Nothing like on the job training. Pity our nurses don't still do it.

The people who ran the engineering cadetships at General Motors Holden knew their stuff. They reckoned that no one did anything at university on Mondays & Fridays. We cadets worked at the factory, [Pagewood for me], Mondays & Fridays, & went to uni the other three.

There were 4 of us there at that time, in different years, & not one of us struggled keeping up with the 5 day students. The fact that we had access to engineers working at the plant was actually a huge advantage, against those with just the professors to ask.

Interesting, even with that advantage it was an amateur who taught me how to design build & maintain a racing engine. A tax accountant by day, & racing engineer by night, Kevin Carrad was probably the best motor racing engineer of his era.

Re apprentice training:
Cockatoo Island Dockyard (under its various names) had an Apprentice Training Wing that trained some 150 apprentices most years (as I remember) in a variety of trades.

This came to an abrupt halt when the then Federal Labor Government closed the Dockyard, by terminating the lease on the Island.
Submarine repair was moved to WA to shore up Kim Beasley's chances in the coming election.
Some 4,000 people also lost their jobs for Kim's benefit.

Butch,

Congrats, on your willingness to help out those on the dole, and so ably demonstrating the purpose and benefits of the work for the dole program.

It only takes a portion of workers getting jobs directly or indirectly through experience to prove the left whinge knuckle draggers wrong.

Shadow, as one who supported the exploitation of the 7/11 workers it is understandable you would make a silly statement like; //It only takes a portion of workers getting jobs directly or indirectly through experience to prove the left whinge knuckle draggers wrong.//

I for one have commended Butch for his efforts based on what he has posted. However, there are employers who would exploit cheap government funded workers on the Newstart Allowance, never intending to give them the opportunity they deserve. If you were an employer I know which camp you would be in.

What planet do you inhabit Paul. I have never read such twaddle.

Unskilled & inexperienced people in the workplace are very costly. They certainly don't provide any sort of free labour. They may have a hundred years ago, when they could perhaps dig a hole, but today having beginners around simply absorbs too much of your experienced staffs time, to be of any value

For Rehctub using the system to evaluate a number of youngsters, & find one worth employing it is probably cost effective, but otherwise it is basically an extra cost, hard to justify. No unskilled inexperienced person can earn their costs in the first 3 to 6 months of employment.

With our crazy unfair dismissal laws, where you have to pay an unsatisfactory employee "go away money" to get rid of them, employing new staff is a costly nightmare. It stops you giving a slow learner a chance, as after 3 months you are stuck with them, even if they don't become useful.

We all know it can be hard to see the woods for the trees, but with lefties it is impossible for them to see the facts for the ideology.