Certificates

(still having a tidy up) I have some certificates that I got from work, by that I mean I had to go on a course and then sit an "exam" then get a "certificate"

Has anyone else got any certificates? Or are some like mine? if the truth was known the course was either a complete waste of time, or you passed so long ago (and I do mean years ago) that you have forgotten what it was that you knew then.

Oh, I don't mean things like first aid. I guess I mean things that are specific to your industry. I also have a "well done" letter, at the time it was nice, but now? so what have you got? (mine are going in the shredder)

 

Somewhere in the Chaos, I have a Marine VHS Radio certificate & licence, a certificate saying i'm a founder member of the local astronomical society & I should have a Helifix Wall Tie installer cert, but I have to pay the company who provided the course for me.

 

Somewhere (unless I've chucked it), I have a certificate to prove I know how to use a software package called Loadrunner (load testing software that I think has been defunct for years now).

I also have a certificate to say I'm a fully qualified SAP ABAP programmer. Work sent us on a five day course at SAP UK HQ and then we ended up not adopting SAP.

I also have certificates somewhere that demostrate my abilities as a Microsoft Professional Developer or something like that. Been doing the job for most of my adult life, but work decided to buy me a piece of paper to prove it.

 

It's a good question Watergarden. I like it.
I have a First Class Honours degree in something or other - doesn't seem to matter diddlysquat now.
My husband has so many letters after his name I couldn't write them across an envelope - but he still can't use his mobile phone.
My 3 year old great niece has a stificate. Now that matters !
I think she got it for sitting down and shutting up for two minutes.
Well done that girl.
She's just delicious.

 

I somehow thought that getting letters after my name would make me - I don't know - different in some way. Then you realise you are just as daft as you always were. I now keep quiet about being an Eng. Lit. person because people always think I'll be great at doing the boring bits on quiz nights, when in fact the contents of the many books I've read over the years has slipped from my brain like an omelette off a non-stick pan. I used to sit there sweating in case I couldn't remember the origin of that-quotation-that-any-fool-knows. On one occasion, having swotted up on Shakespeare so that I wouldn't repeat an unfortunate memory lapse concerning Hamlet, I let the side down by failing to recall the name of the wretched mutt in the Famous Five. Well, I suppose it is literature of a kind.

 

Just my opinion .. we are what we are .. it doesn't matter if we have anything before or after our name ... I don't think that really changes any of us. I also don't think it changes how we think and interact with people, be they have certificates or not.

What do you think that means or does for you?

I have some 'initials' which mean nothing to me. My t'other half didn't finish high school in America. Times were very tough for us for many years. He had a superb brain .. but no certificates. Well, he did get one in the UK when he got an 'A' Level in Computer Studies from Oxford University and the teacher wondered why t'other half wasn't teaching the course .. but t'other half wanted a 'certificate'.

Certificates didn't come into it but t'other half's 'abilities' did ... and we now live here with four properties with no mortgages.

So, what do 'certificates' mean or do?

 

I think they just get you to the next stage of the game. After you've got there, they often seems utterly irrelevant ... I mean, does my 'O' Level in German mean I can speak a word of the language? The answer has to be nein. But it would have been essential, had I wished to advance to the next stage of piling up verbs at the end of juggernault sentences.

 

In the States in the 70s you got nowhere unless you had a degree .. perhaps it's no different now.

I've been gone from the UK for ten years now and away from employment law so I don't know what things are like there either.

Claire, most of it seems irrelevant to me and has always ... people can make things of their lives without 'certificates' or 'degrees'. To us it is common sense. We have always been 'tight fisted' with money and although we both earned a lot never spent anything, ie, going out, pubs, etc. It was work, work, work and we enjoyed our homelife when we had the opportunity to be together at home.

So, I've probably gone off the track of the OP and Certificates .. but it depends on how you plan on using the knowledge you have gained.

 

So far, I think that's what everybody has said Victoria.
Certificates are only bits of paper - which may or may not be worth something.
Sometimes they are important at the time.

As for letters v initials - there's not a penny in it - but check it out.

 

Now that fifty percent of kids in the UK go to university, I think having a degree has become more of an issue than it used to be. Most degrees are in totally useless subjects, of course, and the institutions at the bottom of the food chain have made a living out of offering particularly lame courses to anyone who can manage to scrawl his/her name on a sheet of paper. At the same time many universities are closing their physics departments because few people want (or have the ability) to do something intellectually demanding when they could do Media Studies. However, many employers simply look for graduates. They also have amazing faith in grades - and yet we've all met people with impressive-sounding qualifications who are utter and complete dullards.

I think things will have to change. I imagine we'll end up with fewer people going into higher education and will expect more of those who do.

I think I could do with being more tight-fisted, Vicky. Money just seems to evaporate in our household. Mind you, one can take things too far. A family member (who shall remain nameless) has built up quite a tidy empire for himself. But since he's done it by stepping to the back of the queue whenever it's been time to cough up and generally taking the **** out of everyone else, I can't find anything admirable in his parsimony. It somehow makes me, a relative pauper, want to brandish banknotes and shout 'don't worry! I'll pay!' Which perhaps explains why I'm still impecunious.

 

I could paper the walls with certificates, important at the time, and especially when applying for advancement or even a different employer

It depends on HOW old you are as what you do with them

I can shred mine now if I wish as I retire in a few months so no further need :-)

Ziggy needs to find and keep his Maritime VHS cert as it is more of a proof and licence to operate Seagoing Radio Legally

This is my pet gripe at the moment
When I was man management I had to do a full time years course before I could take up the position(paid for, though in own time)

My present employer the GuberMent

My current manager age 27 was a shelf stacker at Morrisons four years ago
a telephone advisor three years ago, and now MY manager, NO courses, no IDEA of personal management of PEOPLE, Sicknes, Family problems, Alcoholism, Con merchant,Transport, Accomodation,Disability etc Though she is damn attractive and meets the Top man for extended lunches three days a week out of five

When I started, to climb the ladder first job from school, you had to go to Night School paid for by yourself to gain qualifications and be considered for promotion

Then in the Forces, you were Trained, for the next promotion, sometimes done in your own time, free, though only a score of over 95% would pass you for the next grade, providing you passed all your trade tests annually

So the certificates may seem irelevant to the curent employment they prove you are capable To a new employer

In 1968 I was given a certificate of competence using a floor polish buffer :-)
Now about to retire, 44 years on "IF" I wanted to supplement my pension by doing a bit of cleaning, I could not be a cleaner without a Floor buffing cert :-)
pressure left to go left pressure right to go right , just hold the damn thing to and push to go for'd or pull to stern

So keep your certs guys and gals

Jack McH

 

Ah but it is the 21st Century now
You can have a piece of paper stating you ARE qualified, but have no idea how to do the job
When you can more than do the job, you do not have a piece of paper so you can not have the job

Simples :-)

Jack McH

 

I am qualified to use " hand propelled transportation equipment".