McDonald's Degree 麥當勞學位 @ 看BBC學英文

Fast-food Chain Serves Up Degree Course

速食連鎖店提供學位課程

Against a background of controversial plans to triple university tuition fees, students feeling the pinch might be tempted by a new degree course where you can study while working full time.

The new qualification will be offered by fast-food chain McDonald's, who are launching their own two-year foundation degree in business management for restaurant bosses in the UK.

Their aptly-named Hamburger University in North London has been training McDonald's managers since the late 70s, and will now add accredited degrees to the menu for the first time.

Traditionally, working at the hamburger chain has often been seen as a less-than-desirable vocation, even giving rise to its own slang word: the dreaded 'McJob'.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a McJob is an "unstimulating, low-paid job with no prospects".

But McDonald's senior vice-president David Fairhurst says the course challenges these misconceptions about the employer.

"The old 'McJob' label is lazy and snobbish", he says.

The course is a demonstration of how seriously the company takes the training of its staff, says Mr Fairhurst. He also wishes for the company to be seen as a "pioneer" in educating employees.

"People no longer want to choose between jobs and education. They should not be parallel universes," he says.

The new degree will be taught by a combination of classroom study, e-learning and training in the workplace.

However, McDonald's is not the only company which is developing its own qualifications. Department store Harrods has set up its own degree course, and Microsoft awarded qualifications to 17,500 people in the UK last year.

Glossary 辭彙表

controversial plans 有爭議的計畫
triple增至三倍
feeling the pinch 感到手頭拮据
foundation degree 基礎學位
business management商業管理
aptly-named 巧妙命名的
accredited degrees 官方認可的學位
hamburger chain 漢堡連鎖店
less-than-desirable 不太令人滿意
vocation 職業
giving rise to 導致
dreaded令人畏懼的
unstimulating沒有刺激的
no prospects沒有前途的
misconceptions 錯誤概念
label 標籤
snobbish 勢利的
pioneer 先鋒、前驅
parallel universes 平行宇宙、平行的世界
department store 百貨商店

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