Henry is still
taking deep breaths and counting to ten about the education issue. We think
there is a real chance to have a proper discussion about this and actually have
all sides working together to fix the issue, and Henry was particularly pleased
to hear a bit of a bi-partisan mea-culpa yesterday from the PM and Bomber on the
issue of skilled trades training, which was more-or-less let go years ago. The
skills shortage issue seemed to disappear in early April but thankfully
it’s getting some
attention again.

We now find
examples across several industries where demand for skills far outstrips supply,
and Australia is left in the difficult and unsustainable position of having to
import the skills from overseas, putting us in direct competition with a couple
of small emerging economies our readers may have heard of – China, India and the
USA. Which of course has the spin off of upward wage pressure.

Even the
supposedly partisan Dr. Kevin Donnelly, whose report into the deterioration of
the education system caused so much of yesterday’s wailing and gnashing of teeth
has come out in support of Bomber’s statements on the need for more skilled
trades training. At least a few people seem to be willing to work the problem,
rather than duck and dive and try to paint this issue as some kind of
ideological battle that must be won, lest the world as we know it end. This has
been going on for years and both sides of politics need to put up a hand for
some of the blame, along with parents, educators and several other sections of
the community.

The problem
is, we are not only talking about the lack of skilled training positions, which
is an issue at the vocational end of things. The major problems crop up much
earlier, with the fundamental, basic educational tools that underpin just about
everything in life.

Read full
article here.