20 odd years ago I worked for an OEM, over that period the company employed a number of engineers, most were graduates with masters degrees.
I would say that over 60% of them were useless & never would make good programmers, there were a couple of lads strait from school who took to it like ducks to water, none of them graduates or school leavers could possibly have any experience or exposure to not only PLC's but instrumentation & all the other bits that go with all the types of plant they would be working on.
My point is, yes advanced maths (beyond basic learning skills) are required but there is a big divide between being able to put it into practice & not.
Everybody has to learn, most of this experience is gained within a working environment. Take here in the UK, being a electrician means certification in some form, industrial electricians who deal with far greater installations than what we call a house basher, however, there is a thing called part P, what a load of b%&ST, Therefore if a qualified electrician who was experienced in installing major plant for example in a power station does not require it, however, a domestic installer does, my experience of some of these so called qualified Part P electricians is to say the least dismal.
Before I married, my wife had her own house, unfortunately the fridge freezer caught fire causing extensive damage to the house, the fire investigator was adamant that it was probably a cable that fed an outside socket directly under the floorboards where the freezer was located, I argued with him due to the floorboards were well chard on the top but still firm (my estimation of his ability was poor to say the least), an inspection proved me right, the insurance company employed a building company to do the work this turned out to be over £50,000.00 although the work by the builder was ok (not to my liking & some problems which I helped the builder sort out regarding the kitchen units), anyway some months after the completion, my wife plugged in the hoover in a socket & there was a large bang but there was no burn marks on or in the socket, investigation found that the MCB in the new consumer unit had not been clamped in the finger of the MCB was behind the clamp so when tightened up it was not secure, it was just touching the back of the clamp, turned out nearly all the breakers were in the same state, further inspection of the installed electricals found that almost all of the sockets & light switches were not tight, some had even started to arc. This had been done by an approved part P electrician, tested (well i have the certificates of the tests)reported to building control as required.
Back to the point qualifications are a good thing, I have loads of them including the simple ones like lifting gear, food hygiene, the list goes on, the qualifications only mean you have done the course & are good at passing exams, putting it all into practice is another thing.
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