Period open university degrees?

[robgil]

Are these recognised by employers?

 

[Owain]

Depends on how period.

A licentia docendi in Organology and Cranioscopy probably won't get you very far in the current NHS.

However generally employers view them favourably as they understand that people who study at home (and often at their own cost) have commitment and persistence. The OU degrees are also generally academically quite respectable; perhaps not quite Oxbridge but well above the East Cheam Mechanics' Institute and Amalgamated Warp Fettlers' Certificate in Gongfarming.

 

[Me!]

Are these recognised by employers?

Not if it's only a degree in Meeja Studies

 

[robgil]

I dont even know what a Meeja is , never mind how to study one from a distance.
Edit - but I feel a strange desire to call everyone darling, darling.

 

[Me!]

Sorry, sensible answer this time. Yes. I interview people for employment at our company as a part of my job, and yes I do include OU degrees. The ones in standard subjects are nice an clear, but where I am a bit more careful are the OU's "Open Degrees" where people are allowed to choose the modules they want to study from a huge mix and match range of subjects. Sometimes with these it isn't really clear to me what they are qualified to do afterwards.

 

[Penners]

A licentia docendi in Organology and Cranioscopy probably won't get you very far in the current NHS.

However generally employers view them favourably as they understand that people who study at home (and often at their own cost) have commitment and persistence. The OU degrees are also generally academically quite respectable; perhaps not quite Oxbridge but well above the East Cheam Mechanics' Institute and Amalgamated Warp Fettlers' Certificate in Gongfarming.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Steady, there, Owain. We gongfarmers have a proud and ancient tradition, so don't turn up your nose at us, sir. It's not just anyone who has the skill and fortitude to excavate and transport ordure to the laystalls.

Of course, the principle problem inherent in the work is eating your lunchtime sandwiches.

 

[vicky whitworth]

My Dad has a first class honours in engineering from the OU. I remember how heard he worked for it while he also held down a full time job. I too interview job candidates as part of my work and I would never treat an OU degree as anything less than comparable with a degree from other good universities. It's what you learnt and how you apply your knowledge that counts in my view.

 

[DJH]

My son is a charters accountant after taking a course From Brookes University and my son-in-law is doing a masters in something to do with computers and maths and it was/is hard work and self discipline.

Doug, 3 GCE O Levels.........

 

[Flyfisher]

Sometimes with these it isn't really clear to me what they are qualified to do afterwards.

Isn't it more the case that a degree demonstrates the ability to learn, reason and generally figure things out, rather than 'qualifying' someone for a particular thing?

 

[DJH]

Sometimes with these it isn't really clear to me what they are qualified to do afterwards.

Isn't it more the case that a degree demonstrates the ability to learn, reason and generally figure things out, rather than 'qualifying' someone for a particular thing?

Just the thing an employer is looking for I suppose FF. Another thing as far as employing people I needed was that if a chap turned up with his tools in a yellow plastic bucket with a slate ripper sticking out it meant he was a roofer not a leadworker. :shock: :shock:

Doug

 

[Penners]

Sometimes with these it isn't really clear to me what they are qualified to do afterwards.

Isn't it more the case that a degree demonstrates the ability to learn, reason and generally figure things out, rather than 'qualifying' someone for a particular thing?

I think that's true in some fields and not others. For example, many of the people taken on by the Civil Service, in the City, in business and so on have degrees that are not at all specific to the job they're given. The degree demonstrates - as you say - the level of intelligence, education and learning ability.

However, in more vertical disciplines such as medicine, biochemistry, nuclear physics, etc. I think you need a closely relevant qualification.

 

[Feltwell]

I think Penners is spot on there.

I've got a Civil Engineering degree which has nothing at all to do with what I decided to pursue as a career, but would have been essential had I decided to go into many branches of Civil Engineering, particularly on the design side.

I've worked for businesses in the past where you had to have a degree to join at a certain level, but the degree could be in anything - it just proved that you had the ability to learn at a certain level. That, combined with intensive assessment centres (3 days long!), verbal and numerical reasoning tests and the traditional interview was what you had to go through to get in.

As for OU degrees - it will inevitably depend on the recruiter. I recruit people on a fairly regular basis, and although I work for part of a very large group of companies the business I am in is small enough that there are no rules as to how I recruit. I would judge an OU degree favourably - that someone has managed to study "from a distance" without all of the traditional university discipline of timetabled lectures & tutorials shows a great deal of commitment & tenacity, something that many undergraduates lack.

 

[Flyfisher]

Times may have changed I suppose. I won't bore you with the details but my degree is completely unrelated to my working life spent designing, building and testing systems built from technologies that didn't even commercially exist when I was at school. And hands-up anyone here that was taught about computers and the internet at school? :wink:

I admit that I wouldn't relish the idea of relying on a doctor schooled only in the classics, but I would also guess that much of what a doctor was taught only 30 years ago would now be out of date. So really, 'continuous education' is the key, something long recognised by professional bodies anyway.

 

[Penners]

hands-up anyone here that was taught about computers and the internet at school?

The fact that I haven't seen a single hand go up must say something about the demographics of this forum!

 

[Owain]

And hands-up anyone here that was taught about computers and the internet at school? :wink:

I got 20 minutes sharing a Commodore PET.

 

[MdB]

I ended up teaching the teachers...
(and started on a PET as well together with a couple of ZX80s)

 

[Feltwell]

And hands-up anyone here that was taught about computers and the internet at school? :wink:

I'll put my hand up, well for the computer bit anyway. I'm *just* young enough that I can remember my primary school getting a BBC model A, I can remember the excitement when it arrived, about 2 weeks before I left! That's "a" BBC Model A, i.e. a singular computer for about 300 kids. None of whom were allowed anywhere near such a new and expensive item of course.

 

[LadyArowana]

A wise employer will always make sure that they devise the best interview process for their own particular needs.

 

[robgil]

I thought Ikea would have been fully automated by now.

 

[Penners]

And hands-up anyone here that was taught about computers and the internet at school? :wink:

I got 20 minutes sharing a Commodore PET.

What was the Commodore's name and what prison is he in?