Academic credit for McDonald’s employees

It’s long been known that job experience can rival (or even surpass) formal education for imparting important skills, and recently the UK officially recognized that fact by allowing McDonald’s to grant its own qualification to employees. The fast-food giant is one of just three employers given such power by the UK’s Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in January—the others were Flybe and Network Rail—and that month it began piloting a Level 3 ‘Basic Shift Managers’ course for employees that can count toward A-levels or advanced diplomas. The programme, which will be broken into credits, covers everything McDonald’s managers need to know for the day-to-day running of a McDonald’s restaurant, from basic operational requirements to finance, marketing and HR. University admissions tutors have reportedly balked at the new program, but ultimately the hope is that courses like it will create a better-skilled workforce. “It is going to be a tough course, but once you have got a qualification in management you can probably go anywhere,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown told GMTV. “I think that is the important thing, companies prepared to train people up which they weren’t doing before, in the way that we want them to do, in a far greater number, so that people have the qualifications for the future.” The government hopes other employers will follow suit. One for other chains to emulate? Spotted by: Junaid Kazi