Originally Posted by Vortex Thing
My point is that when you hire someone you should not just hire them for their intrinsic skills of being able to fly a plane well. You should hire them for their personality, business acumen, overall aptitude and other skills. I would argue that in a modern airline a multi skilled pilot who understands IT, business, the travel industry, and the surrounding issues in aviation is far more valuable than a better pair of hands who can do none of the above.
After a certain amount of experience say 1500hrs or so on a type (willing to concede more or less but the figure is arbitrary) there is little difference between the benefit the airline is getting from your average or Chuck Yeager like ability. They do however need pilots with the correct world grounding to be fleet managers, chief pilots, i.e you need to promote pilots within the firm to other duties. You are part of the airline as a business person NOT just a pilot. That is only one of your duties within the firm.
Of course, I couldn't agree more. My point is that you can have
exactly that without going to university. Some people who argue that university is must imagine those that don't go to university to just sit there in a sterile room for 3 years, whereas in actual fact, they could well have gone out and worked hard in various industries and learnt a lot more about the adult way of life than somebody who has a degree!
I know I've learnt a lot since leaving school - far more than I would have done by going to university and having a part time job in a retailer. It's categorically wrong to assume anything about somebody with or without a degree.
Somebody with a degree in maths could have the business acumen of a sock and the personality of a breeze block.
Therefore, to me, a degree is a measure of nothing other than that they can study. An interview, personality test, teamwork tests and aptitude tests are the best ways to find if a candidate is worthwhile and the way in which (I assume) most airlines will filter out candidates first. Then, if you have a bunch of people with those skills necessary can they filter out those based on more pedantic (for want of a better word) measures.
I had a place at a university, but I declined a few months before attending. I'm no less of a person because of that decision.