Salwa
@salwa
When I started working I met people in professional settings who I assumed were my age because we were in early-career roles or about to graduate. Then I’d be shocked to know that the now Berlin-based mid-level PM is already 37 years old !!! A weird function of the German school system is that it used to be a 13-year educational system so students graduate from high school at 19 years old. This system was phased out iirc in 2013 because it wasn’t competitive globally. Also, most of my postgrad classmates (1/3 of the class was Germans) took a gap year and travelled 🧳 in 🇦🇺/ 🇳🇿 So they practically went to university at 20/21 years old. Then I was surprised to learn that the German school system pretty much decides who gets to enroll in college during 4th grade and all the other kids are sent to middle schools on a vocational training path. Obviously there are many systemic biases here.
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Salwa
@salwa
I am not trying to make a point about the necessity of going to a university to do well in life. Quite the opposite, if the field is fast-moving or practical experience matters more like in most technical jobs, you do as well as your determination allows you. But the main point here is there are some western countries that factor in having a degree into their hiring decisions. So forcing students to go through vocational programs then spend years trying to figure out a different path only to reach a mid-level career at almost 40 years old isn’t competitive. That system was set up during the industrial era, more suitable for a mechanic working at a satellite factory, not so much for a semi-technical career at the company that operates satellites 📡 My sincere wish is that promising students aren’t held back and this educational system can be adjusted to suit more flexible demanding jobs 🙏🏽
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