6th November 2005, 07:18 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by srd123But on the other hand, while practical skills may be not quite up to the standards of the old days (?), research skills may be improving.
Apologies for sounding so out of date, but what does that actually mean?
Are you saying that research 'access' is easier with the aid of internet search engines that it used to be when one had to trawl through typed or hand written catalogues. In which case, your summary of new graduate skills really reads 'practical skills may be not quite up to the standards of the old days, but capable of pressing a button'. Oh such pessimism carried on the shoulders of youth!!
I profess to having had the opportunity of observing occassional batches of new graduates over a period of some 20 years. My experience of recent graduates is that they are much the same as new graduates have ever been. I don't ever recall a 'golden' age of graduates in that time, although I have to admit that many of today's archaeological output are more openly Thatcherite than their predecessors, (even those who graduated at the height of the Iron Lady's power)!!
I think there is a problem and it is more to do with the availability of on-job training than with the standard of graduates. That itself may have something to do with trimming budgets for reasons of so-called competitiveness. On the other hand I know of a number of firms who believe that taking on and training graduates is a better medium-term investment than relying on the short-term uncertainties of recruiting from the digging circuit. More power to them...