Editor’s view: A degree is not the only option

Many Queensland high-school students today are considering post-school options other than an expensive three-year stint at a university and our education system needs to react in a meaningful way, writes the editor.

It was some time in the late 20th century that Australians suddenly decided that a university education was a prerequisite to success in life.

The push into universities is starkly illustrated by Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.

Between 1971 and 1991 the proportion of Australian men with a degree rose from 3 per cent to 8 per cent while the proportion of women with a degree rose from 1 per cent to 7 per cent.

From there enrolments in universities exploded to the point that, between 2016 and 2021 alone there was a 30.7 per cent increase in Australians holding bachelor degrees.

Yet an intriguing story in today’s Courier Mail by journalist Toby Crockford provides some evidence that many Queensland high-school students today are considering post-school options other than an expensive three-year stint at a university.

The story reveals that the number of offers that were made to Queensland students for a place at a university in 2012 was around 49,500.

The number of offers one decade later, in 2022, had dropped to 45,117.

The data is not suggestive of a major shift in behaviour.

But it shows there has been some alteration in how our kids are choosing their career pathways.

Gold Coast high school dropout Cory Still now runs his family's removal business – Dons Removals and Storage. He also owns a cafe, and two homes. Photo: Nigel Hallett.

If that is so, our education system needs to react in a meaningful way.

Educational levels are a vitally important metric in assessing the quality of life of any country, with higher education levels almost always leading to higher standards of living.

But Australians have clearly placed a premium on a university degree, while many of us have failed to grasp the value of a practical education in learning a trade via a working apprenticeship.

This nation desperately needs skilled labour, from carpenters to plumbers to boiler makers and electricians.

And, as many successful tradespeople will tell you, there is tremendous worker satisfaction in mastering the tools of trade, building houses, constructing bridges or playing a part in the creation of major infrastructure, be it in mining or road building.

Then there is the matter of financial reward.

The $200,000-plus a year salaries that are increasingly being offered to qualified tradies are not merely anecdotal stories or urban myths.

An International Construction Survey released last year revealed that Melbourne’s construction tradies were receiving an average of $124 an hour.

And they were well behind their colleagues in Geneva, where construction workers were earning an average of $175 an hour.

Our education system must make it clear to young men and women who have no real interest in the academic world once school is finished that there are other options on the table. And lucrative options – with endless work opportunities – at that.