Posted on 02/20/2017 6:48:22 PM PST by CorporateStepsister
One of the UK’s biggest graduate recruiters is to remove degree classification from the entry criteria for its hiring programmes, having found “no evidence” that success at university was correlated with achievement in professional qualifications.
Accountancy firm Ernst and Young, known as EY, will no longer require students to have a 2:1 degree and the equivalent of three B grades at A level to be considered for its graduate programmes.
(Excerpt) Read more at timeshighereducation.com ...
It takes years of on the job training to be a competent CPA or attorney. I’m both a lawyer and CPA and can say with certainty there are no shortcuts. And for the record, the bar exam was a breeze compared to the CPA exam.
When I graduated all of the Big 8 firms had strict requirements for new hires. I started my career with Arthur Andersen in a tax consulting role. I can’t imagine what that job would have been like without an education.
Been there, done that.
Accountants, lawyers, and doctors have very specific licensing requirements.
That doesn’t mean that the only possible way to gain the knowledge is higher education, just that higher education is the only way to gain the necessary licenses.
Self-teaching and apprenticeships can be used to gain just about any knowledge or skill. That knowledge could be used to pass certification tests like the bar exams. That society could choose not to recognize that knowledge or proficiency because of the way it was gained is a separate issue and says nothing about the competency of the individual.
Are you an actual accountant? Because I am and I could not disagree with you more.
In fact, there IS a big difference in potential, in general, depending on how competitive of a school you go to.
Also, in the US, in order to even sit for the CPA, you have to have done an extensive amount of college level course work in certain subjects.
Here is a description of the entire system:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_undergraduate_degree_classification
Here is a description of the entire system:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_undergraduate_degree_classification
Amen.
College and university is just an expensive version of high school and after I graduated from high school, I wasn’t interested in subjecting myself to the exact same system. It’s not like college and university enables the driven to excel and cuts out the shiftless and parasites that use college as a means of partying and causing trouble they wouldn’t dream of doing at home.
These days the driven and hardworking are being held back from plowing right through and getting their degree sooner than all the other little idiots. Our school system demands conformity (not just to the liberal agenda, but to the annoying expectation that no one be made to feel bad over being a blithering moron) and the places of study are not places of partying.
Thing is, a person has to want to learn rather than just going to school because it’s expected. I mean, some kids go just to get a piece of paper and get a job and take up space from those who want to be there and want to learn and make a sincere effort.
I look forward to it. Often, the collapse of a system is better than trying to reform it. Best to treat it like an alcoholic who is about to hit the wall. Let them hit the wall and figure out how to end up getting back up. The system is no longer about self sufficiency, but about being taken care of.
I would rather pay to become an apprentice rather than end up spending tons of time in school and not getting any real hands on experience. Experience is also a requirement and too many years are misspent in the schoolroom and not in the clinic or office where experience can be gained through volunteering.
In my experience in high school, mainstream education can also iron out the better traits of someone who is talented, innovative, perseverant, focused, disciplined, or a hard worker.
Agree with you 100%!
"Accountants there are some of the most dysfunctional people I’ve ever known."
Hey, they survived when several of the other big firms did not due to bad financial statements and undetected major fraud.
I resemble that remark in more ways than one... and I even worked for them when they were Ernst & Ernst and Ernst & Whinney prior to the merger with Arthur Young. That was a lifetime ago.... I learned more with my first year with Ernst & Ernst than I did in four years of college.
They required a 3.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale just to have an interview. I think the “A” level courses means the required courses for the major.
While I learned more in my first year with E&E than four years of college, it would have been absolutely impossible to accomplish without the coursework.
That being said, we had some employees who graduated with close to a 4.0 who had no common sense and they didn’t last very long. Book sense helps, but more important is your ability to think on your feet.
Vernon S&L
Independent American S&L
RepublicBank Texas
The Keating Five . . .Charles Keating
Time Warner AOL
Only luck and politics kept them alive.
Interesting, though they aren’t dropping the degree requirement for these jobs—only widening the requirements they will accept from applicants with the appropriate degrees.
This is especially pertinent in the UK, where they still have a brutal class divide. The US is more egalitarian and thus more of our brightest have sorted themselves up into a relatively meritocratic upper-middle class. Meanwhile, in the UK there are still plenty of bright working-class students who effectively miss out on the top academic tracks if they don’t get into it early and keep in relatively narrow grooves throughout.
I agree with you totally on wishing to see us beyond the sorting convention by which we require our young to suffer decades of leftist propagandizing and go into needless debt just to get a good job.
Nearly free online education with rigorous, secure testing should become at least one norm to be accepted for many entry-level positions. Of course, employers won’t accept such until they can be assure they will be able to find among the best available job candidates there, clearly distinguished from lesser hiring options.
“Only luck and politics kept them alive.”
I was happy to have gone by the time the scandals started. Started my own regional firm, created my work-a-holic burn out, found there was much more to life... retired and enjoying life.
You forgot Lehman Bros. in 2008... Hid $50 Billion in loans disguised as sales.
I didn’t even know about that. I’m sure if I took the time to search there would be even more stuff.
These firms must be really politically connected to get away with all this. There was even a lot of negativity re how Andersen was treated.
I think some anti-trust action would be good for their souls.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.