so, the basic idea is that people could sign non-competition contracts to receive free training/education from corporations, with the promise/only option of them working for the company later. Non-competition contracts are contracts where you sign and promise not to work for any other company for a number of years in a certain type of job. These are valid contracts, and apparently they use them for maids, though from what I understand judges won't enforce them over too wide an area. Constructing and example of my idea, you could sign with Raytheon, and they would give you a college education in Mechanical engineering, and you'd promise not to work for any other company developing weapons (Raytheon's industry) or in engineering in general (if the term engineering could be defined specifically enough - I can begin to imagine what the wording would be).

Basically this idea comes from the fact that I haven't finished college. I failed out my first year, then went to a local college, did well in some classes, worse in others. Partied too much? I wish, maybe I'd at least have gotten laid. No, just didn't have the work habits, and maybe not so comfortable in my skin in the world. And maybe I'm allergic to bullshit, resent having to write about Maya Angelou's unstrtuctured drivel when I want to be an engineer. Frankly from this I've learned that it's a good idea to let your kids work for a few years first before sending them to college. Let them learn to live in the world. But at the same time, I'm pretty freaking smart. I went to an expensive private school in the city (NYC, live in Jersey). I got a 5 on the AP physics test and also on the AP CompSci test. In my CompSci class we did the national competitions. On at least one round, I remember I was the only one in my class who wrote a working program. I'm a total nerd. I love sciencey shit. I'm the kind of guy who you could point to the periodic table of the elements, and I could tell you what the elements are like and what they're used for. Or food ingredients, could tell you what they are, how they're made, molecular structure. Can still do Calculus. Need the rotational momentum of that object calculated? I'll do it. I love that show "Modern Marvels"; yes, I'll watch an entire show on something as myopic as chrome. etc etc Think "The Big Bang Theory" (that sitcom).

There's gotta be a million guys like me, who didn't do well in school at first, but are intellectually oriented.

So basically, guys like me could finish college, and we could use the (pecuniary) help.

Part of what helped me come up with this idea is the whole education bubble thing, and that they don't really teach you shit at college and it's full of shit in general. Industry is complaining that college grads have fewer and fewer skills and knowledge. Gee? You think? ever been to a college? It's no fucking wonder. Our whole higher education & credential system is fucked. Buttloads of money are spent per student (you have to add in FAFSA, state money that goes to state schools, federal money that goes to those schools, etc). On what? a disjuncted "curriculum", if can even be called that, where you repeatedly don't study for four months straight (Summer), even though that's the perfect way to forget everything, and are required to take a certain number of english/lit oriented classes, even if your field doesn't involve them (I don't need to study Nietzsche to be an engineer). There's just so much bullshit. Some gems from my college days: a professor who in the middle of lectures about periods 100+ years ago would scream about George Bush, literally sometimes to the point of spittle flying out his mouth. Or the philosophy class that involved nothing but us talking, and the teacher indoctrinating us with typical leftist claptrap, and somehow managing to mention that he has some sort of scat fetish. These sorts of things should not be happening in anything that is ACTUALLY higher education. That they do show it isn't.

So yeah, anyway, as for my idea, I also realized writing this that there could be services that could help find people for this, with testing. Perhaps Peter Thiel might wish to chip in. Take some tests, see your knowledge/abilities. Then see if there are any companies there want to sponsor you.
-- EdwinBakery, May 08 2012

//Non-comptetion // gets you ruled out straight away
-- po, May 08 2012


a) why would a corporation train you for free ?

b) they're called "yellow dog" contracts.
-- FlyingToaster, May 08 2012


to work for them, and them alone. There aren't TONS of people with my capabailities, and certainly not willing to work for less than the supposedly more capable engineers

maybe it doesn't have to be a full college education, maybe they have (or could have) their own specialized classes more industry-specific. Guys like me would still be willing to do it so at least we have the expereince on our resume.
-- EdwinBakery, May 09 2012


No, it seems yellow-dog contracts are to prevent employees from joining labor unions, that's a different thing
-- EdwinBakery, May 09 2012


I know what you mean - looking back, I think I might have benefited from a more vocational educational start - the trouble is, way back then (and probably still now) there's an assumption that training to be a plumber, or a builder, a programmer, a banker, or whatever typecasts a person into that trade for life. I think a couple of years slogging your guts out for a few quid and putting up with a whole different world of bullshit (there is ultimately no getting away from it whatever you end up doing) is probably not a bad precursor to university. You won't be doing much calculus, and it'll be more a case of lugging stuff around and doing filing - but you'd probably get fewer dropouts, and a more rounded populace as a result of people getting that broader life-experience prior to going on to higher education.

But, as much as I agree and empathise with your idea - it is both a rant and also widely known to exist (i.e. apprenticeships etc cover the vocational side of things, and non-competition/golden handcuff clauses for systems training already do very much exist as well - although they are notoriously difficult to enforce) - and probably ought to be [m-f-d]'d as a result. I'm not going to do that, because I think it's valuable to share these kinds of thoughts - and maybe someone will benefit from your experience.
-- zen_tom, May 09 2012


They exist already? hmmm... Stands to reason, it's a somewhat obvious idea.

I guess maybe they should be more widely used, especially as a way to help people get a start (or re-start) in higher education. Again, maybe a guy like Peter Thiel could come up with some system/non-profit organization that could offer tests to people to see their abilities and then match them up with companies.

And it makes me wonder about testing. All the tests out there, maybe they could make something generic for this sort of thing. I know the US Military has the ASVAB, do they own ther IP rights to it? Maybe it should be released to industry/vocational schools.
-- EdwinBakery, May 09 2012



random, halfbakery