🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <8181-PCNews-124beta@jacc.com> jcarroll@jacc.com (Jim Carroll) writes:


   I met with some students from Humber College a few weeks ago. They echoed
   your sentiments. I asked them what they were being taught : it was typical
   *large data processing environment* concepts, with COBOL and RPG.

   What are companies looking for? People who can program in C; people who
   can put together applications using API's; people who can integrate
   Novell networks and other assorted stuff.....

   Somehow, the educational system is relying on the curriculum of the 80's
   and Corporate Canada has moved into the 90's.

I think it has a lot to do with the recession.

University and colleges by their nature will never be in sync with
corporate needs. C is just yet another programming language (and not a
very good one at that for anything other than system programming.
There are much better ones.). Specific skills such as integrating
Novell networks becomes obsolete even faster than Cobol because they
are based on a specific technology.

Many companies have specific needs which will never be met by any
university. Who else in the world cares about a language named Protel
and a telephone switch named DMS besides BNR.

   I understand I am probably opening up some flames here. However, I regularly
   see companies looking for network specialists, PC skills, integration 
   skills, etc.

I think the situation for the community college grads could be worse than
university grads. The community college grads that I have met/worked
with, generally (There are exceptions so no flames please), are not as
"well rounded". They will know how to program in specific languages or
use specific DBMS packages but lacks the conceptual grasp of issues of
high-level S/W design. Once they made a switch in their mindset to S/W
design rather than coding or testing, which was painful for some, they
usually did OK.

There appears to be a failing in the curriculum of the community
college to teach S/W engineering skills rather than, in general, the
failing of the students. My profs (the good ones) always told me that 
they never cared what methodology/language we learned. They just want
to make sure we can think.
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Spencer Cheng     scheng@BNR.CA  Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada  613-763-4046