Comp Sci in Jamaica Whats Wrong

[SQLDBA]

Long ago the days where short and the nights where tall

[BlackCryptoKnight]

There's only so much a school curiculum can accomplish. I know UWI and UTECH past students who hit the ground running, and continuously improve their skills on the job. What they have in common is that they have initiative, and they take it upon themselves to learn what they don't know, and make the best of the opportunities afforded to them.

It is unlikely that the curiculum of any university will adequately prepare people to do every job out there. They will have to do some form of training/learning on the job. Employers have to be willing to invest in them too.

[pogi_2nr]

I can see this turning into another UWI/UTECH debate. :eusa_wall :eusa_wall

Anyway.. I went to UWI and I dont particularly think they put out programmers that
think too much, or at all :eusa_doh: they do teach them the proper mentality to
produce efficient code but one can only carry the horse to the water. I would say
that maybe 5 out of the 30 odd grads they push out each year are competent programmers.

[BlackCryptoKnight]

BCK : I asked a UTECH lecturer about the lack of content when compared to CS courses in THE US she said that UTECH is marketing towards the jamaican workforce and while this may be true,but there are certain things that should be taught no matter what your market is and ensuring that comp sci is seen as a branch of math is very important every undergrad should under stand graph,domain and information theory and i dont get that from a few persons i have come across.

I'm all for keeping curiculums relevant, practical and useful. You'll find differences on opinion on what comprises these qualities depending on where you go and who you talk to. You are right, that there are certain basic things in any profession which you should be exposed to during study. To be honest, from what I've seen/heard of UTECH's and UWI's curiculum, there didn't appear to be that much difference between them and some of the north American undergrad programmes out there. So much so, that when I was looking to do an MSc. from one of those foreign universities and I looked at the curiculum, I'd already covered much of it in undergrad. They were some of the same courses.

I'll maintain though, that regardless of what you learn, you'll still need to go into the workplace, and learn more. Employers and new employees have to understand this, and be prepared to support the learning effort in order to derive maximum benefit.

[crosswire]

Programming is a very diverse field. It covers applications types that are internet, database, speed optimized ;), word processing and a lot more. Even the internet portion is wide. Its is hard to learn all of that in 3 years of school.

When it comes to job finding, there should be courses or training that you could do that when you "pass" a certain standard, it guarantees that you will get a job with the firm that training was specific to. Perhaps, companies could give you an evaluation test on the job specifics as an alternative to an interview. I know of Indusa that does this. But someone can correct me if I mistook the name.