A certain amount of truth here. Credentialism has gone mad. Unis are pretty much like Bunnings and floq expensive qualifications all across the qualification framework. Even so, Gillard's push to get more young people to complete Bachelor degrees is spot on. The future is technology and applications. Current students are, and future students will be, some of the best educated on the planet. How they use their brains is up to them.

Oh they're not doing science or IT Chezza!

IT - 5%

Natural and Physical Sciences- 11%

Management and Commerce - 21%

and, the kicker...

Society and Culture - 26%
Creative Arts - 7.5%

So, a third of students doing the airy fairy stuff, a fith doing w@nker banker stuff, 1 in 20 doing IT, and 1 in 10 doing Science (Including 'environmental science' no doubt).

http://www.deewr.gov.au/HigherEducation/Publications/HEStatistics/Publications/Documents/2008/2008AllStudentLoad.xls

It wouldn't really matter how many graduates were being produced provided they were receiving a broad general education.

They are not.

They know a bit more than some others about a Little and bugger all than most about a Lot.They cannot,in the main, even be described as highly trained twits.

Maybe they shouild all be compelled to gain an Arts degree first,( a great degree except for Employment purposes ) and then after having obtained some "education "from that degree,only then , can they proceed to obtain a "real" degree.

I blame it on the Universities,who having become the Rest Homes for drop-out socialists, then have to justify their existance!

...Here is a career path that many kids I observe follow, leave school at fourteen or earlier if possible, roam around town aimlessly until arrested for petty theft; continue on this recognised course until accumulating enough demerit points to accord a jail sentence: The “everyday” kids version of Tertiary Education .

...After a minimum of two years tucked up securely with likeminded youths behind bars, the sense of total inapplicability of themselves towards society begins to dawn. What follows is the emergence of a serious career path, where, with the addition of an addiction to drugs and alcohol, all necessary education is complete.

...I look forward to your stimulating articles Brian.

Brian,

I'd say the problem is not so much 'credentialism' as the type of credentials educational institutions provide. Australia has long been poor in that middle level technical education that for example the Germans and other Europeans, provide so effectively. Those are the kind of credentials that the nation really needs.
I can also remember the CAEs, which provided that middle level technical training, their elimination or 'promotion' to university status was one of the most inept 'reforms' implemented in this country.

Australia has a very low productivity growth rate and consequently a low increase in per capita income, so all this increased emphasis on credentials appears to be misdirected.

Some years ago I can remember hearing a satirical reference -- 'What's next? A Master's Degree in Golf Course Management', Well, yes.

So true Brian, but it has been going on for a long time now.

I'm an engineer, but I became an expert in plastics moulding, shoving molten plastic into a die, or through a tool. This was because I was interested, & no one had done in it yet. There was no school.

I learnt a little from the raw material manufacturers chemists, a lot more from tool makers, & quite a bit from the lowly process worker, working the injection machines in factories. However most was by trial & error, in customers factories, where as the expert, I knew just a little more than they did.

Aspley it might be better if they had to acquire a trade before starting a degree. They at least would have some practical experience, hopefully some understanding, & something to fall back on.

I remember having a bear with dad, & a couple of his mates, about 40 years ago. One of them was a bit upset. He was a plumber, who had worked up to factory manager at Gilbarco, the large petrol pump manufacturer, incidental established by a couple of smart tradies many years before.

He had been called back to work, for the third time in 9 months, after retiring, to sort out a problem. As with loyal old timers he had cancelled his trip to the UK to help.

The 2 youngish graduate engineers, hired to replace him, had still not come fully to grips with the factory, the manufacturing process, or the product, even after a 3 month training process, & 9 months supposedly doing the job.

He was complaining about how little some graduates knew, & how poorly prepared they were to learn what they needed to know, out in the real world. Air conditioned engineers he called them, OK in the office, but should never be let out into a hot dirty factory, they were so impractical.

Continued