How far should employers trust an educational qualification to reflect a potential employee's knowledge?

Here, from a site devoted to providing work for which freelance writers bid as in an auction, is a student's request for someone of superior knowledge than hermself to provide an assignment:

Project Name: American Government dynamic growth essay
Project Description:
I need a 4-6 page paper written on the dynamic growth of American Government from it's inception to the modern era. In developing this paper, it should consider not only the legal basis, but the factual background for change. In this discussion, you may want to consider developments in some areas of government: federalism, social and economic reform, voting rights, executive power and the gowth of bureaucracy. It should assess the cause and effect of dynamic factors driving changes in American government, with consideration of whether democratic ideals or principles were achieved or compromised along the way.There is no single or correct or incorrect conclusion.

For more details, follow the link below:
http://www.bizreef.co.uk/Projects/32123

I have certainly come to a conclusion!

Dear Polly,

Don't stress out.

Any employee will prove him/herself (or not), in the
job eventually. Their knowledge (or lack of) will
be the making or breaking of them. It's whether you
can actually do the job that matters. Many people
may have the necessary "knowledge" but they are
limited if they don't know what to do with it.

As the old adage asks:

"You know what BS is?"

Well an MS is "More of the same."

And, a PHD is - "Piled higher and deeper."

Having the knowledge isn't enough - it's
knowing how to use it that counts.

I too would not worry about it too much Polly. Did you see the winning bid? $2.74 for a 3000 word essay. How much effort would you be prepared to put in for $2.74? Not much, but you still have to deliver 3000 words, so ... you reuse a few of yours, or a few written by others.

The next step in the game is the educators know all about this little scam. So what do you think they do? If you said "upload all the essays to a central database shared by all schools and scan them for originality" you would be right. See: http://j.mp/8XlfLd

That database not only catches this sort of stuff, it also also catches copying off friends and from the internet. If schools use this, it becomes harder to plagiarise now than when I was a kid.

Good to read your reassuring posts, Foxy and rstuart. Let's hope the student learns a thing or two from the essay. I'm sceptical enough to think it could be a tutor or lecturer who wants it!

BTW, $2.74 was the cost of the bid, not the fee for the work. The budget is "up to $500". The customer has paid for six tenders and the bid fee to each bidder will increase until the tender time runs out. First bid is cheapest, but which tender the customer accepts will depend on herms perception of the bidders' fee and skills.
Great acronyms, Foxy. I wonder why people want to buy the degree cake when they can't stomach its ingredients.

A PhD is an focused study into a particular area.

As far as future employment, it is extremely useful in that particular field, but of little use elsewhere other than the cache.

A PhD in french philosophy will qualify you to teach or flip burgers.

Great article Polly,
I had heard these sites exist but I am so caught up with replying to the absolute BS written in this site that I don’t have time to look.
The link will be handy for a lot of those that already are over qualified i.e. PhD of BS.

Polly Flinders,
I knew a woman, sorry woperson, sorry woperdaughter, who was determined to break the shackles of patriarchal tradition in respect of carrying her father’s name by changing her surname to that of her mother’s.
When she told her feminist friends they applauded her, until they found out what her mother’s surname was.
“Patrice; patriarchy!”
They cleverly suggested Matrice and so it now is.
True story; she told it to me hermself.

Shadow Minister is correct. A PhD is a training exercise, wherein one is meant to write a substantial and original thesis, often with some pretty heavy stats. Successful completion shows the person can work on diffcult topics in isolation and is able to critique and meld high-level literature. A PhD is typically a second research degree.

PhD holders have undergrad. and usually other post-grad. degrees too. So, they do know other stuff too.

In days-gone-by, clerks, who could fluently take short-hand were often hired into administrative jobs, not for the short-hand, but because learning stort-hand demonstrated staying power. PhD holders are a bit like that, in academia and the professions,

I'm not too sure how your anecdote fits the topic, HermanYutec, but it's an interesting tale. Perhaps your friend's dad is that car mechanic up the road. It's a very unusual name.

When we accept or even encourage less than rigorous standards in qualifications, important skills that one would expect in a graduate may not exist, to the detriment of all concerned. For instance, a graduate of journalism would understand media law and the ethics of respecting the privacy of those herm reports on. It's fine, of course, if identifiable people don't mind herm's real names being used, but there is a valid reason for noms de plume in forums.

Ah, perhaps it was that useful word 'herm' that prompted your post. You used it well. Etymologically, grammatically and politically correct!

Polly many folk try to plaguarise the work of others.

No one in their right mind would respond freely to the request (of course if the applicant were in the business of paying, that sort of corruption is untenable and I trust the examining authority would have the wit to recognise the difference in "writing style" to that of the person askig for help.

to Foxy's definition of a PHD and others.. loved em

here is one for MBA

"Master of Bugger All"