you didn't get my point completely I believe. firstly, i did not say that mature people should fade away.
Unfortunately, for many of in this part of world it is natural to spend 25 years in the same role or carry on doing what you have always done. Not the case for me or my other colleague who wants get valuable experience before they it is too late in the suitable management role.
I do get your point completely. But you appear to be bringing an emotional component to the discussion.
And on many occasion I was forced to believe that qualification does not have much value in the industry.
Unfortunately, for many of in this part of world it is natural to spend 25 years in the same role or carry on doing what you have always done. Not the case for me or my other colleague who wants get valuable experience before they it is too late in the suitable management role.
There are certainly plenty of roles we went for , where overall feedback was regarding the actual team working there who were there in their role for donkey's year and made impossible to enter suitable supervisor or manager to stay there. And this was experience for most of the managers who work there. The bitter truth was that no one apart from someone who stayed locally and have worked there number of years could work there !!
The term "qualification" is the rub. Someone who has taken 7 years of school has some qualifications that some who have not taken ALL of that schooling do not. Remember, though, that some of those who do not have a degree have taken the courses, over the years, so their level of education is not what it was when they first entered the job market. But some of the information and skills that are needed CAN be learned hands on, so some who have not had the formal training could be just as qualified as some who have.
Are you saying that after spending number of hard years of education which equates to more than 7 years if you consider graduates and post graduation ,who spend this time , they deserve this sort of resistance.
But just having the "classroom" learning is not enough for someone to walk into a job where they are the only food safety person on site and have to do everything on their own. And there is a period of learning the process which can only be gained on the job. But food safety is not a topic that should be totally learned on the job unless you have a lot of other types of safety/legal/mechanical/regulatory experience in your background. They just don't teach that in school.
For someone who has just graduated, I would suggest that they need to gain some experience under one of the "old guard" who understand how things work and how best to work with the system within a plant. They can't move into the senior levels of work, but they can move into a subordinate position for a time. Then once they know the nuances, have been through a few audits with guidance, they can move into a more senior position, either there or at another company. How long they stay in a junior position would depend on how fast they pick up the nuances: some people never get there, some get there fast. But it is a recipe (pun intended) for disaster to have someone with the ink still wet on their degree jump into a senior level food safety position. If they are found to be in over their head, not only do they drown, but people get sick and could die.
Bottom line, it's a balance. People can be qualified who don't have those 7 years of school, but learned the information in other ways. And the skills that the old fogeys have should be passed on to the young pups through mentoring. And the young pups need to value the wisdom (different from knowledge) of those who have years of experience because they will not be around forever.
*Martha getting off soap box*
Martha
Edited by MWidra, 09 February 2015 - 02:49 PM.
"...everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Viktor E. Frankl
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