"We don't want to be apprentices"

the young are apparently saying.

The media today is reporting that the number of young apprentices is actually declining under the current Labor government. Labor of course is the very side of politics which should see increasing numbers of young people taking up apprenticeships. What has gone wrong?

I can think of a number of reasons. It would be easy to say it was a sense of entitlement with respect to employment and pay for some. It is equally easy to say it is also a sense that "I am never going to get a job so why bother?" at the other. There is the lack of hope for the future and much more.

But there is something else we could do something about but almost certainly won't. We could return to the "bad old days" of the "technical high school" (a type of "secondary modern" in Upover). 

Were they really such bad places? Did students in those schools really feel no sense of pride or hope? Did they really feel they were getting a "second class" education with no hope of going to university? Did all the students who attended them actually want to go to university? Is it where everyone should aim to go?

A former governor of this state, a man I have met and talked to at length, was a "technical high school boy". It never held him back. He told me he had never regretted attending the secondary school he attended. Why would he? He worked incredibly hard and was awarded with the state's most prestigious job as well as a knighthood. Another man who attended the same school is a multi-millionaire. He used the skills he was taught at that school to set up his own business.  The Senior Cat's cousin, once "Apprentice of the Year" reached the very top of an international engineering firm and worked overseas for many years.

There was more than one similar school for girls with similar success stories. There is a woman who ran a hospital, another who had her own fashion business - and they are just two I have met. There are many others.

Now it seems this is not possible. "You need to go to university if you want to succeed" is what young people are being told. They are told they need university degrees to be electricians, plumbers, bricklayers and "roofing experts" - whatever they may be. Carpentry skills are no longer needed. The parts come in from China and you "just bung them together". Really?

I think it is much more likely we really need electricians who can wire a building to the requirements of those using or living in it. When this house was built there were additional power points put in. They were designed with aging and disability in mind.  The light switches are lower than usual for the same reason. The electrician who did the work was surprised by what was asked for and admitted he had to think about it. He also said that even then not everyone could have done as asked. You needed to be fully trained and qualified and able to take a real interest in your work.

I once knew a man who described himself as "rough carpenter". He did the basic work, the work that nobody would see on buildings. He must have done it well because he was always in demand. His home also had furniture he had made. At the time I knew him I didn't know much about carpentry because the Senior Cat did not have much time for one of his hobbies. Now I realise this "rough carpenter" had real skills. He was by no means "low level" he was an "essential" worker. 

We have been too busy telling young people that such work is somehow less important. It is not. It is essential. The dentist and the doctor are not going to be able to work without builders, electricians, plumbers, instrument makers and much more. Perhaps we need to rethink this and tell young people how essential these skills are - and that they can be proud of achieving them?