Tuesday, September 4, 2007

What is Workforce Training?


College football has started and I couldn't be happier. I was able to watch a fair amount of games over the weekend but as always, not enough. Thankfully my in-laws were in town so I was able to watch quite a few games in the living room with my father-in-law while my wife chatted with her mother. Next week, it's probably back to the spare bedroom and the tiny TV for a lot of the games. As we were watching last night's game, Florida State's Drew Weatherford needs to learn how to throw the ball away, I came across something I had never seen before. A player for Clemson is majoring in Workforce Training. Workforce Training?! (I'm having a difficult time finding anything on this major but it's somewhere in that link.) I even had to pause the TiVo to make sure everyone in the room had a chance to confirm what I thought I saw. All of us saw the same thing so I figure it must be true.

My point is not to make fun of the player so I will not mention who it is. The point is to make fun of the school. Since I have no idea what Workforce Training is I can only assume Clemson has a prestigious trade school located on campus. Does the degree holder have the upper-hand when applying for any of the thousands of managerial positions at fast food restaurants? Or does the graduate have the inside track to an executive level position with a distinguished temp job agency?

For the rest of the season I am going to be on the lookout for outrageous academic majors. Again, I am not going to name the players because it's not their fault the school they attend offers such majors. Besides, knowing the hours student-athletes put in for sports I can't blame some of them for taking easy classes. (Yes, I understand I will be making assumptions on the course difficulty for some of these majors since I have never heard of them and have no idea what they are.) This will likely be a fun activity for me until I find someone from my alma mater getting a piece paper equal to mine for majoring in Workforce Training. At that point I will stop trying to identify The OpinionSmith Ivy League, whose membership at this point consists of Clemson University.

(Picture from Grad Profiles.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Smith,
I would interpret Workforce Training being Workforce Management. Workforce Training is equivalent to Human Resource Management. All businesses and governmental agencies have Human Resource Departments that help manage their workers. This is NOT a silly major and nothing to be made fun of. You need to open up your eyes and maybe visit the Lundquist School of Business at the University of Oregon and see if they have any courses on Human Resource.

I enjoy reading your blog but let's get the facts together before you spout off on something you don't fuller understand.

Obviously OSU grads understand more fully the business world than UO grads.

J Smith said...

I would interpret Workforce Training otherwise. If it is so closely tied to the Business School then why is it in the College of Health, Education and Human Development? I am flattered that you know the official name of the Business School I graduated from. I wouldn't have the slightest idea what the OSU business school is and I apologize for that. I spent a fair amount of time taking classes from the Lundquist School of Business and never once came across a class that I felt should have been a part of the College of Education.

Unknown said...

You know what's funny? I saw that, too. In fact, the reason I found your blog was because I Googled "clemson workforce training."

Anyhow, I actually went to Clemson - just graduated this past August. I had never heard of that major before in my entire life. What's weird is that Clemson is primarily an engineering school - a pretty good one at that (check the rankings) - although we certainly have some weird/easy majors, majors often chosen by football players so they can keep their eligibility. Regardless, I was pretty embarrassed myself when I saw that on ESPN; I'm glad someone else noticed it.