Pointless exams/qualifications

[SteveH80]

Years back I remember doing The Certificate in Competence Construction Computing, or some such nonsense title. After a day's training the test was; insert disk in computer, type "dir" on the keyboard, read the results off the screen.
This was in the 80's when having a bit of paper with "Competence" or "Excellence" written on it was all you needed

 

[Drago]

It's like in the dibble. You have to requalify for UDT, unarmed defensive tactics, every 18 months.

Even the UDT trainers that teach the syllabus full time have to take a few days off from teaching to attend one of their own courses as a trainee, which seemed a bit daft, because they have to be far better qualified to teach it than the trainees end up at the end of the course.

And in my final week before retirement I was sent on a two day DV course. That I was retiring two days after the course ended and was thus a waste of time and resources cut no ice because the chief had ordered that "everyone" had to do it. I doubt the chief was aware that his orders were being so blindly and thoughtlessly carried out. That's the public services for you.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Whilst you might not apply the subject matter. There are other skills you develop through your study.

English teaches you to read fluently and critically, comprehend complex texts, convey ideas clearly through writing.​

Maths teaches you data analysis, abstract thinking, identifying patterns and interconnections.​

Science teaches you scientific inquiry, drawing conclusions from experiments, applying empirical evidence to real-world issues​

History helps you understand how events shaped modern culture and policy, gain exposure to diverse civic systems and viewpoints, develop cultural literacy to interact effectively across communities​

​

They are complementary; you may be good at one and bad at another, middling at yet another. Nevertheless you have developed some skills. This is the worry with over reliance on AI in study. You are bypassing the very skills the study is meant to help you develop. Sometimes it is not so much the answer that is important, but the reasoning skills you used to get there.

 

[Webbo2]

It's like in the dibble. You have to requalify for UDT, unarmed defensive tactics, every 18 months.

Even the UDT trainers that teach the syllabus full time have to take a few days off from teaching to attend one of their own courses as a trainee, which seemed a bit daft, because they have to be far better qualified to teach it than the trainees end up at the end of the course.

And in my final week before retirement I was sent on a two day DV course. That I was retiring two days after the course ended and was thus a waste of time and resources cut no ice because the chief had ordered that "everyone" had to do it. I doubt the chief was aware that his orders were being so blindly and thoughtlessly carried out. That's the public services for you.

In the NHS mental health staff have to a course on breakaway techniques every 2 or 3 years. They used to very strict about staff attending. Until they did a spot check on several staff including a couple of instructors of the course. They all could barely remember any of the techniques so they binned the courses.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

It's like in the dibble. You have to requalify for UDT, unarmed defensive tactics, every 18 months.

Even the UDT trainers that teach the syllabus full time have to take a few days off from teaching to attend one of their own courses as a trainee, which seemed a bit daft, because they have to be far better qualified to teach it than the trainees end up at the end of the course.

And in my final week before retirement I was sent on a two day DV course. That I was retiring two days after the course ended and was thus a waste of time and resources cut no ice because the chief had ordered that "everyone" had to do it. I doubt the chief was aware that his orders were being so blindly and thoughtlessly carried out. That's the public services for you.

You should have met my mate who was also in the Police

He was at the time a fairly top class Rugby Union player - nearly - played for England and was offered an almost certain place in the Ireland team if he registered as Irish
Played second row - so what I mean is - he was even bigger than you!!


anyway - I went out for a drink with him just after he retired and he had had the same problem
He kept getting pressure from people to go on courses - but everyone knew he was retiring in a few months

He said he found that is he stood up and shouted at them for long enough they generally went away
As he was damn good looming (you can probably relate to that) I can imagine the local station would all be waiting for "another prat trying to get Shaun to go on a course" as a popular form of entertainment!

 

[Profpointy]

Amongst supposed targets from this is a "30% increase in precision". Of what, is not mentioned - ironically a less precise target could hardly be imagined.

But precision is the most important wossername !

 

[SpokeyDokey]

A lot of people think like this.
After all - I did Maths but the number of times I have need to use sines and cosines since I left school can be counted on the fingers of one foot!


BUT - that is a misunderstanding of what school teaches us

Maths is taught - once you get beyond arithmetic - to give us an understand of logic
how one step leads to another and how to plan a series of logical steps to reach a solution

Science is taught to give us an understand of how the physical world works - and a way of understand new developments

Languages are taught to give us an idea of how languages work and about how other countries work
and that other countries are different - and how they differ

History is taught to teach us about how civilisation - including ones different to ours - work and how it affects people

etc etc

They are not just taught for their own academic sakes



maybe I was just a teacher for too long??

Yes, you are right.

I have reframed my thinking. Those processes will have helped me through the years.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

When I started volunteering for AgeUK I had to do a load of online courses

most were a short online thingy with quick Q&A bits
followed by a test with a pass mark of about 80% - but quite easy if you read the screens first - and mostly common sense anyway

The Health and safety was a different thing

The course took me about 45 minutes to go through
and included lots of details about legislation and regulations - including the specifics of the titles and dates of the acts and things


Then the test was has a 100% pass rate

and to get the questions - of which there are many - right you have to get the acts right - including dates
OK - they were multi choice


but on the 3rd attempt I took some paper and wrote down the names and dates of the acts and everything
so I could get them right

but still failed

turned out that a few of the questions were - apart from being way too detailed - were actually deliberately phrased to confuse

worst was a "what do you do in an emergency" question
It was a choose 2 out of 6 - but there seemed to be about 10 and you got a random 6 - but always including one
"Dial 999 to call for an ambulance"
which is clearly correct - emergency - ring for an ambulance
In teh end that was the only question I was getting wrong
every time
did it quite a few times - and each time took a while - but I was annoyed and wanted to conqueror it


turned out that the answer was actually ""Diall 909 to call for an ambulance"
in a font where the 0 had a cross bar in the middle - there are none on the site -

and as a result it looks like a 9 - especially if you have dyslexia of something like it
which "some might say" explains my spelling!!!


anyway - I had a meeting with teh local manager and I explained to her that the whole course was WAY over detailed
Clearly H&S is important
but a lot fo her volunteers just talk to people or help them with basic things
so as far as H&S is concerned it is just "watch out for these things"
and "tell you boss/manager if something looks dodgy" and they will take over from there
the details of what legislation it comes under and what date it was passed are rather unnecessary
AND - would put a lot of people off!

 

[figbat]

Where I used to work, there was a great focus on driving safety. Rightly so too, since it was the biggest daily risk that employees faced. For quite a long time, if you were required to drive on business then you were required to take IAM defensive driving assessments every three years.

I love driving and used to look forward to these half-day sessions; they comprised a little bit of chat and then mostly being assessed as a driver. There was some intervention as required and then a final rating. The rating decided if you could continue to drive in business. I took at least four of these courses and always flew through, in two cases gaining the only ‘perfect’ scores the assessor had ever given out. I loved it. I was proud of my scores and I became something of an advocate for driving and road safety.

Then they decided this was all too expensive and time consuming and replaced it with an online course. This course was based around an American training ‘system’ which was not engaging, was based on US driving rules and standards and was in places offering questionable or even illegal advice for UK drivers. It was the polar opposite of the previous training. I resented doing it. I gave harsh feedback on it. I soon decided that driving safety was a tick box exercise and I stepped away from it. Of course I continued to drive as I had done but no longer engaged with the topic at work as it all fell on deaf ears. To complete the training I clicked ‘next’ when prompted and answered the end-of-module questions well enough to pass, but the whole process had the very opposite effect on me than intended. I disengaged. Many colleagues felt the same way.

I have no doubt that the previous IAM approach genuinely improved driving standards amongst staff. We often discussed and shared opinions and experiences about it. Whether it saved any accidents or lives is impossible to say, but isn’t inconceivable. The click-until-I’m-finished training was a great waste of time and money and arguably set the whole topic back.

 

[Dadam]

I too was working at an NHS Trust in IT round the time of the ECDL. Despite a lot of talk about it I never had to do it. I was saying a slightly more polite version of piss off I've got a degree in computer science and could program the damn thing in assembler, if I was feeling particularly masochistic! Some people did it, I couldn't be arsed.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I too was working at an NHS Trust in IT round the time of the ECDL. Despite a lot of talk about it I never had to do it. I was saying a slightly more polite version of piss off I've got a degree in computer science and could program the damn thing in assembler, if I was feeling particularly masochistic! Some people did it, I couldn't be arsed.

My wife said the ECDL was more about working out what the answer they wanted was - rather than actually learning anything

I do know that the school I taught at were looking at it as an "easy IT qualification" for the kids to do to make sure they all achieved something early
and get them used to sitting "exams/tests"
but they decided it was not worth the effort
which I was pleased about as it would have been me having to get them ready for it!

 

[Drago]

Where I used to work, there was a great focus on driving safety. Rightly so too, since it was the biggest daily risk that employees faced. For quite a long time, if you were required to drive on business then you were required to take IAM defensive driving assessments every three years.

I love driving and used to look forward to these half-day sessions; they comprised a little bit of chat and then mostly being assessed as a driver. There was some intervention as required and then a final rating. The rating decided if you could continue to drive in business. I took at least four of these courses and always flew through, in two cases gaining the only ‘perfect’ scores the assessor had ever given out. I loved it. I was proud of my scores and I became something of an advocate for driving and road safety.

Then they decided this was all too expensive and time consuming and replaced it with an online course. This course was based around an American training ‘system’ which was not engaging, was based on US driving rules and standards and was in places offering questionable or even illegal advice for UK drivers. It was the polar opposite of the previous training. I resented doing it. I gave harsh feedback on it. I soon decided that driving safety was a tick box exercise and I stepped away from it. Of course I continued to drive as I had done but no longer engaged with the topic at work as it all fell on deaf ears. To complete the training I clicked ‘next’ when prompted and answered the end-of-module questions well enough to pass, but the whole process had the very opposite effect on me than intended. I disengaged. Many colleagues felt the same way.

I have no doubt that the previous IAM approach genuinely improved driving standards amongst staff. We often discussed and shared opinions and experiences about it. Whether it saved any accidents or lives is impossible to say, but isn’t inconceivable. The click-until-I’m-finished training was a great waste of time and money and arguably set the whole topic back.

E-learning is about the most inefficient means of 'learning'. Even the dibble stopped doing it for all but rhe most basic stuff as it was determined that the discharge of the organisations duty to train personnel was being satisfied on paper only - if someone died the coroner was liable to ask some awkward questions about the efficacy of training delivery.

 

[All uphill]

I think I've learnt something from every course I've been on, even if it was just about the unintended consequences of blanket orders.

There were usually tea and biscuits too, which made it worthwhile.

 

[Drago]

My step mum redently got pinged speeding (its a fair cop guv, hands up) and the speed awareness course was an online job!

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Just before I retired I had to take live shooter training, which covers how to deal with someone entering your work facility with a gun. I worked for a Canadian division of a large American corporation and that is a concern in America where everybody has the right to carry a firearm arm and buy liquor at the corner store on the way to work.

Everybody in our facility was a bit offended as we seem to have the firearm thing under control here.

its the beavers that are a problem.