The degrees of elite separation
MY little girl recently said that when she grows up, she wants to be a vet on the international space station. When I asked her why, she said: “Well who takes care of the astronauts’ pets up there?” Good point.
Every kid is asked what they want to be when they grow up, and this got me thinking about how powerful our responses to children can be. We all want nothing but the best for our kids, but sometimes we miss the opportunities that are right in front of us. Opportunities for a life of good, solid work where there’s plenty of money to be made.
Last week in North Queensland, the Prime Minister shocked the elites by saying: “TAFE is as good as Uni.” The conventional wisdom that has been fed to children for generations is that everyone must finish Year 12 and go to university. It doesn’t matter what you study, as long as you study something.
This is rubbish. University matters for the few who get the marks to make it. Just because you don’t get the marks doesn’t mean you’re a failure, far from it. Thousands of university students don’t have a job and therefore, can’t even begin to pay back their HECS debts. There is over $50 billion yet to be paid back to taxpayers by university students. Just a fraction of that money could revolutionise this country’s deep skills shortage.
As well as this, in 2012 there were 446,000 apprentices. Last year, it was a dismal 259,385. In comparison, there were over a million people enrolled in a university. While I don’t begrudge anyone who chooses to go to university, the numbers don’t lie. TAFE graduates make at least two thousand dollars more than uni graduates when they start work.
Like it or not, our population is only going to grow. They all need somewhere to live, infrastructure to get there, and the things we already have will need to be attended to.
We need to stop being snobs and happily cheer kids on when they wander from school into a degree with no plan on how to turn their study into a job. We need to show them the benefits of pursuing a trade much earlier than in the final years of high school.
While it’s a little too early to turn my girl from her dream job in space, it’s our job as family and friends to show children all the options that work life can bring. Not just the pursuit of a piece of paper.
In the meantime, businesses need to step up and offer more apprenticeships to young people and the Government needs to prioritise TAFE as well. The Prime Minister met with state and territory leaders on Friday to start that process. Half a billion dollars is on the table for practical job training.
It’s a drop in the ocean when we compare it to the $50 billion wasted on university debts, but it’s a start. And just like finding your dream job, the first step is often the hardest to take.