Documents menu

McD moves into Schools as Curriculum

From: Pat Thomson <pthomson@camtech.net.au>
11 November 1997

Dear Mc Spotlight,

I am not sure if anyone else has told you but young people who work for McDonalds in the Australian state of Victoria can now do a Year 12 subject while they work. Its a Mc Subject for the Victorian Certificate of Education. They get credit for the in house training.

The vocational education and training system in Australia requires that an accreditation panel examine the curriculum to make sure it meets the national standards. Because Mctraining is a commercial product, the entire accreditation process had to be conducted in secret and schools cannot find out what is actually taught because the Mc course is only available in store. It is assessed by Mcstaff not teachers.

There are serious issues about this including:

1 the possibility that it violates Australian fair trading laws and national competition policy

2 the likelihood that other fast foodies will mount their own courses

3 serious concerns about knowledge - I bet there'll be no McLIbel

information able to be talked about in schools...and this is hardly what most people consider school 'stuff'.

4 the hold that McDonalds will have over their staff - not only pay but also school credentialling

5 possible unfair advantage in recruiting staff Nobody knows if this means that McDonalds now is able to claim that school students are officially classified as trainees - so that Mc Donalds can claim a hefty government subsidy - thus making them almost free of charge to the company. The difficulty is that it is really difficult to find out anything!

There is quite a lot of discussion about this nationally. Most other Australian states are pretty hostile to it, but the Federal conservative Education Minister is claiming credit for the whole thing.

I live in another state but may be ale to track down other information if it is helpful