McDonald's considers offering degrees to employees

McDonald's is mooting an idea to launch its own PhD in management as it continues with attempts to shed the "McJobs" stigma associated with working for the fast food chain. Speaking to the Financial Times, McDonald's chief people officer David Fairhurst said offering a PhD was the next logical addition to the chain's other training programmes.

McDonald's has received plaudits for its investments in employee development. Last year it became one of the first companies to be approved by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to offer A-Level standard qualifications.

The PhD course in question is in shift management.

Fairhurst said the new A-Level standard shift management courses had made McDonald's a "university in its own right", adding that around 2,500 employees had enrolled.

However, despite the prospect of "burger flippers" becoming academically qualified, the McJobs reputation of employment in fast food restaurants as low-skilled and badly-paid will prove difficult to remove.

The term was popularised in Douglas Copeland's 1991 book 'Generation X -- Tales for an Accelerated Culture' and also appeared for the first time in the 2001 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) where it was defined as "an unstimulating low-paid job with few prospects".

Last year, McDonalds launched a petition to change the OED definition, claiming the term is out of date. It said its own surveys had shown 90% of employees thought their training was valuable and would help them throughout their working lives.