When I was at school I wasn't good in groupwork at all. After a couple of years in the workforce I got a job where I had good mentors and working as a team was essential. I learned a lot there and now work very well in a team. Actually since then, every position I've had requires good team skills. I studied at uni part time while I had that job and discovered I was a much better team member than several other students. Some years later when I returned to uni as a mature age student, I noticed several of the younger students in my classes were poor team players. I also noticed a difference in some students who were educated at a private high school rather than a public school. Teachers in private schools keep their jobs when they have a high pass rate of students, so the students tend to be "spoon fed" more often and I noticed at uni that a number of them had no idea how to study.
Throughout high school and uni we were placed in groups periodically to work, but we never received any instruction on how to be a good team member. Considering that this skill is often needed in the workplace, there should be more instruction on how to work together rather than the usual sink or swim approach.
One can debate what exactly makes up a good teamplayer.
And a thing I've found, is that the "younger" generation does learn a bit more of these teamskills. I ended up at uni at age 27. The rest in my group where kids that just got from high school and were almost 10 years younger. They had a totally different take on education. That as well as the fact that I do not work well with others, presumably an aspie trait, makes it a bit harder.
Back when I was studying journalism I found it slightly hilarious there was such an emphasis on "group effort". And to make it more interesting, you'd even got a grade on how well you worked within the group. Interestingly enough, there were no classes to learn how to be a group/team. That was an assumption that you'd have these skills when you enroll in these courses. Some people attending journalism school who are bordering anti-social behaviour apparently was totally new for them. The main reason I was there was because I like to write non-fiction. I'm not neccesarily interested in the news either (but I did enjoy the research to do editorials and articles; which apparently is more common for us on the spectrum). And obviously journalism school was the closest thing there is.
At the end of the year when I sat down with a counselor he told me that I didn't fit in within what the institute wanted from me. It wasn't that I was a terrible student, but I'm better off being a freelancer and doing stuff on my own rather than being taught how to become a writer for the local newspaper and be part of a group. So it's not just something I state myself. "Professionals" acknowledge that I don't have any teamskills and how they don't fit me as a person either.
But like I said, I guess nowadays there's a bit more emphasis on how to work in a group. Back when I was in high school we'd just have 25 classprojects, every student had it's own. Looking how it's now, there's 5 projects, each where 5 students work on a single project. So there surely is a bit more emphasis on it.
I agree that the system makes situations unnecessarily difficult for some people and especially Aspies. The obsession with the piece of paper is ridiculous. I'm now seeing people graduating with a double degree and then working in a low paid clerical position. If someone has the smarts to complete two degrees, I would think that this type of job must be rather boring and unchallenging. And considering the cost of a degree these days, ideally one would want to recoup that investment by earning a decent salary afterwards. What I'm now seeing in my workplace are long term employees with lots of knowledge and ability being overlooked for promotion in favour of university graduates who know very little. Or graduates who are being paid more need to seek advice from the long term lesser paid but more knowledgeable colleagues. That is leading to a lot of discontented people in my workplace.
Perhaps distance education would be more suitable for Aspies? I don't know about elsewhere, but in Australia the options for distance education are increasing. I'm considering that next year as podcasts and reading are more suited to my auditory processing disorder than lectures. I will also continue to work full time so it will suit my schedule easier, plus no travelling costs, no time wasted looking for car parking, no group work and no socialisation.
The obsession with that paper is becoming really stupid. I can understand why there is an emphasis on it. But on the other hand, society should learn to understand and accept that this venture just is not for everyone but that doesn't make someone "stupid" or not qualified. Back when I had a job I eventually was let go because my supervisor told me (and such it is written on my end assessment when I was let go) that he thought I didn't fit in. I was way to bright to work the rest of my life doing some menial job at a warehouse. I should pursue a career and get a university level degree. They couldn't offer me any growth short or long term at the company. They knew all to well, that if I got bored, I might go look for another job. And he knew all to well that boredom was inevitable. And that in the end would also pose a problem since they did invest in their employees for new training, but most likely what they'd offer employees still wasn't challenging for me. So with that I might leave all while taking along some qualifications they'd offer me. That's a bad investment for a company.
Distance education would be good. I've considered it. And there's a number of companies that offer distance education. The problem however here is.
1. It's expensive, and being on welfare checks doesn't really help you a lot. If I attend college I get a loan to pay college, no questions asked, by the government. If I plan to do it at home, I have to pay for it myself.
2. There's a big obsessions that people need to have experience in the field. Even for distance education nowadays they require internships for you to get this degree. I don't really know how they plan on this going to work for people that want to get some extra training/qualifications that have a job. But apparently without an internship somewhere your degree is only worth so much.
And besides, the things I'm interested in offer no real future perspective, lol. I've thought about studying philosophy. The only thing one can do with such a degree is become a teacher. But then you'd need to get qualified to be a teacher as well. And if there's something I don't care for it's being a teacher. I have little interest in courses that actually matter. I don't care for technical stuff that much, my interest in anything with numbers is slim and the list goes on. I mean; I ended up at journalismschool, which in hindsight was the most interesting of all these colleges/universities I attended in the past 10 years. I've attended 5, so there's that.
