Ignorance is one determinant of behaviour.
Lexi,
you're right with that one. We get them every year on account of their certificates over our competent local people. Yet who shows them everything they should know ? The local uneducated that's who. Then after about 12 months they can't handle it anymore & they realise they can't keep pretending they understand so they resign & the next intellectual moves in. It's like a conveyor belt of incompetent people with a lot of certificates & no ability whatsoever. Mind you, despite the fact that are actually a handicap to the efficient workforce they get paid a lot more & benefits to boot. Ignorance does pay if you have incompetent bureaucrats for bosses.

Lexi,

I wasn't going to post anymore on this topic but I have read some of Indis and your more recent comments so I thought I would join in again.

I have like Indi worked with people who had a tertiary education but lacked totally when it came to common sense. The situations he describes are quite common.

I come from a trades background leaving school when I was 15yo. The trade I chose was very technical with a very high level of study with all subjects having a 75% pass mark. The study being on going as the years rolled by.

I did finally get around to tertiary studies and was surprised how easy it was as compared to my trade experience. Maybe the practicality, discipline and high study level of my trade made this so.

We are but vessels that can contain knowledge to various degrees, formal education is fine but it still comes down to the individual and his/her ability to use this knowledge. I know a reasonable number of supposedly uneducated people who would knock many academics into a cocked hat with their depth of knowledge, vision and wisdom. Formal education is but the icing on the cake, if its a lousy cake no icing in the world will save it.

Just my thoughts.

Take it easy.

SD

Yabby you are become strident in your claims, in truth I wanted to head in another direction this morning, you call for my attention to your comments.
Your information on that project comes from media.
And yes, no! my ex workmates can read or leave! the construction union is still thugs and mugs!
BUT, what power, how is it used, why do bosses fold, read todays Australian, see IR expert once involved with one of our TRUE RADICAL unions.
See one of our once Australian,now international construction giants now haveing?
My ex union branch secretary as its IR man.
You different things than me, I see increasing consultation.
I talk of the impending death of radical unions you talk of them being the whole.
You brand LABOR as nearly unclean!
Yet I from the heart of both seek modernization and consultation.
You paint a picture but have no answers for your shadowy horror story's.
Yabby if in business today, if your workers HAD NO STRIKE RIGHTS unless wage negotiation time or safety issues, IF PENALTY'S EXIST that could bankrupt wild cat strikes, why would you bend to unfair demands?

I have not seen any one in this thread who has not agreed the early days of unions did good.
Few would not be aware false Gods, Socialism, and Communism, came to life in those days.
Looking back they, a product of poor handling and treatment of whole classes of people failed too.
No path to equality, some still, wrongly, think they are.
A leveling took place, every one became poor, no need existed to be better to stand out.
Those best worker/slave in the tractor factory this month, still saw the wheels fall of after the tractor drove out the door and the worker hungry that night.
And it saw too, the wives of the leaders/manipulators who, using the power of millions of workers built their nests and controlled the shambles on the workers backs.
Living it up!

CAPITALISM, we see it as the only system so far that lets us hope, rewards effort,and brings improvement.
And in this country we have in part, Socialism hand in hand with it.
We do.
Just compare our health education transport so very much, unemployment benefits with AMERICAS.
Now we know, or should, we fail too, that we are not perfect.
But how do we confront the very different natures of our trading partners.
We can not forever consider surely that wealth creation for some is good others evil.
Or that we reward * it was said over the weekend a salary of 15 million dollars has a bonus of that much again* a year?
But say our system is dieing because in our view workers earn too much!

Dear Shaggy Dog,

Individual is a horse of a different colour.
We've covered this topic so many times in the past.

I've told him time and time
again - that a higher credential simply often means higher
earnings because of the value job markets place on it.
The fact is that the skills required to get an A grade in
a college or university course on anatomy or educational
philosophy are not the same as the skills needed to deal
with a medical emergency or an unruly high school class.

The schools and colleges teach very little (other than basic
literacy and numeracy) that is directly relelvant to the world
of work. Most people pick up the necessary skills on the job,
not in the classroom, and the characteristics that make for a
successful career (such as initiative, leadership, drive,
negotiating sbility, willingness to take risks, and
persuasiveness) are not even taught in the schools. It seems
that the schools produce graduates with any number of educational
credentials but not with few specifically job-related skills.

In fact, millions of people never put the specific content of
their college or university edication to direct use in their
jobs, and nearly half of the country's graduates actually work
in fields they consider unrelated to their major subjects.

However to be anti-anthing to do with a college or university
education is simply showing one's bias and there's nothing more
to be said.

See you on another thread.

BTW:

I started my career as a Library Technician - having
done a TAFE course first - then I went on to get my tertiary
qualifications. So I know exactly what you're talking about.
On the job experience counts for a great deal - but when
you combine both on the job experience with tertiary
qualifications - that's the best of both worlds.