Jamaican Education system on a real

[techlady]

I want total honesty here.

Does anyone in this forum have any faith in our system?

I was lucky enough to land a job in the technical field and i did it by volunteering. I have seen too many leave qualified and nothing yet anyone with an overseas degree has the advantage.

I am thinking about leaving for my degree.Give some feedback.

[Zard]

one of my problems is they fail to change the educational material as the world changes to prepare our graduates better.

change literature books, foreign languages, subjects, focus etc as the world trend dictates

[zRo ToLeRaNcE]

I did my degree at UTech but when compared with somebody that did a degree abroad...taking only about IT now.....they are much better off than me. Their knowledge is wider and they are provided with more practical experience.

[techlady]

I mean our universities have doing subjects that doesnt even directly apply to our goals.They just waste your time and then pretend as if they are paying u to be there.Utech is in shambles and i never went there,i just had the opportunity to deal with them and my god it was enough to make me not even consider going there.

My next question is this do you think the country has a platform for programmers?

[Zard]

My next question is this do you think the country has a platform for programmers?

I think it's better to start a general thread to get better views on that question

[Virus]

I mean our universities have doing subjects that doesnt even directly apply to our goals.They just waste your time and then pretend as if they are paying u to be there

I agree

,i just had the opportunity to deal with them and my god it was enough to make me not even consider going there.

I don't agree, but ur decision. I dont know if it even matters which school you went to, as long as you havbe a Bsc. you gone clear. Turn supervisor and boss ppl round.

As far as im concerned IT industry has become saturated. Ppl who really have skill and passion to change things gonna get squeezed out by ppl with Bachelors.

[zRo ToLeRaNcE]

Well Virus, i don't know which institution hires people because they have BSc alone. I seriousy doubt that kind of attitude exists at all.

And techlady is right about her decision. She only dealt with the administration of the school and because of their poor work/customer service/response time...etc..etc.. she decided not to go there. Its a good thing too cause the stuff that we had to deal with as students of that University is horrid.

Are you now/were a student there. Thats the only way i think somebody can understand the situation.

And UWI is not exempt eithier.

[Nastrodamus]

I think I can now safely say that UTECH now as a curiculum to be very proud of where IT is concerned. You will be a rounded and competent individual in the areas that you have been thought, with more than adequate hands on experience to suffice.

At the secondary level on the other hand, I will maintain my stance in saying that it has much to be desired. Technology is a industry(better yet way of life) with continues to evolve. Yet at the secondary level, students are not made aware of these changes or IT today. As such on graduating, many are unable to be of much worth in an IT job.

[Nastrodamus]

In the defence of the government, I must acknowledge their current attempt to implement ICT in schools. Which should begin implementation soon, depending on how long the "research" takes.

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This myth that once you have a degree you become a supervisor is not entirely true, and I can cite more than one examples where there are degree holders working under persons who don't have a degree.

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My suggestion, if you can work and go to school, do it. It keeps your current job and you are excercising the oppurtunity to upgrade yourself. On completion, if you want to move on then the choice is yours.

[zRo ToLeRaNcE]

I think I can now safely say that UTECH now as a curiculum to be very proud of where IT is concerned. You will be a rounded and competent individual in the areas that you have been thought, with more than adequate hands on experience to suffice.

HUH!! Have you ever passed through UTECH before. Have you ever been a student there especially in the BSCIT programme. I've just completed the programme, meaning just done 4-years, full time and finish May 17, 2005.

Now the programme is not organized at all. The courses are not sufficient and require more work, alot more work. One course in My Final year (Analysis of Programming Languages) had so much trouble that at the end, we got a 24 hour take-home exam to do. The lecturer stopped teaching in the middle of the semester saying that the content is not organized or anything.

The hands on aspect only is done for programmers and thats only because there is not choice. The only way to teach and learn programming is to program. Thank God for the Data Communication lecturer that change the course content to be more hands-on (meaning we did routing) WHoopee, one thing out of a hundred.

There is a "practical" course in year 2 called Network principles. In this course they SHOW you the different components of a network but no touching. You don't setup a simple peer-to-peer, you dont install anything. You only see the components.

I've gone through the system and thank God i went to Vector before i went to UTECH or else i would have died in the work world. My summer jobs also helped tremendously.

Now i'm comparing this course with a University abroad. My friend went away i did the same BSc as me. He has learned more languages (not just Microsoft ones), did more practical (in all areas) and in a shorter time.

The School of Engineering & Computing is mainly for Engineers (not computer engineers but chemical, civil, etc.). The Faculty of Computing and Information Technology is for programmers who want to learn how to teach themselves programming.