"...During the 20 years to 2000 the number of students enrolled in the country's universities more than tripled to 139,000.
But a university education is not the only path to success, a point graphically made by Education Minister Hekia Parata last weekend when she pointed out that New Zealand was in danger of experiencing a shortage of skilled tradespeople because so much focus was being put on channelling students into university and academic pathways.
"The backbone of New Zealand has been built on tradespeople, who then go into business and become our middle-class citizens," she said after delivering a speech to an Independent Schools of New Zealand conference.
In the rush to acquire academic qualifications New Zealanders have forgotten the value of other occupations. But for some, wiring and plumbing buildings not only provides greater satisfaction than shuffling paper, it also proves more rewarding..."
Indeed.
We are approaching a day when the BA, MA and PhD types will be calling for a plumber or a sparkie- and waiting for them to come from the workshop- in Australia.
3 comments:
Over here in UK most of the younger plumbers are Polish.
The trashing of the NZ apprenticeship scheme by National a decade or two back wouldn't have anything to do with any shortage, I don't suppose?
Same problem here in Australia.
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