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The worst corporate culture I ever experienced was in my last job. I have never seen anything like it and the worst part about it was that it was such an unexpected experience.I got a phone call out of the blue from an acquaintance from many years earlier. He was looking for a PM and my name came up and he remembered me. He offered me a job on the spot and I took it. I would have washed cars in the parking lot by that stage. The money was excellent but the commute was brutal. Nevertheless, I manned up and went to suffer the ride.The first day the President, my acquaintance said, “We have only one big rule here. We don’t hire assholes”. And he seemed proud of it. It turned out that the opposite was true. The only people they actually hired were assholes. My first day there they took me out to lunch and then talked business and ignored me completely. I didn’t care, I listened and learned.And then I spent my time meeting the managers to get to know them and their issues. The first one left me shaken. He openly called me “stupid” and “incapable” without even knowing me. “I would never have hired you,” he said, because I wasn’t from the industry. And he came right out and told me he would never, ever help me unless there was something in it for him. I left and went to my boss for direction. “That’s just the way he is,” she said, “You have to learn how to work with him”. Next I went to the CTO. Here was a smart, young crafty guy who wanted to give me instruction on the technology. He went to white board and spent an hour putting down facts figures, drawings and maps. It was bizarre, bewildering and incomprehensible. “Now that I’ve told you everything,” he said while rapidly erasing everything before I could write it down, “you don’t have to bother me with stupid questions. I’m too busy for that.” Knowledge was power and the more you had and hid from others the more important you were. Everyone husbanded their knowledge and kept it secret. There was no information dissemination anywhere. The head of VAR sales had been a former Special Forces captain. He was a straight shooter but secrecy had been ingrained in him for years. He wouldn’t tell you anything unless your life depended on it. And my friend, the President, had the gall to say, “You’re too good for this place, in six months, I’ll be making you the Director!” and he said it right in front of my boss, the Director. From then on, she did everything in her power to make me fail, with a sweet smile on her face. She kept notes on my every movement, every single mistake and chastised me for not knowing things. She answered every question with a stateless, circular response. “The framiston houses the framus because the framus is inside the framiston”. Every answer was a non-answer and if I asked for clarification she simply used the same words over, but in a louder, more irritated voice as if I were deaf.There was no training of any kind. You had to learn by osmosis. At one point I was tasked with managing Office 365 implementations, something I had never done before. No instruction was given. I went on the internet and read everything I could. It wasn’t enough. So I went to the IT guy who was one of the only helpful people I ever met. He took me through the procedure. When the boss saw me taking notes, he berated me, “Don’t bother him, he’s too busy to help you. Do your own job and let him do his.” So I shamefacedly went to my cube. The IT guy came by and said, “I can help you when no one is looking”. So I went to the customer to get his requirements and advice and set expectations. The boss went ballistic. “YOU SPOKE TO THE CUSTOMER??? HOW DARE YOU???” and launched a tirade of abuse at me which confused the hell out of me since in my role talking to customers was the primary way of finding out what they wanted. I was ordered firmly to never talk to a customer again.Finally, I was assigned a prestige role using complicated back-up software. The entire concept of back-ups for equipment is ineffably intricate and complex and yet it is becoming increasingly necessary. One thing I learned was that antique tape is still used for backups because it is so cheap compared to every other method. The company I was working with was so busy that they kept postponing the training. Sometimes the training would be in Albany and I got last minute notice. Albany is three hours away. Despite my best efforts, the training was sparse. I was bereft because my boss kept asking why I wasn’t doing more training with that company. It simply wasn’t available. Finally the trainer came to our office and he and I took over a conference room for the day. When the boss found out we were in there he said, “Where do you get off making them come here do to the training? If they are training you, that’s one less day they are out selling.” My head was spinning with the contradictions.Once I was on a conference call with a remote VP of technology and speaking to a vendor trying to get his equipment to work. It was complex and finally, near the end, it collapsed beyond repair. Our VP laid into the vendor and my ears were burning with shame. After the call I called them back to apologize on behalf of the company. I was in charge of minutes and when I reported the failure of the project it was necessary to outline the technologist’s outburst that ended the call. I was dressed up and down like a school child and told “it never happened” and that it was “my imagination”. While I was being dressed down, all I could think of was how the vendor was shaken on the call as well, over something that “never happened”.The woman across from me at my cubicle was in her 60s and a grandma and she looked like a grandma but she was good at her job. But the company didn’t like her because she was old and looked like a grandma. When her husband got cancer and she had to take days off she was constantly being given warnings for taking too many vacation days. They were forcing her to choose between her husband and the job (and insurance it provided). I saw her breakdown in tears on more than one occasion. When her husband died they called her up in the middle of the week she took off for bereavement leave and told her she needed to come back to work. I never saw anything like it in my life, the absolute lack of compassion, the unfiltered rage and undisguised contempt.I hated that place. I thought that eventually I could get a grip on the politics and the attitudes but in the end I was like a splinter from another world and the were the corpus forcing the foreign object out of the body. They had all worked together for decades and to them they seemed like a family, a company that would never hire assholes, but every single one of them was an asshole, a huge asshole interested only in how they could advance at someone else’s expense.

National Skills Qualification Framework – NSQF is a quality assurance framework that aims at bridging the demand-supply gap for skilled workforce in different industry sectors in India. It strives to ensure various interoperable quality standards for progression and upward mobility through formal and informal education and training by mapping different levels of knowledge, skills and aptitude with requirements to successfully perform on the job. When implemented well, NSQF can go a long way in removing the stigma attached to vocational education and training by promoting a culture of credit transfers and other modes of recognizing and rewards accomplishments in vocational streams.NSQF organizes qualifications according to levels of knowledge skills and aptitude in order to facilitate interaction between general education, vocational education and training that have hitherto been operating as separate and independent verticalsThe levels are detailed definitions of learningNSQF comprises 10 levels each representing different levels of complexity, knowledge and autonomy required to demonstrate the competence commensurate to that level. Each level is defined by the extent of demands made of the learner in categories like professional knowledge and professional skills, core skills and responsibilities.For each job role and level the Qualification Packs (QPs) and National Occupational Standards (NOS) are formulated by the concerned industry through sector skill councils.NSQF is operationalized by National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) to ensure that the quality and standards meet the requirements of industry sectors through setting up of certifying bodies.How NSQF helps schools and collegesIt is a well known fact that popular educational degrees in professional courses like engineering and management are not able to meet the talent requirements in the corporate sector in India. And, it also understandable that ITI and polytechnic courses are least aspirational even though they have an inherent potential to enable sustainable livelihoods , salaried jobs and self-employment. While most students are conditioned to one-track thinking they need to be aware of how their formal education connects with the workplace skills and the knowledge and abilities acquired through formal education. Some important questions need our immediate attention.How do we create awareness among students and parents that engineering is not the only aspirational degree to fulfill career ambitions? Are they prepare to accept alternatives such as vocational streams of education and training? Why are ITI s and polytechnics seen as least priority options with no higher education and future prospects? Are our schools and colleges open to flexible ways of certification and academic progression? How do we connect education with employability and show various paths to upward mobility through recognition of prior learning (RPL) and formal certification.Students need to know that formal degree curricula are mostly designed equip them with knowledge and they have to explore different ways of practicing and applying the knowledge. They need to appreciate the vocational aspects of learning alongside the school and college programs through real-work exposure, working with tools, machines and gadgets. Only then their higher education gets aligned with skills required at the basic levels and they are well prepared to understand the discipline and how it connect with the industry in a holistic manner. It is only by trying manual work that they develop respect for all trades and dignity of labour.The journey from education to employment is marked with several milestones – on the two extreme ends we have the students, graduates or job aspirants and on the other end the industry, the corporates with a range of jobs in private and public sector. The process should enable meeting the market demands for skilled workforce through industry approved training curriculum and placement options. It also needs to take into consideration the training of trainers.The levels are detailed definitions of learning outcomes that the learner must possess and demonstrate irrespective of whether the learning takes place through formal schooling or non-formal.It primarily aims at establishing interoperability through a national level quality assurance framework that is on par with international standardsAs a competency framework it integrates vocational education and training, general education, technical education through various paths that show the higher order and levels of learningIt aims at providing flexibility with multiple entry and exit levelsOne of the main objectives of NSQF is to facilitate easy entry into job market with desired skills and knowledge and continue learning and skill building for further qualificationsCertification and credit, transfer of credits, scoring more marks – establish equivalenceNSQF is derived in partnership with industry and prospective employers for validation of curriculum and upgrading with current knowledge and technologies.The objectives of NSQF are:Accommodate the diversity of Indian education and training systemsDevelop and implement a set of qualifications for each level, based on outcomes that are accepted across the nationDevelop and streamline multiple progression pathways that provide access to qualification and help people in moving easily between different education and training stream and between industry sectors.Progression paths also take into consideration their prior learning and experience through RPL assessmentsFunction as a supporting mechanism for national regulatory and quality assurance measures for education and trainingEnhances international mobility of workforce through compliance with global standards.NSQF comprises 10 levels each representing different levels of complexity, knowledge and autonomy required to demonstrate the competence commensurate to that level. Each level is defined by the extent of demands made of the learner in categories like professional knowledge and professional skills, core skills and responsibilities.For each job role and level the Qualification Packs (QPs) and National Occupational Standards (NOS) are formulated by the concerned industry through sector skill councils.NSQF is operationalized by National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) to ensure that the quality and standards meet the requirements of industry sectors through setting up of certifying bodies.How NSQF helps schools and collegesIt is a well known fact that popular educational degrees in professional courses like engineering and management are not able to meet the talent requirements in the corporate sector in India. And, it also understandable that ITI and polytechnic courses are least aspirational even though they have an inherent potential to enable sustainable livelihoods , salaried jobs and self-employment. While most students are conditioned to one-track thinking they need to be aware of how their formal education connects with the workplace skills and the knowledge and abilities acquired through formal education. Some important questions need our immediate attention.How do we create awareness among students and parents that engineering is not the only aspirational degree to fulfill career ambitions? Are they prepare to accept alternatives such as vocational streams of education and training? Why are ITI s and polytechnics seen as least priority options with no higher education and future prospects? Are our schools and colleges open to flexible ways of certification and academic progression? How do we connect education with employability and show various paths to upward mobility through recognition of prior learning (RPL) and formal certification.Students need to know that formal degree curricula are mostly designed equip them with knowledge and they have to explore different ways of practicing and applying the knowledge. They need to appreciate the vocational aspects of learning alongside the school and college programs through real-work exposure, working with tools, machines and gadgets. Only then their higher education gets aligned with skills required at the basic levels and they are well prepared to understand the discipline and how it connect with the industry in a holistic manner. It is only by trying manual work that they develop respect for all trades and dignity of labour.The journey from education to employment is marked with several milestones – on the two extreme ends we have the students, graduates or job aspirants and on the other end the industry, the corporates with a range of jobs in private and public sector. The process should enable meeting the market demands for skilled workforce through industry approved training curriculum and placement options. It also needs to take into consideration the training of trainers.

Early summer; near the peak of Pen Y Fan, Brecon Beacons, South Wales.On a nice day it’s not a challenging walk up. It is a nice day, typical Britain - sunshine and showers. But….At around 900m its breezy and the showers can be cold. Visibility can go from gin clear to cotton wool in moments. On one side of the ridge is a 300m sheer drop. A breeze with the shower and you are soaking wet in seconds. Shivers turn to shudders, core temperature drops. Hypothermia.Of course, you’ll be fine if you’re equipped properly: good boots, windproofs, waterproofs, compass, map, food…But the coach party of German tourists I met that day were not dressed like that. They had trainers, or sandals, T shirts. A couple had plastic macs. What a laugh, its only 900m , not really a mountain, not like the alps.But, if you’ve never been to the Beacons, and you think that the Germans had it about right. Just bear in mind. This is where the SAS train.So, trainers, shorts and T shirts on the summit of Pen Y Fan. The most ridiculous and dangerous thing I’ve seen tourists do in the UK.