Soon, thousands of students and undergraduates will resume their studies. In a few years, they will enter the labour market, hoping to realise their dreams of a career that will give them a good income and job satisfaction for the rest of their lives.
Of course, the labour market is constantly changing. Many find their dreams are often hard to achieve when they discard the rose-tinted glasses they wore in their student years. Unfortunately, parents’ ambitions influence many students who follow career paths that society often labels ‘respectable’.
Our society, like others in the Western world, has ingrained prejudice on what the ideal education for the younger generation should look like. Many believe that a university degree is indispensable for a well-paying career. Moreover, the fallacy that any degree is enough to land a well-paid job also persists.
Private education is a primary objective for many parents. They pay substantial hard-earned money for private schools where their children have a great time but often arrive unprepared on the threshold of the labour market. After all, what is so wrong with wanting to keep up with the Joneses?
CGIA is Italy’s association of small tradesmen enterprises. In a recent study, it found that there were more lawyers than plumbers in the country. Perhaps even more worrying, they found that while in 2012 there were 1,867,000 small tradesmen enterprises, in 2023, this number went down to 1,457,000. CGIA fears that in a few years, there will not be enough plumbers, carpenters, electricians, builders and many other tradesmen that the modern economy needs.
Some countries, including Malta, do not seem to worry too much about this trend. They continue to import skilled tradesmen from developing countries.
The prejudice against manual labour, especially of the physically demanding type, persists. Yet other countries are beginning to address this challenge more effectively by focusing on reforms that promote trade schools that provide youngsters with the practical skills that are in demand and pay decent wages to qualified tradesmen.
The prejudice against manual labour, especially of the physically demanding type, persists
Trade schools, also known as vocational schools or technical colleges, teach hands-on skills for specific careers. The better trade schools have agreements with industries to provide students with apprenticeship schemes as part of their training. Trade schools offer secondary or post-secondary education, as the earlier young people with an aptitude for practical training are enrolled for technical education, the better their chances of completing their education successfully.
In the last two decades, our MCAST has done good work in offering career paths to students who may have fallen behind in academic education or showed an aptitude for technical training. Still, more needs to be done to reform the education system.
The current educational regime is based on a particular view about what kind of knowledge is essential: ‘knowing that’ instead of ‘knowing how’. Our education authorities must consider the revival of trade schools at secondary education level to ensure that a sizeable cohort of young people do not waste five years of their mandatory education years achieving very little.
Young people can respond to a real and constant need with a vocation. The results-driven, hands-on work of these positions also contrasts sharply with many white-collar jobs that some consider increasingly meaningless or lacking purpose. Put simply, skilled trades careers can offer stability, job satisfaction with one’s work life and high wages.
Deciding between technical schools and university ultimately comes down to figuring out what you want to do. Each pathway has its merits, and chances are you will encounter different career opportunities as you gain experience.
One caveat for those convinced that a university degree is more prestigious is the reality that so many graduates today are underemployed in jobs for which they are overqualified.
Our vocational education regime may need to be streamlined to focus expenditure on the skills the economy needs rather than thinly spreading their limited financial and human capital on too many courses. They must aim to reduce industries’ addiction to relying too much on imported tradesmen rather than focus on upgrading the skills base of so many of our young people. Labour market policymakers must also have an input on the priorities for vocational education.
Our younger generations still benefit from a free education system at all levels. Still, we must incentivise young people to prepare for careers to help them achieve their dreams of well-paid and satisfying jobs.
Does it really matter whether dreams can be achieved in the legal or a tradesman profession?