Award for the most stupidly titled qualification you ever got…

To me it has to be the European Computer Driving License, I mean was I expecting to be caught back in 2000s operating a PC without a license and fined or convicted? 🤣

Who thought of such a title for a cert of basic Microsoft Office & Windows skills?

gipi

I remember doing the Microsoft Office User Specialist courses, so I could say I was a qualified MOUS!

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058303225/award-for-the-most-stupidly-titled-qualification-you-ever-got

I think I got mine about 1999 - still have it somewhere - yeah looking back now it was a silly title alright but I did have it on my CV as a lot of people were still scared of computers back then so it illustrated to employers you had a certain level of basic skills

Black Swan

Play on words.

Jim_Hodge

You have to look at the ECDL in terms of the times when it came on the scene. As a concept it actually worked in getting non-computer staff and employers to consider the potential of computers. The name was a gimmick but it was a successful one.

I forget how much it was to do the ECDL back in the day, but the city council sponsored me and best of all it was very enjoyable days off work preparing for each module and sitting the exams in leafy Ballsbridge. I literally wished it could have gone on forever, and got myself signed up for as many IT courses as I could as it meant time away from having to deal with the public. Free coffee and scones too, paid for by the taxpayer.

Then I got to teach other staff members these skills, which I thoroughly enjoyed doing, though I was asked to teach the public basic IT skills. I tried the latter once and never again. Got somebody with a genuine learning difficulty who couldn’t grasp the concept of email and got madly frustrated, kept on typing his home address into the search bar. I wasn’t helping by not being skilled at teaching somebody who needed a different approach. The thing is the customers were expected to grasp all concepts in 4 sessions, that was the deal. I backed out and stuck to doing more advanced spreadsheets etc and creating same for admin, and forever sorting out directories which the boss couldn’t get the back of. Eg, you’d find the routine monthly general report saved in a subdirectory in the Staff directory, or overwritten the previous month’s general report. She refused to learn any IT skills.

Flinty997

So many people breeze through with abysmal computer skills. Even these days I meet so many people at all ages old and young where basic office admin tasks on a computer are beyond them.

So I have a lot of time for people who have taken the time to do the ECDL. MOUS is a step above that again.

Working in the public service I used to be sent on various little courses with sone ridiculous titles and “awards”. The only one I can lay my hands on atm is ECDL because I was weeding out old paper files and had a laugh to myself at that, but at least it related to a specific tangible skill set.

There were some very nebulous ones, usually given with some American philosophy at its heart, one involved being instructed to touch customers in order to become a positive response from them. Somebody in class dared at the time to suggest that might be viewed as an assault, well before such a thing came to be viewed with the sustain it holds in this era. I’d love to recall the title of the course but it went something like Skillsets for Coping with the Difficult Customer, but I think it wasn’t quite as straightforward as that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120791925#Comment_120791925

Things like Word & basic Spreadsheets can be learned pretty easily, but the one module in the course that I notice the vast majority of people had (and still have) the most difficulty with is managing and navigating through directories, retrieving and relocating files, the old fundamental difference between “save” and “save as”.

DoctorEdgeWild

Black belt certification in Lean Sigma Six. Like I'm going roundhouse kick someone with my knowledge of how to populate a control chart.

Flinty997

In my experience most people know how to use about 1% of word and excel. Then wonder why they struggle with them.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120791983#Comment_120791983

The first time I ever had to use Word (or equivalent for Mac back then) was in 1992, hadn’t touched a mouse before in my life but took on the task of co-writing the biography of a friend who was terminally ill and editing for a transplant. There was a bit of pressure of time as we wanted to see it cone to fruition when the guy was alive, and enjoy the royalties from it. It was an absolute success in that respect, he got 26 added years and enjoyed the limelight when it was promoted in RTE and made bestseller for a week. It I was clueless as regards using a computer for writing, but an opportunity arose when a community arts charity offered use of their new Mac after office hours. The staff themselves were very new to IT and gave a 15 minute introduction before handing over a set of office keys.

Save, save, save and location of save was drilled into my head. Save several copies, take note of metadata of dates, comparing versions etc. This was a serious project, had to be just right for sending to publishers. It was evidently user-friendly, and I made sure to look at all the features of the app, creating word counts, indexing, search-find-replace, replace formatting etc. Because I had to do that, it quickly became se one nature and I rapidly came to love best my time spent on this machine.

Bogwoppit

I remember a module in Uni in the early 00’s, CLAIT, computer literacy and information technology. Normally you don’t include words like “and” when doing acronyms.

Also did the ecdl.

mockler007

In 1998, I got an award for hunga of the week. It was a summer course in the RTC or whatever it's called now. One of my proudest moments. I walked up to the stage like I was receiving a Oscar.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120792760#Comment_120792760

You were really awarded a CLIT! 🤣 how fortunate!

AndrewJRenko

Congrats to Katie Hopkins on her appropriately titled award;

iamstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120794471#Comment_120794471

Here's the context for that pic in video form:

https://youtu.be/eRIdtMlqwNA

BattleCorp

I had to do a course with the Irish Medicine's Board (Now HPRA) and my title after doing the course was Responsible Person. If anything would ever discourage you from doing a course, it's that title.

The Continental Op

Milk Monitor.

Blackboard Monitor.