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From: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: A grumble about credentialism.
Message-ID: <1596@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 03:42:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1596
Posted: Mon Aug 12 03:42:22 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Aug-85 01:17:35 EDT
References: <955@umcp-cs.UUCP> <1110@umcp-cs.UUCP> <290@ubvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Distribution: na
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 37
Summary: Demand rises to match supply.

In article <290@ubvax.UUCP> tonyw@ubvax.UUCP (Tony Wuersch) writes:
>A popular modern theory of education is that education sorts people
>by educational credentials, keeps accounting of these credentials,
>and helps to ensure that the supply of credentials more-or-less
>matches the demand for credentials by adjusting educational standards
>appropriately.  Personally, I like this theory.  I think it sums
>up all that education can be observed to do.

When I graduated from university I looked at the want ads trying to
figure out what my employment prospects were like.  They didn't look
good.  One ad I saw was a classic;  I wish I had clipped it out and
kept it.  The company that placed the ad wanted somebody with a
university degree in Computer Science and a minimum of 3 years
experience, on an IBM 4300 series machine (nothing else would do),
programming in -- brace yourself -- BASIC.  3 years experience to work
in BASIC.  Feh.

Mind you, this was an extreme case.  But I couldn't get over the
impression that most of the jobs that required a bachelor's degree
could be done by somebody just out of high school with a few months
of on-the-job training, and that most of the jobs that required an
advanced degree could be performed by somebody with a humbler degree.

I have a theory about education that's quite different from yours.  The
personnel departments can raise the educational requirements for jobs
arbitrarily high to limit the number of people who will apply.  So, if
the universities crank out a lot of bachelor's degrees, the personnel
departments will ask for master's degrees.

The result is that it takes more education to get hired than to do the
work.  So people have to waste several years of their lives getting
extra education, that they only use once, when they show their would-be
employers their transcripts.
-- 
David Canzi

Ultimate tabloid headline: "Crazed by UFO radiation, pregnant man bites dog."