Young people “unable to work” at higher rates than older people

[Dan Steele]

27 minutes ago, HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows said:

Imagine having a greet cause you can't sit a uni exam without the answers next to you 

Can't be easy, this learning thing. I quite like the quote from the student saying 'we've never been tested on our ability to recall information. That's something we are going to need to teach ourselves.'

Or remembering stuff, as it used to be called.

 

 

[greendot]

31 minutes ago, Dan Steele said:

Can't be easy, this learning thing. I quite like the quote from the student saying 'we've never been tested on our ability to recall information. That's something we are going to need to teach ourselves.'

Or remembering stuff, as it used to be called.

 

 

 

To be fair to that student who was quoted, they don't have any trouble in sounding like a complete tosser!

[ICTChris]

I think the availability of AI tools will lead to a move back to closed book, pen-and-paper exams in education.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

can say when younger i had this (without going into it i panicked and pretty much walked off from my first ever grown up job) wonder if its a common thread/feeling too among younger folk; fewer and fewer quality job opportunities available, and increasing competition with not just other people, but automation too.

 

[Honest Saints Fan]

On 27/02/2024 at 15:53, Newbornbairn said:

One of the things that annoys me is the people that often put themselves forward for the position of "Mental Health First Aider". My last company did this and they had 3 of them. One guy did it for genuine, altruistic reasons. The other two were the office gossip and the corporate arse-kisser who was the biggest bully in the company - the last two people you'd ever open up to about a personal problem. 

 

If the company aren't serious about the issue, if they just treat it as a tick box exercise, they can make things worse for people. 

So much this. I'd say I've had a lifetimes worth of mental health strain on me in the last 5 years and would I f**k share anything with the so called mental health first aiders at my work. 

[RH33]

12 minutes ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

So much this. I'd say I've had a lifetimes worth of mental health strain on me in the last 5 years and would I f**k share anything with the so called mental health first aiders at my work. 

I was dealing with someone from a different company in my work and I commented to my boss on the irony of the person having "I'm a mental health first aider" such had been his tone and attitude.

It's very much a tick box exercise for big organisations, I've no idea what the training looks like but I doubt it's anything much meaningful. 

[alta-pete]

On 26/02/2024 at 14:14, diegomarahenry said:

Having been in the workplace for over 20 years now, all within Global organisations, there has been a big shift from companies outwardly trying to keep employees happy to almost the opposite. 
There has also been a shift to personal brand being more important than the actual job. I had a 1-2-1 recently where the main focus was put on the fact my profile in the in-house social media was blank than any performance. 
A job for life is very rare as well so people are less bothered about holding on to one. Terms are less agreeable. 
When I started my first job I had a final salary pension, a 10% yearly bonus and a share purchase scheme. These kind of terms would make you job conscious. Within 10 years, they closed the final salary pension due to costs, they didn’t do the same to the German employees as it would be illegal there. 
I started a new job over a year ago and the additional terms are pretty good but almost standard, health insurance, dental insurance etc along with a joint contribution pension. But all of the jobs I applied for at the time had much the same. 
 

There have been societal changes as well, previously people would seek help from their parish or from family, community etc for personal problems. Most of these things don’t exist any more so they expect their workplace to give support.

In a short space of time at my last job, I had two people contact me out of hours to say they were suicidal, I had to facilitate counselling through the company. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t go to their family but some folk don’t have the option. 
 

It is easy to blame it on folk being shut-in nerds or socially awkward but there is very little incentive to be job conscious any more. 

Forgive me for not having read the full thread if this has been covered already but this is the nail on the head. 

It happened after the 2008 crash when human resource (unusually in the corporate world) actually became its descriptor - something to be exploited and exhausted until needing to move on to another. 

There has been a real breakdown in the historic patriarchal (corporate) employer and the (individual) employee relationship. 

Turn up, do stuff, get paid as little as possible, f**k off. Middle managers clogging progression shit scared of their own position as ‘efficiencies’ rapidly wheedle their number. 

If you’re any good at what you do, you now need to do it for yourself. And if you’re no good at what you do, you need to find whatever it is that you are good at and find a market that needs it. 

[Mark Connolly]

3 hours ago, Dan Steele said:

Can't be easy, this learning thing. I quite like the quote from the student saying 'we've never been tested on our ability to recall information. That's something we are going to need to teach ourselves.'

Or remembering stuff, as it used to be called.

 

 

How can she be sure?

[Melanius Mullarkey]

2 hours ago, ICTChris said:

I think the availability of AI tools will lead to a move back to closed book, pen-and-paper exams in education.

Pretty sure most still are.

[ICTChris]

Just now, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Pretty sure most still are.

Yeah probably true.

Having seen the Wonka Experience AI stuff, maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be.

[vikingTON]

18 hours ago, ICTChris said:

I can see their point in that there's a relatively short notice period and people will have been preparing for their exams to be done in the way they've been for several years.  It would have made more sense to start it from the beginning of the year.

However, closed book exams are surely perfectly normal and the talk of extreme anxiety etc seems a bit over the top.

They almost certainly hadn't been preparing for the assessment at all, when the decision was announced. They're students FFS. 

[HibeeJibee]

Certainly the way the wind's blowing. Being reported today that Jenny Gilruth the Scottish education minister is about to scrap to all school exams before Highers, plus end them completely in some subjects.

[Newbornbairn]

30 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

Certainly the way the wind's blowing. Being reported today that Jenny Gilruth the Scottish education minister is about to scrap to all school exams before Highers, plus end them completely in some subjects.

Give everybody a coloured ribbon for taking part. 

[MacDuffman]

I remember talk years, even decades ago about getting rid of exams at the end of the year. Even in schools. The idea was to have small tests every few months which went towards your final pass mark.

[Al B]

For the first part of my degree we were allowed to take a crib sheet into exams, basically whatever you could write on one side of A4.

Essentially means all I really have is a degree in really really really small handwriting.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Just write the answers on your arms

 

[velo army]

2 hours ago, MacDuffman said:

I remember talk years, even decades ago about getting rid of exams at the end of the year. Even in schools. The idea was to have small tests every few months which went towards your final pass mark.

I think this is what they do in The Netherlands and it seems to work pretty well. 

[Thane of Cawdor]

5 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

Certainly the way the wind's blowing. Being reported today that Jenny Gilruth the Scottish education minister is about to scrap to all school exams before Highers, plus end them completely in some subjects.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates. Take that, Ms Gilruth.

[houston_bud]

19 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

Certainly the way the wind's blowing. Being reported today that Jenny Gilruth the Scottish education minister is about to scrap to all school exams before Highers, plus end them completely in some subjects.

I've always felt an 'all or nothing' exam at the end of a year's worth of work can be a bit unfair. Especially seeing as the SQA have essentially got rid of appeals. One bad day for a kid who's done well all year and they're screwed.

Putting into place a different system, of multiple assessments, while making sure it's fair for kids across the board, keeping the marking standards high and consistent, and not adding to teachers' workload won't be an easy thing to get right. And I don't trust the government to not make things worse.

For the past 10 years, there have been changes almost year on year. The teachers and the students don't know if they're coming or going.

[Peil]

33 minutes ago, houston_bud said:

I've always felt an 'all or nothing' exam at the end of a year's worth of work can be a bit unfair. Especially seeing as the SQA have essentially got rid of appeals. One bad day for a kid who's done well all year and they're screwed.

Putting into place a different system, of multiple assessments, while making sure it's fair for kids across the board, keeping the marking standards high and consistent, and not adding to teachers' workload won't be an easy thing to get right. And I don't trust the government to not make things worse.

For the past 10 years, there have been changes almost year on year. The teachers and the students don't know if they're coming or going.

Just look at how during lockdown they said they'd use coursework submissions and then decided with not a lot of notice to spring exams on people.

From a selfish POV, my daughter has really bad clinical depression and anxiety and goes to bits in exams.  She was on track to pick up B's at higher level, despite everything, then went to bits in the exams and ended up with nothing.