Pointless exams/qualifications

[Drago]

Mrs D is business manager for an academy trust and they have to do drills for such an event in her schools. They dont use the words "active shooter", but that's one of the scenarios the exercise covers.

 

[Moon bunny]

I will be taking various chainsaw courses in the very near future, not because of necessity, but because they sound fun.

 

[Jenkins]

<snip>
anyway - any other dumb useless course you have been told to take!!!

Ex Civil Service so no end of them.
Just a couple of examples...
Dock & shipboard awareness - mandatory even for desk bound staff,
IT security yearly refreshers - with the same learning module & test questions used for at least 10 years that I know of

 

[classic33]

Spending half a morning being told what extinguisher to use in the event of a fire.
They started, and ended the course telling you in the event of finding/coming across a fire, raise the alarm and exit the building. Make no attempt to fight the fire.

Slight advantage in that I was the only person on the course to have used extinguishers in anger/for real. And I knew the building that the video they used was made in.

Manual handling, the person "delivering the course" hadn't done the course let alone any training on the subject. He nearly dislocated his arm picking the case up before checking it.

 

[tyred]

I work for a US company so I have done many click next courses which are about as engaging as Noel's House Party.

At least I know what to do if the building catches fire or how to make my breakfast more efficiently by storing my bread beside the toaster to avoid the unnecessary delay in walking to the cupboard.

 

[Dogtrousers]

My workplace has gone AI crazy - it's going to "supercharge", "transform" etc everything, so we all have to do hours of AI "training".

I work for a company that hires me out to clients. So recently I've had to do hours of AI training with my client hat on and hours of AI training with my employers hat on. (plus also the usual data privacy, security awareness, anti corruption, h&s stuff ... twice.)

 

[Punkawallah]

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??

In theory, yes. There are institutions that consider the outcomes more important for them than the process is for the students.

 

[Gwylan]

French & German was definitely a waste of time career-wise. As was A Level Physics & Maths. Business Studies was also so far away from real-life business matters that it was amost laughable.

These are the very subjects that sustained my wander through paid employment.
They also meant I could retire at 50 and enjoy a quiet life.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

In theory, yes. There are institutions that consider the outcomes more important for them than the process is for the students.

Yes - I have seen that - on many places!

I was lucky and the school I was mostly at considered the kids first and ticking boxes second

but boxes NEEDED to be ticked or "people in authority" would take "measures"
and the measure would be based on central policy and not anything based on the kids

education can be a weird thing!

 

[wiggydiggy]

Training can be incredibly amusing though, one company I worked at had paid for short films to be made to train staff in things fire safety, building security and (my favourite) financial honesty. That one has a great scenario of a woman taking bribes to ensure her 'trusted supplier' was the one chosen. Thing was these film's quality lay somewhere below Crossroads and Days of our Lives, they were truly magical things and I suspect were scrapped as we were too busy laughing to learn anything

 

[Drago]

Training can be incredibly amusing though,

It can indeed.

When I first joined TVP there as a big old ex farmer boy copper affectionatly known as "the Nutter", who bore an uncanny resemblance to Donk from Crocodile Dundee. As part of the training we got to watch CCTV of him disarming and knocking out some drunk twot who'd been wielding a broken bottle at people. 35 years on he'd probaly have to ask which pronouns he'd prefer before asking him awfully nicely to put it down.

 

[Punkawallah]

Training can be incredibly amusing though.

For amusement, I can thoroughly recommend being a fly on the wall during a DEI training session for a group of bin-men. Imagine a group of soldiers, but without the military decorum.

 

[wiggydiggy]

For amusement, I can thoroughly recommend being a fly on the wall during a DEI training session for a group of bin-men. Imagine a group of soldiers, but without the military decorum.

Off topic but this will be my annual reminder to watch Common as Muck, a very funny series about bin men.

 

[Drago]

For amusement, I can thoroughly recommend being a fly on the wall during a DEI training session for a group of bin-men. Imagine a group of soldiers, but without the military decorum.

DEI for binmen? Still, I guess they should respect the diversity of those wheely bins.

 

[wiggydiggy]

DEI for binmen? Still, I guess they should respect the diversity of those wheely bins.

I have green, brown and black bins. I've also seen blue bins. The common and garden 'waste operative removal and transportation consultant' would recognise the diversity of the 'wheeled multi use device for the safe containment and storage of household materials'.