, they graduate."
That's not a standard at all. You usually can't graduate without at least one peer-reviewed publication, but beyond that, as far as number of publications goes, it varies a lot from institution to institution. The biggest standard is that you complete a dissertation and defend it.
An apprentice, after five years of work, can be a master, just by practcising.
That's why the universities of Oxford and Cambridge give Master's degree to everyone that gets a Bachelor's degree after five years, without further examination or coursework (note that these are MAs only, not MRes, MPhil or MBA degrees, which typically require 1-2 years of studies, exams and theses).
Historically, the academic Master was seen as equivalent to a Master in a craft (e.g. philosophy <=> carpentry).
Companies don't want to retain anyone longer than 2 years. They would never go for this unless forced to. By collective action.
It’s not that they can’t. It’s that I can always pay more by freeloading on their training.
Sure, then they complain that "nobody wants to work abymore".
They can't have it both ways
Teenagers and children were treated as a free servant for several years, and probably cannot learn anything.