Secure job instead of uni seems to be a good trade
THE dilemma of whether a child should go to university to gain a degree is occupying many parents with Year 12 mock exams looming and career anxiety turning up a notch.
But I’m convinced that uni education should come with a warning: don’t expect it to prepare you for life. Or a job.
Some of our universities have suffered reputational damage, recently. Last week some Sydney University students campaigned to tear down a statue of William Wentworth – a pioneer who came from convict stock – because he is a “known racist”.
Then on Sky News, Sydney University student Will Jeffries explained how “equity officers” were crucifying debate in the classroom to the point where students had to state their pronouns (I’m she or her for the record) before stating their arguments.
Perhaps that’s why many parents are having conversations about the future with our teenagers, particularly our sons.
They are raising with us – rather than us with them – the issue of employability and relevance with a BA or something similar after their name.
As my son asks: how do you know that the debt acquired and time spent at university will get you a job?
The Federal government surveyed more than 120,000 university graduates last year. Pharmacy (97.2 per cent) and medicine (94.9 per cent) degrees had the best job prospects. But they are the exception.
Creative arts graduates
were at the bottom with only 52.2 per cent in full-time employment in the short term. Sobering, isn’t it?
Yet Gary Workman, executive director of Apprentice Employment Network which employs more than 30,000 apprentices and trainees, says there is still a stigma attached to trade.
He says students in Year 9 and 10 who are “pushed” towards plumbing, carpentry and the like are made to feel they are not smart enough, despite 95 per cent of trade graduates being hired full time.
In Europe, and especially Switzerland, from Year 9 GARY WORKMAN
many students do a schoolbased apprenticeship as well as traditional subjects so they leave school with practical and academic skills.
Going to uni does not future proof your children and part of the problem is career advisers who have been to uni themselves and for whom higher education is the path they are comfortable talking about.
Workman says: “The automotive industry is overlooked by career advisers because we don’t manufacture cars here anymore even though there are plenty of future-proofed jobs like autonomous cars, 3D printing and so on.”
“Parents need to be realistic – focus on what practical skills your kids can learn rather than prestige degrees.”
I have a colleague whose son is planning a uni course in materials science and engineering but at 17 is savvy enough to recognise the value of getting a trade qualification – in this case, welding.
His father says that coming from a family of middle-class professional degree holders, the idea was initially shocking, until his son explained his logic.
“He said he would have money to go to university, and a skill, and understand what he was doing when he went to uni.”
The question for parents is this: would you rather your child got a degree that you can brag about but potentially be unemployed; or be out learning and using a skill that will be in demand throughout their working lives?
Our children deserve that answer – and in their interest, not ours.
PARENTS NEED TO BE REALISTIC – FOCUS ON WHAT PRACTICAL SKILLS YOUR KIDS CAN LEARN RATHER THAN PRESTIGE DEGREES.