RE: Skills vs education (was: Senior technical writer?)

Subject: RE: Skills vs education (was: Senior technical writer?)
From: "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>
To: <eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2006 16:36:17 -0600

No one was belittling your education or disparaging your profession, Eric. Really.

Richard

> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> techwr-l-bounces+richard -dot- combs=polycom -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+richard -dot- combs=polycom -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techw
r-l.com] On Behalf Of eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com
> Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 3:48 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: Skills vs education (was: Senior technical writer?)
>
> This discussion really is OT and I think I'm starting to
> forget the point.
>
> "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com> wrote on
> 10/03/2006 04:00:47
> PM:
> > Doctors and lawyers must have 7 years of college before they begin
> > their "apprenticeship, other OTJ training, and continued
> learning/study."
> > Engineers can do so after 4.
>
> This argument is descending into stupidity and minutia. So
> doctors have extra years of Med School after
> college/university. Fine. How does all this bickering over
> specifics change my points that engineering has as much of a
> controlled atmosphere and you DO NOT become a professional
> "simply" by graduating B.Eng.?
>
> Wasn't this discussion started with:
>
> Kevin wrote on 10/02/2006 11:31:25 AM:
> > Engineers can become pros with only an engineering undergrad degree
>
> Engineers just hit "residency" a few years ahead of doctors.
> Doesn't change my point that you're not a Professional
> Engineer until you've done your internship and passed the
> Professional order exams. So I fail to understand the
> relevance of proving more years of education or splitting the
> professions. What was the point? How does it change the point
> of my side comment that you aren't and can't be "pro" just by
> graduating B.Eng?
>
> And then:
> > Only the engineers
> > get their profession-specific academic training as undergrads.
>
> Which is patently and unarguably false. Training of engineers
> at the B.Eng. level is ABSOLUTELY no more
> "profession-specific " than B.Sci Pre-med. An engineer can
> get an engineering related job with a B.Eng. Just as a med
> student could undoubtedly get a medicine related job with
> pre-med. But for either to gain the status of "Professional"
> or to specialise requires much further study.
>
> I didn't even disagree with Kevin's post. Only took issue
> with that one small quoted portion. Others seemed more intent
> on proving what graduating as B.Eng or Pre-med means. Funny
> that as an Engineering graduate I'm getting the feeling that
> I'm being told I don't understand the reality of the 2 years
> of college and four years of university that I went through.
> Nor the additional requirements it would take to become
> recognised as a professional in an Engineering field. I think
> that being told that "I'm not getting it" by people who are
> equally "not getting" my point is starting to get to me. It
> is also for this reason I made the side thread to clarify the
> difference between a Professional Engineer and a profession
> that appropriates the title of engineer.
>
> Otherwise I think the thread demonstrates very well the evils
> of over-education and certification. The debate is no where
> near discussing actual skills and competencies but mired in
> an all out simplistic barrage of "more years in school is
> better" and constitutes "profession specific"
> academic learning or not. IMO, the affliction of both
> Doctors, Engineers, and some other "certifiable" professions
> is that many of them are like bricklayers who can detail the
> composition and properties of bricks and mortar in
> excruciating detail but couldn't build a wall properly if
> their life depended on it.
>
> Eric L. Dunn
> Senior Technical Writer
>
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