how many GCSEs do you need.....

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how many GCSEs do you need.....

When you teach for the test it makes for a very narrow education and school leavers who are completely flummoxed by the simplest problems. This is what you get when targets are more important than people.
 
Makes me laugh just as much as the whole increasing the number of people with degrees thing.

A large percentage of the population do not need a degree. I could list a hundred professions which need no higher level qualifications. Getting everyone to do them de-values the degree itself, and puts pressure on an already over-subscribed system.
 
This is what happens when focus is made on exam results. Teachers teach exams rather than than the underlying theory! Mean pupils pass school with good grades but in reality don't know a lot of the things they should know.
If there was a thanks button....
Absolute spot on that is. From someone in FTE right now. All about getting the right criteria for exams not about what the things are actually about
 
I wish I had lessons when at school on what happens once you leave i.e life.

The outside world is a rather scary place :(
 
Perhaps not everyone who works at Tesco is a shelf stacker?
In that same way that not everyone in the police force likes doughnuts. :p ;)
 
Makes me laugh just as much as the whole increasing the number of people with degrees thing.

A large percentage of the population do not need a degree. I could list a hundred professions which need no higher level qualifications. Getting everyone to do them de-values the degree itself, and puts pressure on an already over-subscribed system.

Excellent Point! they're talking of upping tuition fees, this probably wouldn't be needed if the courses at unis were just proper subjects, instead of more people going to uni but doing mickey mouse courses, or subjects of which a uni level course is of no real use.
 
No disrespect to the chief executive of Tesco, or to its employees, but he's working for Tesco... It's not where all aspiring graduates are aching to work. I'd say the vast majority of his workforce work there as a necessity, not because of his company's Nazi like regimes with employees and massive cost cutting on the staff front.

Where degrees are becoming so common, many companies are now using them as shortlisting tools for recruitment. In many of these jobs, they don't need someone with a degree - let alone one that is relevant. But all they want is a degree of any way, shape or form. Easy to write off a large number of applicants that way.

Granted, people should have a basic level of education, but being able to do that is becoming more and more difficult - particularly in many over-populated areas with very mixed intakes.

You can have some schools in London that have more languages spoken in them than many small towns! You can also have some schools that are in areas where there's a mixture of children from very poor families (usually expected to achieve less well) and some from families on moderate incomes. These are just two examples in a long list.

I'd like to see Sir Terry and Tesco give a good education. Perhaos they could have schools that belong to the finest range?

And I nearly spat out my drink when I saw hmallett's comment about police and donuts as I am watching Traffic Cops and they were trying to solve a mystery over who at all the donuts in the station :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
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Makes me laugh just as much as the whole increasing the number of people with degrees thing.

A large percentage of the population do not need a degree. I could list a hundred professions which need no higher level qualifications. Getting everyone to do them de-values the degree itself, and puts pressure on an already over-subscribed system.

Totally agree.
In any company there needs to be a spread of skills, competencies and qualifications. The most successfull manage the balance well.

They also remember that all roles provide a service that is valuable.
Every non value role in an organisation will evertually disappear.
The remaining roles all the different responsibilities but will provide a necessary service.

Not all will require graduates.
 
Let's put it this way, when I joined Asda, they asked not only for GCSEs, they also wanted A-levels, a degree, professional registration and some post-grad training ;)

I think what he means more than people having exam results and degrees, that it would be nice for people to have a basic level of numeracy, literacy and IT literacy. It would be nice for people to have manners and a work ethic instilled in them in their early years so they are ready when they enter the workplace.
 
It would be nice for people to have manners and a work ethic instilled in them in their early years so they are ready when they enter the workplace.

Thats my main bug bear. Sick of working with young people who are immature and have no work ethic. Hello?!?! your paid to do a f***ing job and do it well not sit around all day pretending and complaining that you have to work for a living.....
 
If you go into any Tesco at the weekends/evening I can bet you a large percentage of the staff you see are actually students (myself included).
Yes you don't need a degree to stack a shelf - the point being made is that schools aren't teaching kids the right stuff, not helped by consistent government interfering over the last 10+ years (its not just labour problem).
 
No disrespect to the chief executive of Tesco, or to its employees, but he's working for Tesco... It's not where all aspiring graduates are aching to work. I'd say the vast majority of his workforce work there as a necessity, not because of his company's Nazi like regimes with employees and massive cost cutting on the staff front.


Being in charge of a huge company like Tesco isn't something to be proud of?

When I went for my interview, wasn't asked about GCSE's, A Levels or anything...just when can I start, and what days can I do.
 
During the height of the boom here Tesco employed mostly people who had never been through the conventional education system at all - most of their shelf stacking staff were recruited from the local school for those with Down Syndrome or the John of God centre in the next town over. Arguably the only people who wouldn't complain that minimum wage was too low....

Find it ironic that they're now looking for people who've got our equivalent of A Levels here!
 
Being in charge of a huge company like Tesco isn't something to be proud of?

When I went for my interview, wasn't asked about GCSE's, A Levels or anything...just when can I start, and what days can I do.

Kier you have just shot your own point down in flames mate. Yes, being the boss of the biggest food retailer in Europe is something to be proud of, but the chief executive was moaning about the lack of an educated workforce... And yet you are saying they were recruiting you without even asking about the qualities he is suggesting he wants to find in his workforce?

My initial point still stands in many people work there as a necessity (I know I would if I had to, too). It also shows that they are recruiting and filling posts as a necessity (caused by high staff turnover I would guess) brought on by the poor working conditions. It's not the sort of company that is geared up to recruit even the most average of employees - to make a general statement of course. Naturally, you will have exceptions to this and I know they have some damned good people on their books.

I know two people who work for Tesco at the moment and both say Tesco are terrible (cousin and ex-colleague).
 
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