I feel sorry for the students in question, too. However, they are not as unemployable as you suggest. I also deal with business students in a stat class. their numeracy, as well as statistical understanding, is weak. the stat understanding may improve with my course, or it may not.
What is critical, nonetheless, is that most of them are initially unaware of the terms, ISO9000 or Baldrige Award. A few more have heard the term, Six-Sigma. And these folks live in the city that started GE on 6-S - GE Med Systems in Milwaukee, also the headquarters of the American Society for Quality. "The Word" has not diffused as far as we might like. these students, when they return to their firms, often find that their managers are uninformed. I'm told that the best part of the course in which they interact with me is the 'real' examples I give them. If one example fits the issues they face in their firm, there is a chance that they can do something. Inasmuch as I hope professors are teaching for the far (20 year) future, I am less despondent. When I see 6th graders doing designed experiments, and 1st graders doing run charts, with interpretation, I can feel comfortable that all the adults need to keep learning. but on the whole, American business has always been extremely diverse in terms of technology adoption, and fact-based decision making methods are no different. Companies and individuals that do not understand what is happening may suffer, but this group has always suffered economically. Perhaps if some instructors in other subjects were to integrate a little bit of statistical thinking into the problems they present, both statistical as well as the other technology understanding would improve, and the students could avoid the worst of the economic suffering. Jay "Ken K." wrote: > I feel sorry for your students if what you say is true. They just don't have > much of a future. > > In today's marketplace, with the almost unbeleivable whirlwind of Six Sigma > Balck Belt (and related) activity out there in both manufacturing AND > service organizations, anyone who doesn't understand and actively use > statistics is essentially unemployable. Without the ability to make > data-based decisions and the ability to improve processes and solve problems > they will find themselves making business decisions blindfolded. > [snip] -- Jay Warner Principal Scientist Warner Consulting, Inc. 4444 North Green Bay Road Racine, WI 53404-1216 USA Ph: (262) 634-9100 FAX: (262) 681-1133 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.a2q.com The A2Q Method (tm) -- What do you want to improve today? ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =================================================================
