Today we went to our local Sainsbury’s supermarket in Clifton Down to shop for dinner.
They had some squid, lying there whole with their little eyes gazing up at us.
“Can you clean them?” we asked.
“Oh, they’re already cleaned,” said the young man.
This seemed odd. We have never seen, in all our years of sqidmania, a squid that had been cleaned yet still looked at you.
However, we took them. But try as we might we couldn’t find a decent roasting joint. So we walked through the rain to Waitrose, where we did.
The two supermarkets sell much the same things, though Waitrose is far smaller, with a far lesser selection and a bit more expensive.
The difference is that Waitrose is cleaner, properly organised – and the people have been trained.
The squid had not been cleaned. Nobody in that Sainsbury’s knows a damn thing about cleaning or filleting fish. They have let us down three times. Not their fault. They just haven’t been trained. We should have known better.
The longer I live the surer I am that the one thing that matters more than anything else is education.
Failure can be ascribed almost invariably to people not knowing what they are doing.
All bad things come to an end. But after this recession ends, businesses everywhere will pay a terrible price for the way they have skimped on training and education.
I wonder how many people realise just how far we have fallen behind.
The other day I was interviewing a friend for my Commonsense Marketing series.
He teaches direct marketing.
He told me one of his students – with a responsible job, having successfully gone through what is passed off as our educational system – did not know what a percentage is.
God help us.
Our only hope lies in the fact that many Asians are coming to British universities to be educated. I find that hilarious.
I find that incredible. Percentages are taught at various stages in our education system so any graduate of the system should be able to explain what they are.
Whilst the Asian students I teach on an international course would certainly be able to explain percentages many would struggle with independent thought let alone critical analysis. They expect to be spoon fed and plagiarise with abandon. Very different to the students of Asian heritage in our own education system.
“Is our children learning,”…
You bet they isn't.
Sadly, this happens everywhere. Long-term gains, like education, are sacrificed for short-term ones. Here in New Zealand, the Government's belt-tightening has seen the removal of things like providing funding assistance for single parents on benefits to do tertiary study (never mind that the minister in charge of that did a law degree while on the benefit, with said assistance). Yet they're blowing goodness knows how much on the Rugby World Cup. They seem to forget that, by educating people, it actually creates jobs and therefore more taxpayers, either when those people go into business or when their expertise allows other businesses to grow. If I ruled the world, things would be very different.
…Mind you, staff training and good service is probably part of what makes the difference between Sainsbury's prices and Waitrose prices.
We give all job applicants a maths, spelling and grammar test, and a basic exam in Microsoft Office.
People with degrees from “good” Universities often do quite badly in the tests; it is my belief they get their mum to do their college coursework! As a nation we are stuffed.
This girl actually said, “Oh, it's to do with hundreds, is it?” And if my memory serves me right she was a graduate. What is worrying is the huge gap between the good schools and the others. My daughter goes to very good one in New Jersey and I'm mystified by some of the stuff she does. But even in good schools there is an alarming lack of teaching in history. If you don't know where you've come from you are unlikely to know where you' may end up.
All of this reminds me of the story about a manager who was dictating a letter to his secretary The words “ipso facto ” were part of the dictation
The manager said ” Could you reread that back to me as I think you have not taken it down correctly.
It is so Fatso came the terse reply.
Yes education is important
How utterly splendid. I wonder if the manager looked down nervously at his waistline ….