"We need digital literacy and common sense, not someone who can program a Raspberry Pi to control a robot," Mr Howell told the BBC.
What is lacking most of the times in university hires is common sense or a good grasp of foundational concepts. People struggle with simple data structures or naming things or how to take notes. I think some University is still good but once you are 21-22 it is much better to move into an apprenticeship program or a job. Unfortunately for young people most companies are terrible at training new personnel so that is not an easy route either. I cannot speak of bootcamps but being detached from "real business" I struggle to believe they would work.
> What is lacking most of the times in university hires is common sense or a good grasp of foundational concepts
In my experience, that's because universities don't care about teaching you critical thinking or making sure you actually understand things.
I often see people say things like "university taught me how to think". Maybe at MIT, Harvard, etc they truly do. But my experience was that they just care that you pass your tests. Having any sort of fundamental understanding or being able to think for yourself was not a requirement, which is why I dropped out.
They also teach very siloed thinking so if I studied "Mechanical Engineering" I am not supposed to know how to do "Python Programming" unless I take courses. I think on top of everything else we need people that are not afraid to deeply learn new domains and can go a bit beyond the top 10 search results on Google.
What is lacking most of the times in university hires is common sense or a good grasp of foundational concepts. People struggle with simple data structures or naming things or how to take notes. I think some University is still good but once you are 21-22 it is much better to move into an apprenticeship program or a job. Unfortunately for young people most companies are terrible at training new personnel so that is not an easy route either. I cannot speak of bootcamps but being detached from "real business" I struggle to believe they would work.