Off the rails

I left high school after four years and signed up at the Woburn railway workshops – an

apprenticeship with fairly liberal time off to study NZCE. Much of it also working a full day and sometimes I envied my mates who had gone to university with all their holidays and free time.

On my first day, about 100 of us assembled outside the admin block. When an instructor asked how many could not read or write, I was surprised at the number of hands that went up.

NZ Rail had a hostel near the Wellington railway station where young guys from out of town had to live for a couple of years. They were provided with meals and kept an eye on until they learned a few life skills. At 19 or 20 they emerged as tradesmen and were snapped up.

I am sure that many of those on benefits today would be happily and gainfully employed in such a place if it still existed.

But it doesn’t. Closed because it was ‘‘inefficient’’ – by a Labour Government of all things. How blinkered were those who made those decisions.

Now it has all come back to bite us on the bum. Now, every second tradesman seems to be from some other country while our youth languish on the dole and join gangs in need of something, anything. John Leith, Oakura

A degree after an apprenticeship is a lot easier than an apprenticeship after a degree.

Aaron Harvey, Invercargill