[XTreme]

They're very overated you know! And with standards as they are now.....I'd say virtually worthless.

Case in point.....my youngest son Scott who's 18....he was named after Bon actually.

Terrible dyslexia all his life, schools initially told us he was disruptive as they hadn't diagnosed it. I remember when he got suspended from junior school aged 9 for mooning at the dinner lady!

Anyway.....he came here at 14....tried one week in school and that was it. He then spent his time on the computer and went out of his way to learn.....anything and everything.

Because of his dyslexia he has a very heightened artistic talent so he specifically threw himself into that area. Now.....as I've mentioned before he has his own business subcontracting for various worldwide design houses.

But that work got noticed......and he seems to have found a nice market in designing forum templates for the music industry. Well a few months ago he did the Busted site, then he did Michael Buble.....and yesterday he was contacted by the management team of Marti Pellow......who told them he ONLY wanted Scott for the gig and nobody else!

So he's doing great.....and he did it all himself after the system had written him off.

So while he does webwork for giants of the music industry....I'm stuck at the opposite end of the market with the likes of Stravinsky, Tallbob, and an army of bloody Estate Agents!

 

[Hombre]

They're very overated you know! And with standards as they are now.....I'd say virtually worthless.

Case in point.....my youngest son Scott who's 18....he was named after Bon actually.

Terrible dyslexia all his life, schools initially told us he was disruptive as they hadn't diagnosed it. I remember when he got suspended from junior school aged 9 for mooning at the dinner lady!

Anyway.....he came here at 14....tried one week in school and that was it. He then spent his time on the computer and went out of his way to learn.....anything and everything.

Because of his dyslexia he has a very heightened artistic talent so he specifically threw himself into that area. Now.....as I've mentioned before he has his own business subcontracting for various worldwide design houses.

But that work got noticed......and he seems to have found a nice market in designing forum templates for the music industry. Well a few months ago he did the Busted site, then he did Michael Buble.....and yesterday he was contacted by the management team of Marti Pellow......who told them he ONLY wanted Scott for the gig and nobody else!

So he's doing great.....and he did it all himself after the system had written him off.

So while he does webwork for giants of the music industry....I'm stuck at the opposite end of the market with the likes of Stravinsky, Tallbob, and an army of bloody Estate Agents!

Your boy did good X.....and your still here !!!:clap2:

 

[jojo]

They're very overated you know! And with standards as they are now.....I'd say virtually worthless.

Case in point.....my youngest son Scott who's 18....he was named after Bon actually.

Terrible dyslexia all his life, schools initially told us he was disruptive as they hadn't diagnosed it. I remember when he got suspended from junior school aged 9 for mooning at the dinner lady!

Anyway.....he came here at 14....tried one week in school and that was it. He then spent his time on the computer and went out of his way to learn.....anything and everything.

Because of his dyslexia he has a very heightened artistic talent so he specifically threw himself into that area. Now.....as I've mentioned before he has his own business subcontracting for various worldwide design houses.

But that work got noticed......and he seems to have found a nice market in designing forum templates for the music industry. Well a few months ago he did the Busted site, then he did Michael Buble.....and yesterday he was contacted by the management team of Marti Pellow......who told them he ONLY wanted Scott for the gig and nobody else!

So he's doing great.....and he did it all himself after the system had written him off.

So while he does webwork for giants of the music industry....I'm stuck at the opposite end of the market with the likes of Stravinsky, Tallbob, and an army of bloody Estate Agents!

They do say that kids with supposed "Dyslexia" make it better without the assistance of qualifications and have a far more entrepenarial skills and succeed!

Good on him, keep on the right side of him and he may employ you one day!!!!!

Jo xxx

 

[XTreme]

Maybe he'll give me a gig taking the trolleys back?

 

[mrypg9]

You are spot-on - most qualifications are so dumbed-down these days they're worth less than the paper they're written on.
Most people I know who are employers of graduates don't look so much at the class of the degree but at the University it came from. Even that isn't always a guide to quality but you can be reasonably sure that a degree from London or Durham Universities, say, will be better than one from one of the former polys who seem to admit anyone with a pen and a pulse. An Oxbridge degree speaks for itself.
As for GCSEs -don't get me started. Having spent part of my professional life in education I know at first-hand how pathetically easy most exam papers are, at all levels. Just compare an A -level paper in any subject from, say, 2008 with a paper in the same subject from twenty years ago. State school standards are definitely falling, both in academic attainment and behaviour.
The public school system is no better, it seems. My grandson has had an expensive education at one of the so-called 'better' public schools but he recently rang his dad in Spain to ask which side of a ruler was centimetres and which inches.:eyebrows: Unbelievable. And he's hoping for a Uni place next year.....
No wonder we're going to the dogs.
This may sound like a rant from a grumpy old woman but I got my degrees in the days when they had to be worked for and meant something and it really p****s me off to read the ill-spelt and poorly constructed letters and reports spewed out by many so-called graduates these days. Many seem to be functionally illiterate and innumerate. I've read that some 'universities' have to provide basic literacy and numeracy courses for their first year students.
Your son is a good example of how our education system is failing the truly talented. Congratulations to him for doing so well and metaphorically raising two fingers to the system.

 

[Pesky Wesky]

Not the same, but related, I also know one or two people who did really badly at school, left early and then decided to study later on after they'd had a taste of the real world. This can work out really well in the end, but may cause a lot of wear and tear on family relationships.

 

[jojo]

My BIL is a classic example, useless at school, failed his 11+. left school at 15 with a CSE in woodwork and started a job as a tea boy for a building society, but he worked hard and gave 110% to everything he did. Forty years on, he's just about to retire from his job as a manging director of a multi national company and has a very comfortable and happy life!!!

Jo xxx

 

[Hombre]

My BIL is a classic example, useless at school, failed his 11+. left school at 15 with a CSE in woodwork and started a job as a tea boy for a building society, but he worked hard and gave 110% to everything he did. Forty years on, he's just about to retire from his job as a manging director of a multi national company and has a very comfortable and happy life!!!

Jo xxx

Goes to prove that it doesn't matter what your background or your circumstances are, with dedication and hard work you can achieve far beyond what you think you are capable of.

 

[Biscombe]

Initiative is better than qualifications any day! well done that boy!

 

[Pesky Wesky]

They're very overated you know! And with standards as they are now.....I'd say virtually worthless.

Case in point.....my youngest son Scott who's 18....he was named after Bon actually.

Terrible dyslexia all his life, schools initially told us he was disruptive as they hadn't diagnosed it. I remember when he got suspended from junior school aged 9 for mooning at the dinner lady!

Anyway.....he came here at 14....tried one week in school and that was it. He then spent his time on the computer and went out of his way to learn.....anything and everything.

Because of his dyslexia he has a very heightened artistic talent so he specifically threw himself into that area. Now.....as I've mentioned before he has his own business subcontracting for various worldwide design houses.

But that work got noticed......and he seems to have found a nice market in designing forum templates for the music industry. Well a few months ago he did the Busted site, then he did Michael Buble.....and yesterday he was contacted by the management team of Marti Pellow......who told them he ONLY wanted Scott for the gig and nobody else!

So he's doing great.....and he did it all himself after the system had written him off.

So while he does webwork for giants of the music industry....I'm stuck at the opposite end of the market with the likes of Stravinsky, Tallbob, and an army of bloody Estate Agents!

Quote from a fairly old article from The Economist called Know Future. I don't have access to the whole thing...

Where years of education, training and experience were once necessary to succeed, now they are increasingly seen as irrelevant, even a liability. This trend is already showing up in teenagers with self taught technical skills. They know that they will never again be as quick learning and full of energy as they are now. These young programmers are starting to question the point of university.

I think the idea of university as training for the working world is changing or maybe has already changed. I think of university as a place where you might get training for future employment or it could be "merely" an intellectual exercise.

 

[Joppa]

I think the idea of university as training for the working world is changing or maybe has already changed. I think of university as a place where you might get training for future employment or it could be "merely" an intellectual exercise.

Except for those professions for which a university degree is a requirement. Today it was announced that nursing is going to be a degree profession from 2013, phasing out the diploma route taken by many.

 

[jojo]

Except for those professions for which a university degree is a requirement. Today it was announced that nursing is going to be a degree profession from 2013, phasing out the diploma route taken by many.

What a tragedy. I know so many good nurses who couldnt or wouldnt want to go to uni! The government need to re think that one fast, or they'll find that the good nuses will be the poorly paid "auxillaries" and the bad ones will be the uni grads who dont give a fig about caring!! What I'm saying is it'll cause a two tier system again


Jo xxx

 

[Joppa]

What a tragedy. I know so many good nurses who couldnt or wouldnt want to go to uni! The government need to re think that one fast, or they'll find that the good nuses will be the poorly paid "auxillaries" and the bad ones will be the uni grads who dont give a fig about caring!! What I'm saying is it'll cause a two tier system again.

It was as a result of recommendation from Nursing and Midwifery Council, who is concerned about raising the professonal status of nurses. Many more professions have become degree-only entry, such as teaching (from 80s) and social work (a year or two ago).
I don't think you can generalise about degree-educated nurses (my daughter is one!), but I'm afraid in times of recession, people get drawn to degree or postgraduate courses that offer generous bursaries and other financial incentives.

 

[jojo]

What a tragedy. I know so many good nurses who couldnt or wouldnt want to go to uni! The government need to re think that one fast, or they'll find that the good nuses will be the poorly paid "auxillaries" and the bad ones will be the uni grads who dont give a fig about caring!! What I'm saying is it'll cause a two tier system again

It was as a result of recommendation from Nursing and Midwifery Council, who is concerned about raising the professonal status of nurses. Many more professions have become degree-only entry, such as teaching (from 80s) and social work (a year or two ago).
I don't think you can generalise about degree-educated nurses (my daughter is one!), but I'm afraid in times of recession, people get drawn to degree or postgraduate courses that offer generous bursaries and other financial incentives.

Yes, well thats the reason, money!!! You'll get the poor nurses that do all the work and caring getting a pittance cos they didnt waste their valuable working life going to uni! I've seen it time and again!! As it happens I was a nurse in the UK too and I went to UNI. And Uni didnt help me at all when it came to caring for poeple and looking after them!!




Jo xxx

 

[Joppa]

As it happens I was a nurse in the UK too and I went to UNI. And Uni didnt help me at all when it came to caring for poeple and looking after them!!

There is always an exception! There are nurses, even though they wasted money (you get a smaller bursary for doing a degree instead of a diploma) and efforts getting a nursing degree, who are dedicated and really try to care for patients but get frustrated by the system and bogged down in admin and paperwork chores.

 

[jojo]

Just a thought, did it say whether that applies to foreign nurses who simply come over here to - well nurse??

Jo xxx

 

[Joppa]

Just a thought, did it say whether that applies to foreign nurses who simply come over here to - well nurse??

I don't know, but here is the press release from NMC:
Nursing & Midwifery Council - NMC confirms date that new pre-registration nursing education programmes will be introduced across the UK

And from DOH:
Nursing set to become all graduate entry by 2013 : Department of Health - News

There will be a public consultation from January 2010 till April, so you'll have a chance to voice your opinion!

As for foreign nurses, because of EU regulations, those from EU/EEA will be able to register without further training or assessment, regardless of level of qualification. And from those outside EU, I'd imagine that their qualification will be scrutinised to see if it meets our new national standards.

 

[jojo]

There will be a public consultation from January 2010 till April, so you'll have a chance to voice your opinion!

Oh thats alright then, like they always listen to me LOL

Jo xxx

 

[fourgotospain]

So are the Gov. going to totally fund these degree courses? Or are the highly educated nurses then going to carry £20K+ of debt into one of the worst paid professions in the UK? Or will they all turn to agency/bank nursing and finally bankrupt the NHS? Oh will someone think these things through...

 

[Joppa]

That is something we need to wait and see. Currently, those who do a diploma get a larger bursary than those who opt for a degree (£2346 to £3392 for 2009/10 for degree students, subject to income assessment). Degree students are also eligible for usual student support, such as grant (non-repayable) and loan (repayable), which depends on household income. Under the new graduate-entry nursing education programme, I'd expect the level of NHS bursary to be set at a similar level to that which is currently given to diploma students (£6701 to £7827 per year for 2009/10, non income-assessed), all tuition fees paid plus entitlement to usual student financial support, with some restrictions.