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The university of McDonalds
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Now people who never went to uni no longer have to come up with that university of life bullshit. You can now do your a-levels with Britain's latest examination board. Flybe are one of the others, but worst of all, Network Rail are allowed to actually hand out qualifications.
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If you have a customer service "McA level", River Island/Argos/Co-op probably wont be arsed whether you have it or not.
For an extra 30p, you can upgrade to a McDegree though.
I am currently being trained by the company that will hire me if I pass. They are following European standards for the qualifications although it may not necessarily mean I could get a job wherever in Europe.
One incentive for companies to be ambitious about these qualifications is the fact that training costs lots of money so they're hardly going to waste manpower or money on useless training (unless they find ways to earn money from it). It could also mean the training would be shorter and more concise. In the same manner, the companies could end up cutting costs as much as possible and thus make the education meaningless.
Another thing that could be positive is that it could be easier to involve hands-on training along with classes. Uni sometimes felt a lot like pissing about for three years and then I STILL needed more education to not be just a run of the mill BSc graduate.
The negative is of course that there's likely to be a bias in the education toward the company offering the qualifications.
The market will ultimately be the one to judge these qualifications.
I'm all for people trying to better themselves and improve their situations, especially the kind of people these schemes are aimed at, and if they want to be a McD's qualified fast food store manager, then good on them. IMO it is far, far better than them sitting on their arses deciding whether they can be bothered to work or not.
I don't understand the snobbiness about McDonalds jobs. Certainly for people with few other formal qualifications it gives them a good opportunity in life, and why should anyone sneer about that?
However, I'd also like to see the government actually doing something about our shambolic joke of an education system. No child should leave school struggling to read or write, but thousands do every single year. Until they deal with disgraceful matters such as this, "McDegrees" will be nothing more than sticking plasters.
I joined MCdonalds when I was 17 and stayed for 6 months or so. The bloke I joined with went on to manage the place and now manages a big bar in town, on a very decent salary.
Tbh, (I heard) the top universities have already said that they won't be accepting them as entry qualifications onto a degree course, so they're obviously not equivalent to A Levels anyway.
The thing im not sure about is who will be testing and marking, are they offering these qualifications via an audited agency or will it be themselves?
My point is, this is the way other companies work! mine being one.
It sounds though like they have been given the "power" (for want of a better word) to access and grade within theyre own company yet we are talking about National Qualifications here.
Think its gcse and A level equivalent?
That's the point. Snobbish people are being snobbish because they suspect that these qualifications won't be rigorous. They suspect that they're just something to stop people from feeling like failures or second-class. Hence the incessant 'they're equal to A-levels' refrain. They feel that it is right that people who are failures should feel like failures. On the other hand, they may end up actually being better than the vocational qualifications the Govt offers. *shrug*
But the very fact that people have snobbish attitudes means that they won't be worth as much. It's like buying a particular car because of the brand. It may be a superficial reason to buy a car, but the very fact that so many people think like that means that when you come to sell it later on, it will be worth more. My degree is a degree just like the ones from Oxford and Cambridge, but I know that it's not worth the same, even if technically it's the same qualification.
It's news because these companies are actually designing and running the courses, rather than just sending their staff on a college course.
Your talking about people on the street. In that specific industry having been a McDonalds Manager is already a worthy thing to put on you CV and already a reasonably impressive thing for future employers. It's seriously good experience.
Well actually, I was talking about university admissions.
Fair enough. I think these qualifications won't be much good for getting into Uni, but when applying foir other jobs I suspect they'll be very good.
Quite often experience wins out over degrees anyway.
Exactly. It's not like they're going to help you get onto an astrophysics degree, but they could very well help you on the way to running your own pub, or managing a restaurant, which is a perfectly respectable career choice.
These are all good transferable skills. And to an employer probably as much worth (if not more) as my BA (International Relations and Strategic Studies) and MA (War Studies)
I wouldn't be in much of a hurry to get into uni if i was 18 again.