I read a post a few days ago saying claimed that 40% of business owners world wide felt that their growth was slowed because they couldn't find qualified staff.

With the combination of the new university legislation and these statistics, I feel like the economy is in for a tough time.

If businesses can't find qualified staff, yet staff can't afford to get qualified, where does the circle end?

Can you see anyway that this cycle will break?

I suspect that the poor standard of maths in primary and then secondary
school is the key to the lack of people able to be trained in technical
fields.
Maths teaches the fundamental understanding that working at the detail
gets the job done. That is where the technical abilities are formed.
It does not have to be high level maths, just what used to be normal
high school maths. It will setup high school students for thechnical
training or for engineering at university.
Do that and the qualified vacancy problem will be solved.

Surely if one does a degree and comes out with a five figure job, asking them to pay for that knowledge is not a huge ask. It's all part and parcel of the entitlement mentality.

As for qualified staff, it comes back to people's unwillingness to face or deal with conflict, because whether it be in school, work or even within the home or relationships, too many today prefer the easy way out of avoiding conflict, rather than dealing with it.

So, as a long term (former) employer myself, it was very hard to be stern with a learner as they would usually just move on. I'm afraid the 'hard way' is still the best way to learn.

The problem is we are what we have made ourselves, and when discipline goes out the door, so too does care factor. The seed was sewn decades ago and the fruit has now ripened, good luck in changing that.

Don't be silly jvisions, university graduates aren't qualified to work in business. They are almost entirely only qualified to become bureaucrats, teachers, or be employed by some other taxpayer funded area. The ability to work is not something taught in universities.

Business needs real people, who can actually make change, with out a machine doing it for them.

Show me an arts graduate who can do that, & I'll listen to you.

Business owners need staff who are reliable, flexible and committed. The public service hires staff that are 'qualified' but spend so much time on flex leave, recreation leave, maternity leave, special leave and junkets that business needs to be taxed more and more for these 'qualified' staff.

btw any business owner with half a brain will pay reliable, flexible and committed workers well because they have seen how destructive hiring many 'qualified' staff is.

Farmers are facing the same situation, if not worse. Young people today are not attracted to physical labour. Food producing farms that have been in families for generations are seeing the younger family move away as they have no desire to be on the farm.

Food production may become a serious issue in the not too distant future.