People need work. Everyone says so. And everyone seems to agree that work benefits people and enhances their well-being. Work provides money to live on, self-respect, a sense of contribution to society, an opportunity for social contact and even a reason for moaning about the state of things.
The problem is that there doesn't seem to be enough jobs to go round. We are told that in the global economy the answer is to train for highly skilled jobs with University education being the mantra and leading to IT and professional occupations that can contribute to the country's growth in terms of GDP.
A major problem with this approach is that it ignores a significant part of the workforce that remains essential even in the modern era. There is little encouragement for young people to experience and train in jobs that form the traditional 'trade' group of skills. No matter how technological our society becomes, we will still need builders, plumbers, electricians, car mechanics, etc.
An increasing proportion of our work activities involve face-to-face contact in services such as education, health, engineering, law and accountancy as well as the caring occupations and social services. In this day and age one would also need to add the entertainment industry which would include, not only the traditional range of arts, but also sporting activities. All of these occupations are characterised by the requirement to a greater or lesser extent of individuals dealing directly with the recipient of the largesse.
It is absolutely essential that we add the traditional trade services to these occupations. They are also the skills that the government recognizes as being in short supply and we continue to neglect to stimulate the interest of young people in them. No clear career pathways are advertised and overall we tend to denigrate them as less worthy and less noble than those above. (‘Education and Skills’, Paul Dalziel in “Inequality: a New Zealand Crisis”, 2013)
It is also absolutely clear that the economy depends significantly on this group of middle-income workers for its growth and vitality as they are the people who have enough income to support much of the basic economy in society.
Our training systems are too patchy and uncoordinated to excite and encourage young people into these careers and the training systems have become too theoretical to produce the hands-on practical skills that our society so desperately needs.
Shouldn’t we be encouraging those young people who are good at practical activities and like doing things to head for effective training in those areas rather than pushing them towards a university education that they are uncomfortable with and which will not give them work and the opportunity to contribute to society?
Archie Kerr has been a General Paediatrician at Hutt Hospital for over 30 years. Confronted regularly with the social factors that are important in the health and well-being of children, he has increasingly become aware that only major changes in the economic climate can improve their situation.