Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

I'm sure Ruby could spell it properly though, so not a total waste of time. Sorry, but I am an advocate of higher education and don't feel it is a waste of time at all. Who wants to live in a world populated solely by plumbers? Utility exists only to support beauty, etc.

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

I don't think I do need to separate thanks - I prefer to look at the person.

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

Someone with incontinence?

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

:lol: Let me try again.....Upper Volta.

So you think higher education has to be obtuse subjects then?

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

Phd research is often bizarrely esoteric as it has to be new ground. Hence, you get subjects like 'the sociological impact of matriarchal poppy farming in C18 Ulan Bator' . Great stuff

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

"Ouagadougou doo doo, push pineapple, shake the tree"

Number one from Noire Lacet in the Upper Volta top 20, June 1984.

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

Not to Ruby though.

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

...and I would rather have some grad nurses than some shite nurses with diplomas and let's face it there are plenty around.

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

It really all depends on your occupation. Some jobs require a degree, some don't. In my current occupation [Software Dev] the difference between those who have a technical degree [Eng, Comp Sci, Physics etc] and those who don't really stands out unfortunately; many of the latter I have found cannot relate to the more abstract and complex material easily - in my experience anyway.

In the last 20 years though the value of a degree has declined severely - when I started mine in 1984 less than 14% of school leavers went to Uni; in 2006 it was 43% and the Labour government was pushing for 50%. That doesn't translate into lots more doctors, lawyers, engineers, pharmacists; it translates into many more people doing degrees that really will only result in a useless piece of paper.

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

Not at all, but the nature of doctoral research, like Turban Explorer writes, is very abstract and out there because of an originality requirement. It works because all those bizarre theses where people write about Burkina Faso and matriarchal poppy farming add up together to make a general knowledge that has some kind of use in market place.

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

Indeed:sunglasses:

I think you will find that Perth is a bit like that though:)

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

For my industry - geology, it is essential to have the degree. However, experience is massive. As soon as you graduate you find yourself contending with drill rigs. Something that most would never have even seen a picture of during University. But, the university training is vital for the science. As you get further up the ladder you find that you do less and less field science and more time stuck in front of a computer. But, even then the basics of the degree are vital.

I think for the subjects like history of art, it isnt so much that these are worthless degrees, but that the policy of getting so many people into university has degraded them. It once would never have mattered as most graduates would not have gone on to work in their field of study, rather the degree proved to an employer that an individual was capable of critical thinking and things. But with so many grads and not enough grad jobs these degrees are worth a lot less. It is in mny respects a shame as all of the subjects are worthy of study.

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

Couldn't resist the open goal.

If you are ignorant and know it, you are useful in doing the admin grunt work, but anyone could do that.

If you are knowledgeable about the area, enough to make sensible, good, decisions, what are you doing in HR?

Most sit in the middle, too ignorant to make sensible decisions, but also too ignorant to know their limits. Hence comes many of the problems in most organisations and the manifest failures of HR and particularly recruitment.

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

You are best off doing what you enjoy and have a passion for. A bad degree is not worth the time. For me it gives access to jobs that require a degree. For a tradie a degree is pointless.

Just be good at what you do.

Degree or no degree the hardest part is getting that first bit of experience.

Re: Hands on experience or a degree, which do you value more?
 

I couldn't vote in the poll ... because it depends.

I saw the thread in the main forum being referred to and I disagree with one view expressed that trade skills and apprenticeships don't deserve to be viewed in the same light as academic qualifications.

In my line of work however I would expect candidates to have a degree as it is appropriate. Australian candidates are likely to have it in business / commerce type disciplines but in UK it could be anything and then I most value the maths / science degrees as they are never soft options and I think there are too many soft degrees around these days.

There are too many people going to university in the UK now and people that would never have made it in my day. My 20 year old niece is currently there even though a few years ago she scraped 5 or 6 GCSEs with rather unimpressive grades.