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Re: Jobs and Education and Training
Wade Tarzia (tarzia@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU)
Tue, 15 Oct 1996 08:41:41 -0400
>...It is the hallmark of many "school-to-work" programs
>and also many special enrichment programs. Before I left Boston I got into a
>public disagreement with a head of a biotech corporation. In exchange for
>their
>"work-study" program, they were expected the whole science curriculum in the
>Boston Public Schools to be redesigned so that the graduates that came to their
>company were essentially pre-trained.
--- That's OK -- at UConn we have an entire department run esseintially
like a corporation (12-month jobs, 9-to5, etc., my employer) that takes
grad students to do research in problems of industrial relevence. Industry
pays a fee to to sit on an advisory board and dictate research topics. The
money pays for the graduate researchers (engineering) and the summer months
of the professors. How's that for industry finger up the academic wazoo?
But some good is done for students of manufacturing engineering, who before
this had an education devoid of knowledge of real industry problems. The
chilling part is, one in-state corporation uses about 40% of UConn's
engineering grads (or used to?), has made many donations, built a building,
and some of their retirees make it on to campus later as research
associates. This is a rather upsetting influence, to my mind. -- wt
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