What would I know?
March 4th 2009 22:10
The processes and requirements of job applications have become sophisticated and streamlined. But is something getting lost along the way?
I just saw an advertisement for a professional writer and editor to teach part-time at tertiary level. I ponder. Interesting way to earn some spare cash, I think. And after 35 years working on three continents as a writer and editor, I think I qualify as a professional.
Experience and professionalism, however, aren't enough. I also require, the advertisement informs me, a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.
Sorry?
A little research was called for so I found a web site for an 'open learning education network' which offered the certificate course.
Under the heading 'Who will benefit from enrolling in this course' it offered, amongst others, the following: persons who are directly responsible for the provision of competency based workplace training; training consultants and competency based workplace educators; corporate and managers of businesses offering competency based training programs in the workplace.
Competency training? How does that differ from ordinary training? The sort of training which, in my case, suggests the word 'competency' is redundant in this sense.
I would have thought the tertiary institutions would welcome older people with long experience - sorry, competency - to pass on to those starting their careers. People who, when asked a practical question, can turn to personal knowledge rather than a text book for the answer. People who don't need a certificate to prove they can be of use to students.
But how many older people will be turned off, as I am, by the red tape and obfuscation of the application process?
Oh, take no notice of me. I don't even have a Certificate IV.
image: by Michael Mucci at smh.com.au
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