A Case For a Software Testing Undergrad Major

Posted by samzenpus on Monday May 6, 2013 @04:36AM from the major-learning dept.

colinneagle writes "I have spent the last couple of days at the StarEast conference, listening to people explain to a roomful of testers about modeling workflows and data transitions, managing test environments in the cloud, writing automation scripts for regression tests, best methods for exploratory testing, running mobile test lab. And as I look around the room at the raw intelligence of the people who are not only absorbing that information but probing deeper into it during the Q&A sessions, I have to wonder how much easier their careers could have been if they had been able to major in Software Testing in college. It's time to give employers a testing workforce that is competitive and trained so they can stand toe-to-toe with the development team. Imagine the power of being able to hire a recent college graduate who has been taught how to develop system diagrams, build complex SQL, run log analysis, set up a cloud test environment, and write automation scripts. No more crossing your fingers that this eager young face in front of you can really pick up those skills, and no more investing so much time and money in training them on the job. We ask no less from Technical Writing and Development. Why do we have such different expectations for one of the most important functions on the team?"

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Re:Education is not for job skills by femtobyte · 2013-05-06 04:59 · Score: 5, Interesting

^^^ THIS. ^^^

No more crossing your fingers that this eager young face in front of you can really pick up those skills
On the contrary, this is exactly what a college level education *should* mean:

We threw fifty different areas of subject matter at the graduate, and she managed to think her way through figuring out all of them. Literature courses, history courses, math courses, physics courses, art courses, chemistry courses, sociology courses --- by now, she's figured out how to take any problem thrown at her, and become highly proficient in four months, and an expert in a year. Whatever specific new skills your job requires, this graduate will pick them up and be pushing the boundaries in no time flat.