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Comment by fuzzythinker | Hacker News Reader

Don't think requiring 1-2 days/week of education is going to work. People who aren't interested in pursuing new technical education/re-education will not only not going to benefit from it, but it will also be a waste of the employer's money (2X actually, for the time lost and for the education). They will just either sleep during class if physical presence is required or just find ways to cheat if done online. On the other hand, those who do want to further their skills will not stop even if they are already working overtime, have a family with kids, or perhaps even personal side projects.

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The proof of the education shouldn't be passing some test or getting a certificate, it should be that you'll be required to use that knowledge in your job. If you "completed" the education and aren't able to do the work that requires it, then you didn't really understand the material.

At that point, it's up to your employer how they want to proceed (re-education, termination, etc).

Surely there must be some people who are in the middle, who would gladly pursue training if it were paid for and if time were made available for it by their employer. Consider, for instance, those people who have significant family commitments who cannot work more than fifty hours each week without suffering some hardship (maybe they have children or elderly parents or both). Just because you don't have free time outside of work to learn new things does not mean that you wouldn't want to learn new things if you had more time.

Why are you hiring people who aren't interested in pursuing further education?

Why do you assume I am hiring?

Because he needs to get work done right now.

In that case educational perks are probably not of serious concern.

People who aren't interested in pursuing new technical education/re-education will not only not going to benefit from it, but it will also be a waste of the employer's money (2X actually, for the time lost and for the education). They will just either sleep during class if physical presence is required or just find ways to cheat if done online.

It wouldn't have to take the form of classes. It could be some sort of relevant side project or open-source work.

On the other hand, those who do want to further their skills will not stop even if they are already working overtime, have a family with kids, or perhaps even personal side projects.

Sure, but they don't grow nearly as fast... and for many, not fast enough to meet the demands of the marketplace.

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