The Abbott governments cuts to the Schools Trade Training Program has to be one of the most short sighted decisions on education ever. The program of providing Trade Training Centers so kids can start to learn a trade whilst still at school has been one of the most practical forms of education imaginable. The program is aimed at the kids who are generally academically not suited to university for future training. The program is of value to both employers, giving them someone with a head start, and of value to the student in teaching skills they otherwise would not have, not to mention the self esteem it gives a young person knowing they are being valued by society. too often we throw kids on the scrap heap before they have even had a chance to "make a go of it" then we want to know why they are turning out to be social misfits. The kids who succeed with this type of program are not your drug takers and those into a lazy life of crime and dependency on others, but the ones who become responsible adults and self reliant. No matter what, the government should be spending more, not less on trade training programs, it will always be money well spent, and the bottom line is we need our "Tradies" if we are going to get ahead.

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/trade-training-funding-cuts-anger-union-and-opposi/2117852/

The thread has if we wish to look a message.
Its Author is far from alone in holding views that, lets face it, are extreme.
Such folk hid in the overall team that is the current two party government.
Labor too has in its big tent opinions that are far from mainstream.
Read, consume, the quite silly idea that we are doomed!
Yes cuts are coming and yes China hence us is likely to slow right down.
But ignore at your peril Howard success was based on China's peak times, and he wasted it.
If They thought all right or wrong is on one side *gives clear evidence the poster is not equipped to comment on the matter*
Rechtub reminds me of a road workers joke.
A car is being driven on the north bound lanes in a southerly direction.
CB Radio has a warning put out.
Warning a car is being driven in the wrong direction on the freeway.
Out Butcher reply's *there is not just one of them hundreds have past me!

cuts to the Schools Trade Training Program has to be one of the most short sighted decisions on education ever.
Paul1405,
If that's the case then yes, I have to agree with your assertion. However, if there's sufficient proof and, in my area we have that proof in the bag, that students did not learn anything from it & no apprentices evolved from it then it is a wise decision by the Government to prevent further wastage & it is in fact a far sighted one.
I maintain that discipline & responsibility go hand in hand & only a national service system can effectively address that. Educators themselves are lacking these qualities so don't expect the pupils to get any better.

Now I am not kidding.
Many years ago during the Witlam government,an anti workers letter writer took to me in the letters to the editor pages.
Intent on telling me wage rises meant the money was in the wrong hands.
In reference to me buying in a depressed market cows and calves for less than others paid for a bantam hen and chicks.
Again quite true the then elderly gent said in those letters we needed a system such as the one his Grand Father had.
In India! as head of rail maintenance.
He his grand son said put a beer bottle upside down on a flat bed truck and had it towed the length of his track.
If it fell over he flogged the Indian boss of Navy's!
Maybe Rechtub and at least one other would like that.
Any relation blokes?

Paul, I was in favor of school based apprenticeships, but I now consider the majority a dismal failure.

One point is the one day a week at work, as they simply can't learn enough with a full weeks break and, chances are the boss doesn't have enough free time to teach them.

Another problem is that the kids Finnish school and are considered a second year, but in reality (speak to any employer) they are barely a first year.

A better option in my view would be to do term about, school/work, or perhaps two weeks on, two off school, with alternate periods at work.

The other problem is that the instructors at tafe ore usually so out of touch with the industries that their teachings are pretty much worthless.

It's one of those cases of, 'sounded like a good idea at the time.'

Indi and rehctub, I do know 4 young boys, 2 sets of brothers, who took on the trade training at high school and all 4 have done well. All 4 got apprenticeships from school, the 2 oldest have completed there's and their younger brothers are well on the way. I don't know what part it played but all of them today are well spoken sensible young fellas. I see them now and then. Trade training should be seen as a start not an end, the key is "someone" has to take the kid on, that's all important. It's not new, my father the best tradesmen I ever knew, back in the 1920's as a young bloke went from normal high school to Technical HS, and then landed an apprenticeship with a large company where he worked, for the next 48 years. At one time it was relatively easy to get an apprenticeship, unfortunately that's no longer the case, they are hard to find these days.
Australia badly needs practical trained people, one tradesman is 10 times more productive than an unskilled person. Its "good" to have people working in insurance and banking etc but literally they wont put a roof over your head or a loaf of bread on your table.
They talk about the car industry for example, you can't have any kind of car industry etc, if all you have to work in them are "monkeys", people who don't have a clue how to build a decent car, or anything else for that matter, for-get-it. Just think for a moment what it would be like if every Australian worker was employed in only service industries that's, 4 million, bankers, 4 million insurance agents, need I go on. I would have to neck myself.
con't