You won't get me on Fraser Island nutter, I hate sand flies.

imajulianutter, the days of not needing an education are all but gone now as one can't even get an interview without a piece of paper stating their levels of experience (attainment).

It won't be long before one requires to do a course on how to sweep a floor, or use a shovel in a safe and efficient manner. Don't laugh, the day is near.

Rubbish.

The days of initiative are not dead. And I see many youngsters showing the guts to do as I have done.

It is only the generation of scaredy cat spoon fed children of those who valued the security of public service jobs (because of their life experience of the wars and the depression) who espouse the views you hold.

We who understand initiative and guts know the outcomes of these are more important and way more fulfilling and productive than security sob cringing jobs.

Have you noticed most of those espousing the handout security mentality come from or are influenced by this scaredy cat cringe.

rehctub

mate, sorry, I wasn't including you in the scardy cat cringing mob.

imajulianutter, I live part time and work part time in a mining town.

There are literally hundreds of jobs sites out here, mostly in remote location on farmland and, if you go to one of the hundreds of gate houses looking for work, they simply direct you to a web site.
so you go to the web site, only to be asked what qualifications you have and more importantly, your level of experience.

Now even if you are qualified, quite often you don't even get a reply, let alone a start

Then, if you do get a call up, you are then subjected to a VOC ( verification of comitancy) which, if you fail, you have no job.

Now, if you don't even have a statement of attainment for anything (the new words for 'a ticket) then forget it.

So unfortunately it's not a load of rubbish, as the world you and I grew up in has all but gone, replaced with people who favor a piece of paper rather than expertise because without that piece of paper, chances are you won't even get a call up.

Yep, that piece of paper absolves the "B" grade personal officer, or what ever grandiose title they are going by today, of all responsibility to judge applicants. It can't be their fault if a bloke doesn't live up to his qualifications.

Interestingly this is happening as the bits of paper issued by our institutions of higher learning are rapidly becoming almost valueless in this age of ALL MUST PASS in universities among others.

A mate who has been hiring & firing for the mines for many years told me recently he goes head hunting for such critical positions as grader driver. He reckons grader drivers are among the specialist occupations where competent people are born to it, not trained.

When he needed a finish cut grader driver for the rehabilitation area of a mine near Kingaroy, he brought one he knew was good from Dampier. God knows what it cost, or what the job pays, but I doubt many engineers get as much.

There are still some jobs where skill & touch are highly rewarded. Paper not as important as experience & ability in a few areas at least.