Imagine you are a guidance officer at a school and it was your job to advise the up and coming adults as to what career path they should choose, what would be your advice.

Now think very carefully here, as we have no manufacturing left, our IT faces huge challenges once the NBN is in full swing, The retail sector is in strife, form the likes of the major players and Internet shopping, torisum is all but gone and the latest Qantas fiasco has shown that a local service industry can't survive in the global market if it has to pay local wages and conditions.

Now while a large portion of the job market has been created by fixing things that the government caused, this can't continue as our capacity to borrow billions will also dry up.

We have the up coming carbon tax, along with the increasing preasure on mining, with the proposed mining tax and growing public and political unrest within that industry.

The greens doing their damnedest to shut down forestry, commercial seafood industries and mining also has huge ramifications for those industries moving forward.

Sure, we can send them all off to tech college, which is the latest trend, however, we risk having an oversupply of well trained trades persons with no industries to gain employment in.

Now before my fan club gets on thier high horse and shoots me down, this is not about kicking anyone, it's about the future of our future, our youth.

A tricky one, hey!

Rechtub,

I do not think you could advise anyone as to the best career path to follow these days.

As much as I like tradition, in our rapidly changing world traditions hardly exist anymore good or bad.

It is easy to blame governments but in the main they do tend to be reactive to the commercial markets needs and wants and in most cases the change or event has happened or is well underway before they get their head around the situation. This is not helped by a three year Federal parliamentary cycle.

What happens in Australia these days is dictated more by global forces rather than anything we initiate.

We live in a changing world and those changes are rapid as compared to previous times. It could be said the labour market is now little different from the stock market.

Look to yourself for your solutions. Blame serves little purpose. We do still live in a lucky country but that luck is not a birthright.

Take it easy.

SD

I'd start with a National Service, full stop. During that service young people will find far more direction than in any class room. They'd have the benefit of being taught from experience rather than just text books written by life experience devoid authors. Technology is highly advanced now but it is not 100% reliable. There's no plan B in modern technology. There's no plan B when off shore manufacturers take over completely. The time when they don't need our expertise from which they manufacture goods for us is here now.
As to advising a young person to choose the right path I can only say don't listen to an academic baby boomer & academics taught by baby boomers.

I'd advise they all become school chaplains and start a career path up towards Bishop rank.

This is a great industry that seems to thrive through good times and boom through bad.

No off-shore theft of jobs and better still, absolutely no tax to be paid.

A multi-national corporation like this is a fantastic place to dump otherwise unemployable people looking for perhaps the last job-for-life.

Blue Cross,

Amen !!

SD

first tell them there is no quick fix for anything

that quality of life is dependant
on the qualities you develop within you

learn to do it yourself
[dont rely on others to do it for you..
as they will take the cream off the top first]

i would say one good friend..
is worth 1000 face book friends
that the fix to any problem is closer than they think

that wealth is not a matter of credit or cash
that education is about being able to learn..then explain
[that if you cant comprehend a given topic/subject..then likely its a scam]

its a ashame youth is wasted on the young
we should be born old..then get younger every year
[if only in our thinking]