Those McDonald's A Levels

This is of course all over the place and is producing howls of outrage from people I normally consider quite sensible (no names, no pack drill here).

Staff at McDonald's will gain the equivalent of A-levels in running burger restaurants after the fast food giant won government approval to become an exam board.The firm is piloting a "basic shift manager" course, which will train staff in everything they need to run a McDonald's outlet, from marketing to human resources and customer service skills. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has approved the course.

I'm really not quite sure why the howls, I think it an excellent idea. Two constants in the analysis of the British economy over the past century (and if you read Corelli Barnett, further back as well) have been that we don't do vocational training well and that we don't do management well.

So when someone proposes vocational training in management (please, note that this is not training in burger flipping, this is training to run a store), an apprenticeship if you like, I think it's an excellent idea myself.

On a related note Free Exchange (I think that's Will Wilkinson there, but you can never be sure with The Economist) offers this:

Further, as vocational skills become increasingly scarce, they will become more valuable. Mr Meer speculates that, “..at least in wealthier areas, a good plumber makes more than a bad lawyer.”

A "basic shift manager" at McDonalds doesn't make more than a bad lawyer, to be sure, but the company, via it's franchising process, has created more millionaires than any other on the planet so far.

The only possible objection I can see to the scheme is that people think that the UK suffers from a surfeit of well trained and competent managers: this isn't an idea that normally features in an overview of our sceptered isle.