Knowledge economy. What knowledge economy?
By Primal Sneeze ~ February 19th, 2009. Filed under: Uncategorized.
Fintan O’Toole wrote an excellent piece in The Irish Times back in August 08 about the delusional nature of our “knowledge society”. It is well worth reading, however for those who don’t have the time, let me summarise – it doesn’t exist, it never did exist and will probably never exist.
O’Toole wrote that what Ireland did in the 1990s is something that had never really been done before by anyone. We imported development [in the shape of] fully-formed global corporations [and their] world-leading technologies and processes.
A decade and a half later, our then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, stood in front of US Congress and announced Ireland was the largest software exporter in the world. (There were giggles from the back row.) Bertie actually believed it. I’m sure he did. He repeated the claim ad nauseum.
When Gavin wrote, he [Bertie Ahern] didn’t realise that all we do is package the discs and ship them off to countries in the third world with better broadband than we do, he may have been a bit harsh but that was basically it – we took software developed elsewhere (key phrase: developed elsewhere) and slapped it onto hard-drives, discs etc. and shipped it or squirted it down the wire to countries in the EMEA and Australasian regions.
We were damn good at it too. The fully-formed global software corporation I worked for during that time had their world-leading processes wrestled to the ground by the Irish arm who then proceeded to rip those processes apart and rebuild them until they were ten times more efficient. The result – virtually all manufacturing moved to Ireland.
So how was it done? By taking a Nike approach. At the risk of upsetting US readers, we didn’t spend weeks talking about how something could be done, we just did it. That, and excellent customer services – staff who (literally) spoke the customer’s language and understood the US-way wasn’t their way of doing business – needs the US arm could never comprehend. (Hell, most of my co-workers over there couldn’t comprehend there were more time-zones either side of EST and PST!)
But it wasn’t world-leading technology. It wasn’t software development. Sure, there was a “development department” that was engaged in localisation and porting. That was just repackaging of the discs but was enough to keep the IDA money rolling in.
The same scenario was played out in all multi-nationals in Ireland at that time.
So what? We were happy. The employees made nice money – after suffering the 80’s that was heavenly. The country began to boom and the government coffers filled. But as O’Toole pointed out because you end up with some of the global leaders in technology operating here, you start to imagine that you’re actually producing this technology. You don’t get around to educating your young people to be scientifically literate. He goes on to point out that the curricula in schools have not been revised since the early ’80s. No, that’s not a typo – the 1980’s!
The topic of IT literacy was one of my first posts on this blog. In it I argued that we are measuring literacy levels incorrectly. Surveys of literacy carried out using the wrong criteria result in false positives and once again we start to imagine that we’re actually producing highly skilled people. We are not. Designing those monstrous Bebo pages is not creating web pages/sites!
On Friday gone, John Collins wrote that Havok are considering moving much of their development out of Ireland. He quotes David O’Meara, Havok CEO, as saying both of our latest products, Cloth and Destruction, have been developed in Ireland, which is very difficult to do those days given the quality of the graduate output. … If you get less than 350 points in the Leaving Cert, I would question if you have the cognitive ability to do engineering at third level.
Currently honours degree programmes currently range from 250-350. A certificate or ordinary degree level can be had from as low as 100 points. Why? Because the Bertie Brigade coerced the colleges into lowering entry requirements and dumbing down marking standards with the aim of pumping out numbers. Quantity at the expense of quality, with the result Mr. O’Meara struggles to produce a silk purse with a pig’s ear.
Regular readers will know that I went back to school a couple of years ago. The nature of the courses I took meant I shared some lectures with 1st, 2nd and 3rd year software engineering students. It shocked, saddened and appalled me to witness the number of 2nd and 3rd years who simply could not write two lines of code. I’m not saying two lines of clean, efficient code, I mean no code at all. Yet they will graduate be graduated and we will imagine that we’re actually producing highly skilled people. We are producing highly skilled Bebo users.
I don’t think I am being overly pessimistic when I say it’s too late to reverse the situation. We are now too expensive to do what we were good at in the 90s – manufacturing. Raising the standards in colleges overnight would cause uproar, inequality and probably zero grads. Raising the quality organically would take many years and mean implementing an effective ICT programme in primary and secondary schools – one far removed from that rubbish already in place.
There is another, painful aspect to this.
I graduated in Electrical & Electronic engineering in 1990. As one of a class of eighty.
Recently, the numbers in that discipline have dropped to single figures.
People have been doing stuff like commerce and law – apparent quick buck stuff.
Same story here. The programme I took on my return to college had been turning people away in previous years. The max they could handle was 120.
There were 6 of us. Just 6. And the rules were bent/relaxed to permit entry to two of those.
If only we could put a system in place that wasn’t so aggressively focussed on making everyone rubbish at everything. I’d suggest something more detailed, but unfortunately I’m rubbish at everything.
Ever tried bin collection?
http://www.seark.net/~jlove/screwtape.htm
Methinks we are beginning to see the fruits of Lewis’ prophecies.
Our own leaders would appear to be still attempting to master THE CAT SAT ON A MAT and hence holding the talented back.
@Primal Sneeze – Dunno. I think they’ve mastered the cat holding the bag closed from the inside quite nicely. And there is evidence of successful sleight of hand talent being used. Smoke and mirrors was obviously not covered by the smoking ban. (One of two thing I think FF handled well in government – that and the tax on shopping bags).
In sum, I think there is plenty of talent – but for the wrong things. And knowledge doesn’t come into it. The talented with knowledge are still doing what they always did – leaving.
That would be the <>fat cat holding the bag closed from the inside.
Oh yes. Having marked MA “post-graduate” course essays in the hunanities I would say that some candidates would not have passed Leaving Cert English when I sat it. Needless to say they were all given the MA, but its value was greatly undermined for those who actually deserved it.
That would appear to be the case in all disciplines.
And yes, the ones to pity, the ones that suffer, are those that actually deserve the grades.
@Primal Sneeze – More bad news in the IT today. The numbers studying things we need still dropping. And, as Conan points out, the mediocrities crowding out those who have the potential to add to our Knowledge of the Humanities – and feed back into what used to be called the mechanical arts.
Given that the Humanities are what makes our field of engineering tricky, that is a doubly bad thing.
All this pessism. It is just as well Lent is starting tomorrow – I retreat from the Internet to recharge for the duration.
Too much areopagus is bad for you
http://aonghus.blogspot.com/2005/11/aropagus-na-fiche-haon-aoise.html
How many of the current students of the humanities would even understand the significance of Areopagus? Few, if any, I suspect.
Bhuel, since my degree is in the Art of Engineering, I try. And the bould Paul is always good for a sound bite.
How about applying his principles:
1 Tim 6:10 say, or even 2 Thessalonians 3:10
It is not too late to change things, we can do it. We need to be a little more optimistics!
Thank you for your blog, ir is brilliant!