Learn a trade while still at school?

It sounds like a great idea doesn't it? 

Our "youth unemployment rate" is in the double digits - officially it was around 13% before Covid19. Now it is even higher. A figure of around 20% is more accurate - and even that might be too low.

Let me state the obvious. Having that many young people out of work is not a good thing.  

This morning there was one of those lovely announcements in the state newspaper. They are starting a "new" scheme to give students the skills they need for a range of jobs which are seen as being in high demand in the future. 

I had to read that twice. 

I will take this information over to the Senior Cat this morning. He will be interested - and probably scathing about it.

You see in this state we once had something called "technical high schools". I suppose they were a bit like the old "secondary modern" schools in England. The "high schools" were a bit more like the "grammar schools". The difference was that you could go to either. There was no entrance exam. The other difference was that the "technical" high schools taught more practical subjects - woodwork, metalwork, shorthand, typing and the like. Students from these would often go on to apprenticeships. Some of them went to university but most of them who wanted any extra qualifications would go on to TAFE - "Technical And Further Education". All these things were quite possible. High schools concentrated on more academic subjects like physics and chemistry, biology and history. There were also Area Schools in rural areas which were a sort of compromise between the two. (Area Schools were the sort of schools we attended at secondary level - the sort the Senior Cat was in charge of for some years.) 

Then came the "everyone is equal and everyone should aim to go to university" era. Technical high schools ceased to teach the practical subjects. They were renamed so they became just high schools. It was all designed to make sure nobody felt inferior. (Let's forget that a Governor of this state actually attended a technical high school and someone the Senior Cat knows well attended the same school and ended up a multi-millionaire in charge of his own company.) TAFE education was wound back too. After all why would you want to learn a trade when the jobs are all in "high tech" industries? The present high schools are a bit like non-streamed "Comprehensive" schools.

Well, it seems we still need plumbers, electricians, child care workers, workers in aged care, cooks/chefs and much more. Somebody has apparently done some "research" which tells us all this. They think it would be a good idea if we actually start teaching some of this in schools.

I hope they can work out how to do it and not upset the "everyone is equal and must not be treated differently" brigade or there could be problems.