Mark Derricutt's Disturbing Thoughts
IT Skills in New Zealand
posted Saturday, 14 October 2006
The other day as I was flicking through the plethora of junk mail I receive every day something caught my eye - it was a story in the "Tamaki and Districts Times" on October 11, 2006 about a pair of New Zealand Computer Whizz-kids who recently took top honours in the SkillEx work skills competition.
The article starts with...
Having no idea what competition the article was actually referring to - my mind was lending itself towards the various programming competitions I've often heard of in the past. That was until I read the next paragraph of the article:
Michael Thompson, Bachelor of Information Systems programme leader was quoted as saying:
Does anyone know what sort of work the competition covered?
The article starts with...
Two Manakau Institute of Technology computing students took top honours at the national finals of the SkillEx work skills competition.
Bachelor of Information System students Graham Aidken (Panmure) and Jenna Gavin of Howick won gold and silver medals in the IT software applications category, in a contest held at Wellington Institute of Technology.
Grapham is now in the running to represent NZ at the international World Skills competition in Japan in November next year.
Winning the national competition is a major achievement for Graham.
Bachelor of Information System students Graham Aidken (Panmure) and Jenna Gavin of Howick won gold and silver medals in the IT software applications category, in a contest held at Wellington Institute of Technology.
Grapham is now in the running to represent NZ at the international World Skills competition in Japan in November next year.
Winning the national competition is a major achievement for Graham.
"It shows my IT skills are up there with the best in NZ. It's a great boost for my confidence and makes an interesting discussion point on my CV."
Having no idea what competition the article was actually referring to - my mind was lending itself towards the various programming competitions I've often heard of in the past. That was until I read the next paragraph of the article:
The IT software applications competition was set up like a normal working day, with contestants tested on their skills with spreadsheet, word processing, data, and presentation.
Uh huh - so its testing their ability to use computer programs - not write them. I'm quite surprised there's a national, let alone international competition on how to use a spreadsheet.Michael Thompson, Bachelor of Information Systems programme leader was quoted as saying:
"Taking the first and second slots in the nationals is beyond our wildest dreams, but backs what I've believed all along. The standard at MIT is right up there with the very best."
I'm sure the competition and the skills required to compete have merit, but I can't help but think that any one with enough skill/drive to spend $3000 or so on a 3-4 computing course should possess a certain level of ability to use the various software applications used here. I guess I'm lacking an idea of the sort of work is set out to people in the competition, whilst I doubt it includes such things as whipping up an AJAX Web 2.0 style application which pulls data (which you've had to organise, collate, and put into electronic format from the original source of say SQL databases, excel spread sheets, word documents etc.) it may include the subtasks of organising, collating, and storing that data into the relevant database tables.Does anyone know what sort of work the competition covered?
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