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mystic fred 
Special Collaborator
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Joined: March 13 2006
Location: Londinium
Status: Offline
Points: 4252
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 Posted: September 08 2009 at 10:46 |
 Jim Garten wrote:
Aaaanyway - as from about 6am on Thursday, Vicky and I head down to Cornwall for 10 days of chilling out, dringking good west country beer & (believe it or not) overnight carp fishing...
...never been fishing in my life, so should be interesting - I've been assured I'll be catching 10-15 pound carp (and Vicky is convinced that as soon as I pick one up I'll scream like a girl... we'll see  ) |
"the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable"
Oscar Wilde
..make sure you put 'em back Jim 
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progmetalhead
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 15 2007
Location: England
Status: Offline
Points: 2081
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Posted: September 08 2009 at 03:15 |
Jim Garten wrote:
When I left school (1979), if someone was going on to university, it was a case of "wow - this guy's a bit of a brainbox"...
...nowadays, the standard education cycle seems to be school > college > gap year (aka cadging from parents & going to Goa to 'find yourself' for a year, but returning after three weeks with a selection of interesting diseases) > university > real world (at about 24 years old) > McDonalds counter staff > dole queue > "re-training" - ie training for a skill one could have picked up about 6 years previously had one not wasted god knows how much time on a 2nd class degree in media studies, leaving you with no work skills & no realistic way to repay your £25,000 student debt. |
In a lot of cases the "re-training" part can take a number of years!! 
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: September 08 2009 at 02:11 |
Aaaanyway - as from about 6am on Thursday, Vicky and I head down to Cornwall for 10 days of chilling out, dringking good west country beer & (believe it or not) overnight carp fishing...
...never been fishing in my life, so should be interesting - I've been assured I'll be catching 10-15 pound carp (and Vicky is convinced that as soon as I pick one up I'll scream like a girl... we'll see )
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: September 08 2009 at 02:06 |
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When I left school (1979), if someone was going on to university, it was a case of "wow - this guy's a bit of a brainbox"...
...nowadays, the standard education cycle seems to be school > college > gap year (aka cadging from parents & going to Goa to 'find yourself' for a year, but returning after three weeks with a selection of interesting diseases) > university > real world (at about 24 years old) > McDonalds counter staff > dole queue > "re-training" - ie training for a skill one could have picked up about 6 years previously had one not wasted god knows how much time on a 2nd class degree in media studies, leaving you with no work skills & no realistic way to repay your £25,000 student debt.
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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chopper
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Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20047
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Posted: September 07 2009 at 06:49 |
I've seen suggestions that exam results should be based on the dreaded "bell curve" that we use for performance rating as work i.e. a fixed percentage of people get A*s, As, Bs and so on. This should avoid everyone getting A*s (which seems to be where we're going) and thus rendering the exams pointless.
The whole "university" thing changed when every small college and polytechnic became a university. Now going to Uni is the norm where it used to be the exception.
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mystic fred
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Joined: March 13 2006
Location: Londinium
Status: Offline
Points: 4252
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Posted: September 06 2009 at 09:01 |
el dingo wrote:
^
Tell me about it.
I'm semi-retired and I've just done two months in a charity call centre, basically playing a benefit for Anglian Water. Without even going into the job itself, sh*te isn't the word. Whenever i get my book underway (soon I think) there'll be a couple of paragraphs about that place. Lovely people, cr*p job was never more true.
No internet!!! We weren't even allowed pens or paper at our desks in case we wrote down all those juicy bank details on the screens.
More people there had degrees than didn't. Three ex-journos, Insurance redundancies, resting thespians, hospitality people, you name it. One lady used to work for the Indian High Commissioner for Chrissakes. To say it's hard to get a decent job is an understatement when you're 51.
(Quits thread before beggining rant against New Labour) |
..the situation you describe is an opposite scenario to which occurred in the 60's, namely the "brain drain" where the country's few University grads were going to foreign countries for work as there was none to be had here worth the job... action was taken, and like a proverbial elastic band things have snapped back and we find ourselves with a glut of clever people doing jobs at Tescos, telesales and any menial tasks they can get their hands on to earn a crust.
When i was at school only ONE boy made it to Uni, a sports journalist, and most of us were urged to find employment with engineering companies, building, plumbing - all very worthy and lucrative professions, though in 1969 my Careers master fell off his chair laughing when i told him i wanted to go to Art College and design record sleeves as i was good at Art, Design and Photography (i actually was top in the school at Art judging by my receiving the Art prize almost every year i was there) - i was serious, but because of my poor results in Maths Art school was way out of the question 
Judging by another year's record results School and College leavers are MUCH more intelligent and clever than we ever were..... aren't they....? 
...okay - they can't spell, have no communication skills and need a calculator for the simplest sums, but why are so many going to University?
There are so many clever people today the Unis are busting at the seams, i'm sure any Government would rather be remembered for building Universities than Prisons, but what are all these unemployed clever people going to do? Plenty of opportunities in crime, but the prisons are full and Judges would rather give Community Service Orders than a spell in Crime College.
As we all know intelligence is a factor in human development that has not changed one iota over many thousands of years - if you had a time machine, took a baby from 50BC and transported it to today in a few years the child would be bashing away at computer games, tearing around impossibly difficult BMX courses, achieving all their straight 'A's and downloading their Ipods with the best of them.
Actually researchers found exams to be easier today and with lower pass marks than in the 60's and 70's, but the Government "dismissed these findings" out of hand - so there you go, next time you're in Tescos and need advice about Nuclear Fission, just ask the warehouse porter or call centre advisor and they could know more about it than you will.
The recent trend for re-training in the domestic sciences could be as just as surprising though, when you call a bloke to fix a burst pipe and he is the country's leading authority on Byzantine rustic pottery
Edited by mystic fred - September 06 2009 at 09:12
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Syzygy
Special Collaborator
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Joined: December 16 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 7067
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Posted: September 04 2009 at 13:53 |
el dingo wrote:
^
"Get 'em on", yelled the crowd, "get 'em on"... |
'Put 'em away for the lads!'
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'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'
Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom
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Man Erg
Special Collaborator
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Joined: August 26 2004
Location: Isle of Lucy
Status: Offline
Points: 7456
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Posted: September 04 2009 at 12:37 |
Padraic wrote:
9.7% unemployment over here, worst in my lifetime. 
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9.7% eh! My word!
Hope thing are on the ...er..up...soon 
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Do 'The Stanley' otherwise I'll thrash you with some rhubarb.
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
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Joined: February 16 2006
Location: Pennsylvania
Status: Offline
Points: 31169
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Posted: September 04 2009 at 10:41 |
9.7% unemployment over here, worst in my lifetime.
Edited by Padraic - September 04 2009 at 10:41
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chopper
Special Collaborator
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Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20047
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Posted: September 04 2009 at 10:00 |
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Don't you start.
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: September 04 2009 at 09:00 |
giggle
Edited by Jim Garten - September 04 2009 at 09:00
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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chopper
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20047
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Posted: September 04 2009 at 07:20 |
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OK, enough now.
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progkidjoel
Prog Reviewer
Joined: March 02 2009
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 19643
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Posted: September 04 2009 at 07:15 |
chopper wrote:
Syzygy wrote:
chopper wrote:
I'm thinking of retiring and becoming a male escort but my wife says I'll never survive on 50p a week. |
She's probably right - 50 clients a week is a bit optimistic in the current economic climate.
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Ouch, harsh.
But very funny.  |
I'm actually laughing right now
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chopper
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20047
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Posted: September 04 2009 at 07:09 |
Syzygy wrote:
chopper wrote:
I'm thinking of retiring and becoming a male escort but my wife says I'll never survive on 50p a week. |
She's probably right - 50 clients a week is a bit optimistic in the current economic climate.
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Ouch, harsh.
But very funny. |
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el dingo
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 08 2008
Location: Norwich UK
Status: Offline
Points: 7053
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Posted: September 04 2009 at 02:36 |
^
"Get 'em on", yelled the crowd, "get 'em on"...
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It's not that I can't find worth in anything, it's just that I can't find worth in enough.
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: September 04 2009 at 02:16 |
I ran a strip club once - completely staffed with Stevenage teenaged girls; the clients were queuing up & hammering on the doors...
...had to let them out, eventually 
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Syzygy
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 16 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 7067
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Posted: September 03 2009 at 16:33 |
chopper wrote:
I'm thinking of retiring and becoming a male escort but my wife says I'll never survive on 50p a week. |
She's probably right - 50 clients a week is a bit optimistic in the current economic climate.
I worked for a while in a strip club, helping the girls in the changing room for £50 a week. It was all I could afford to pay...
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'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'
Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom
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chopper
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20047
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Posted: September 03 2009 at 06:27 |
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I'm thinking of retiring and becoming a male escort but my wife says I'll never survive on 50p a week.
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: September 03 2009 at 02:21 |
You rant about RBS as much as you like Alan - that's what this little gathering place is for (forget the ranting room, that's for other people)
chopper wrote:
Since RBS has just put a limit on the amount of future pay rises (?!) that will be pensionable, I suspect many people are getting close to their limit and there could be a mass exodus soon |
Given what's happened in the last couple of years, I guess you're on the lookout for alternatives?
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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chopper
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20047
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Posted: September 02 2009 at 15:05 |
Syzygy wrote:
chopper wrote:
Just returned from 2 weeks hols to find that my wonderous employers are removing our external email and internet access (expect for a few approved suppliers) so I won't be able to get my daily PA fix for much longer.
This place gets more sh*te every day. |
Bummer - I can see similar things happening all over the place in the near future. It won't save any money, but it will help to lower morale and make employees feel slightly less valued than the office furniture (which in some cases they actually are). |
We can't afford office furniture any more. We had to burn it all last winter to keep warm. We'll probably only get through the next winter by burning Climate protesters who glue themselves to the floor of our head office. Since *** has just put a limit on the amount of future pay rises (?!) that will be pensionable, I suspect many people are getting close to their limit and there could be a mass exodus soon (if there were any other jobs around, there wouldn't be many people left now). Sorry, I did promise to stop ranting about *** (just in case ******* ****** hangs out on the PA forum).
Edited by chopper - September 04 2009 at 07:32
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