Monday, January 28, 2008

WTF: "McDiplomas?"

No, I'm not making this up. There are some new programs in Great Britain, that would let McDonalds (and some others) give employees credit towards a high school diploma if they complete certain on-the-job training courses. Now, in general, I am all for on-the-job training and helping out people who dropped out of high school and now want to get a diploma or GED. But I do worry that the standards may not be as high as a regular high school. If the standards are lower, are we going to get borderline kids dropping out and getting a job at Mickey D's to finish high school?

One of the other companies is a rail company and the article mentions they want to give more advanced training and degrees, like a vocational or university degree. I actually don't have as much of a problem with a vocational degree. I mean, you can go to vocational school to learn to weld and this would be the same thing: learning to do railway type jobs while you're working. That makes sense as long as an educational board oversees the standards. It even makes sense for an airlines.

Maybe my problem is that I have a hard time seeing fast food as an option that someone would intentionally choose as a career. I have known quite a few fast food managers, but other than that, most people seem to be either working in fast food while they go to school, or are stuck in fast food because they don't have any other job skills. And it doesn't seem as if fast food skills would transfer as well - except for running a cash register. Does anyone have any other opinions?

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