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from the we-don't-need-no-stinkin'-degree dept.
New Executive Order Fights Credential Inflation In The Federal Workforce:
On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to fill job vacancies based on merit, rather than require a minimum level of education for candidates seeking open positions. The order rightly recognizes that a job candidate with several years of relevant experience may be just as qualified, if not more so, than one who has collected a stack of advanced degrees.
"Employers adopting skills- and competency-based hiring recognize that an overreliance on college degrees excludes capable candidates and undermines labor-market efficiencies," the order reads. "Currently, for most Federal jobs, traditional education — high school, college, or graduate-level — rather than experiential learning is either an absolute requirement or the only path to consideration for candidates without many years of experience."
The order still allows federal agencies to prescribe minimum educational requirements for job candidates if the degree is legally required by the state or local government where the federal employee will be working. Additionally, they may consider a candidate's education if the degree "directly reflects the competencies necessary" to do the job.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 30 2020, @01:24PM (13 children)
I disapprove of the language of the reportage:
Just the facts, please don't try to think for me.
Equal time for the critics: by removing the last vestige of independent assessment requirements, this order gives hiring/firing managers total discretion to hire whoever they want to, based on whatever criteria matter to them - it's a door wide open to corruption and graft.
If they were to balance this with radical increase of transparency to a level that would expose kickbacks, political favors, racial and sex bias, etc. it could be an overall win - University degrees are mostly purchased with time and money, not earned with retention of knowledge and development of skill - they are definitely an imperfect measure, but imperfect as they are, they are the least biased measure we have (unless you get into specialty areas with examinations like the EIT/PE, etc.)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @01:50PM (2 children)
A stable genial idea.
Too bad it comes too late to help Trump in the next election, not enough time to let the "winners" be decided and then do anything to maintain their position, kissing Trump's ass included.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:57PM (1 child)
Too bad it comes too late to help Trump in the next election
Trump is getting all the help he needs from the democrats. Or haven't you noticed who they are running against him? Along the antiques in congress that will be reelected?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @07:56PM
Comrade Trump gets all the help he needs from Putin.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @02:56PM (3 children)
Isn't this a problem? Specialization has narrowed the scope of competence and interpersonal skills are lacking. We're left with vassals who (as Douglas Murray puts it) are "educated into a state of imbecility" - even outsourcing thought itself. [areomagazine.com] Credentialism is that most vile of fallacies, the appeal to authority but without a broader set of competencies than specialization permits, there can be no competence and no authority. The gravitas and respect that comes with real world experience is earned through merit where there can be serious consequences for failure. If fortune favors the bold, what of the current crop of cowardly conformists? Universities shouldn't be safe spaces, they should be intellectual battlegrounds where students expand the scope of their learning and experience. Organizations need original thinkers and risk takers, they need mavericks who rub against the grain and win the respect of their peers. A rethink of the university system is long overdue.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @03:25PM (1 child)
Ha ha I would mod you funny if I wasn't crying.
The university I work at is the EXACT opposite of a creative hotbed. The professors are, in the main, authoritarians who never had an original thought but learnt (from those before them) to bullshit and nod and act like a professor's supposed to act. These are the last people on earth you want training your kids. Unless you want your kids to be scared conformists that have forgotten how to think for themselves.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @11:56PM
Charlie? Turning Point Community College drop-out? Oh, you are one of those ex-students! Like TMB! Just too smart for the world, too smart for your own good. Makes us all wonder why god even created you!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 30 2020, @03:42PM
They need (probably less than 3%) leaders who agree on a vision and a direction, the rest of what they need are cogs for the machine.
Mavericks and people who rub against the grain are pretty easy to come by, winning the respect of the cogs is easier when the cogs have been trained...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @03:39PM (4 children)
> this order gives hiring/firing managers total discretion to hire whoever they want to, based on whatever criteria matter to them - it's a door wide open to corruption and graft
BINGO!
This will be the crowning achievement of cronyism. We're almost there. Otherwise how can anyone explain Jared Kushner?
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Tuesday June 30 2020, @06:37PM
Unfortunately, I agree.
The awful part is that official reason he gave for the change is legit, even if the actual reason is shit. The people who support Trump can understand the official reason, but fail to see the actual.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 01 2020, @01:05PM (2 children)
Trump trusts him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @02:31PM (1 child)
That's great. A chain of trust that extends all the way to.... family members and his buddies from Yale [politico.com].
Well that solves the riddle, problem solved, let's get on with
fixing the VA computersreinventing the govtMiddle East Peaceaccelerating the border wallheading the reelection campaignleading the Covid-19 responseselling his shitty investment to Qatar using Whitehouse pressure on Saudi to blockade them.(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 03 2020, @12:07AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @05:31PM
That insertion of opinion is minor to how the MSM would have laid it on: "Trump stated that life experience could be useful, but he provided no proof of that statement. The executive order is likely to appeal to his base, whites with lower education. It is a troublesome continuation of his tendency to install unqualified people in government, often from his own family..."