[Linux-aus] [luv-talk] Should I feel sorry for Queenslanders?!

[Pat Emblen]

On 22/11/13 12:05, Russell Coker wrote:
> On Thu, 21 Nov 2013, "Pidgorny, Slav (GEUS)" <slav.pidgorny at anz.com> wrote:
>> Because they will have an option to earn educational credits by
>> completing Microsoft courses? No, you shouldn't feel sorry.
>
> One of the problems here is that some students will invest the time in
> studying those subjects expecting to gain some benefit other than educational
> credit.  IE they will want to actually learn something useful rather than just
> get some marks.
>
> If someone does such a course in year 12 next year then the course would have
> been designed this year if not earlier (they need to get the training written
> in advance).  So a year 12 student in 2014 would finish university no earlier
> than 2017 and look for work in 2018.  It doesn't seem that a product specific
> training course from 2013 would be that useful in 2018.  It would be about as
> useful as "MS Windows Vista" specific knowledge is right now.
>

I don't think the issue has much to do with the value of the 
qualifications on offer; if I were the employer I'd just take it as an 
indication that the applicant has shown a genuine interest in the field 
and perhaps knows a bit about what they are getting themselves in for :-)
The real issue might be that _we_ allow so much vendor lock-in / 
corporate shilling in our schools...
Microsoft know that having MS Office be 'part of the furniture' is worth 
a fortune, ditto with this course. A kid is more likely to want to go 
down the MS path after investing effort in an MSCE course (The sunk cost 
fallacy?)
It reminds me of McDonalds adds on Saturday morning kids TV.

What should be done about this ? It maybe a good question for the LA 
nominees...

Pat Emblen