Thursday, October 20, 2005

Insolent Question

If the 21,000 students of Te Wananga o Aotearoa, and some 40,000 other students in institutions studying courses of dubious merit, were required to cease their studies, and re-enter the labour market, what effect would this have on our rate of unemployment?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And having them sit around doing nothing on the dole improves matters exactly how?

Sure a lot of these courses are not rocket science stuff, but for someone trying to get out of generational poverty and unemployment they are a starting point. Any real objection to that, other than the possibility that they may finish up competing for your job...and taking it off you?

Insolent Prick said...

Anonymous, I'm not sure whether you're trying to be annoying, or are just stupid.

The point of my questions is that the massive numbers of people studying at the wananga masks the true rate of unemployment. To the same extent that the massive numbers of people working in the Railways until the mid-eighties were a mask of the true unemployment rate at that time.

Low quality courses with no career aspirations are not a starting point. They are a false start. They are a waste of a precious resource. Many times more people are studying liberal arts and social sciences at the Wananga alone, than are engaged in apprenticeship programmes. That is a disgrace.

And finally, nobody competes for my job, and nor is it likely to be taken from me. To suggest such a thing shows a general misunderstanding of how highly skilled employees function in the real world.

I work for my company because I add value to it. If somebody else with my skills and experience and networks and expertise came to work for my company, he would not be my rival. He would add value also.

New Zealand companies benefit from having a highly skilled labour market. That is not what we have in New Zealand at present. The wananga are a feature of the Government's absolute sham in tertiary education: students are pursuing courses of study in order to pass their time, rather than to pursue realistic and market-orientated employment opportunities.

The effect of that, as I say, is that many people currently enrolled in tertiary education are merely unemployed by any other name or function at present, and unemployable in the future. Unless their courses of study are meaningful and directly related to what the labour market actually needs, then their courses are a complete waste of time, taxpayer's money, and human capital.

Rob Good said...

It also allows for student loans which will probably never get paid back if the student doesn't get a proper job, therefore although I hate to say it, it is probably better for half of these folks to be on the dole as it will cost the government less in the long run. THe social welfare system needs to be totally re vamped in NZ.... Bludgers need to be turned into labourers and trash collectors if they choose to keep taking free money from the government.

sagenz said...

add sickness & invalid beneficary increases and the government has achieved precisely nothing with the unemployment rate