The Educational Report

I've blogged about this before. Bill Gates came to Germany in the mid-1990s, and made a significant speech about the underwhelming attitude of the German university system to produce the necessary computer engineers of the future. It was blunt and deflected quickly. The German folks in charge of the university system told the 'mere' Bill Gates that he knew nothing about their system. Eighteen months after Bill Gates...German technology companies came to the Bundestag and demanded green cards to bring in the necessary folks to produce their products. The university system then admitted that they weren't capable of doing the job.

Today...swipe two occurred.

The Local reports this today....the country is producing too few university graduates to sustain its supply of engineers and technicians...across the entire board. The numbers even indicate that a massive increase in spending would have to occur.

It's a fairly long effort by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development....500 pages.

Again, we go back to the Gates scenario....if they don't correct their operations...import of intelligent and university-trained immigrants will be mandatory.

There are several ways to review the data and come to various conclusions. First, the massive number of Germans who go through the university system....have nothing to do with technology. You've got a significant number who are basically headed toward a life of boredom within the insurance industry, teaching, and journalism. You've also got the arts crowd....left to study music, dancing, and the dead language of Latin.

The blunt side of the report goes against engineering and technology. In this aspect, the report might be very accurate. Unlike the US system....the German university hasn't exactly been a operation of change.

I suspect this is more of a poke in the side of the university management crowd. The sad thing is that they'd have to have more government funding in a time when it's not appropriate to ask for more funds. They'd have to take that funding, then turn in a fashion to gage the necessary changes, and bring in a larger crowd. And this assumes that the high school system of Germany can produce the numbers required.

I have doubts about the success of this angle of change. You are asking alot out of the system. In the end, they might have been better off inviting the University of Alabama to come into Germany and set up shop on some former American Air Base....and then develop an entire different option on university education....within the German system. Then, you'd have to accept that degree as being the same value (something of a miracle).