He will discuss a proposal with George Bush at APEC about the prospect of allowing Australian youths spend a gap year in the
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Oddly I do agree with the principal of school leavers not going straight to University. It has been something I have long felt would benefit universities with an extra year of maturity and the weeding effect time to think away from the pressure of teachers that the HSC is your ticket to university and life. Many of those students who really don’t belong their will find other avenues and those who do go to university will likely perform better. Still, I do not know if I advocate federally funded gap year programs. Why can’t they just get a job while partying hard and maybe traveling? Unless this is to help disadvantaged students then it seems a resource draining activity.
Personally I would like to see universities offer an introductory year that all potential students would be required to take. This will give them university rather than HSC levels of mathematics and statistics, logic and argumentation, history, philosophy, essay writing, and research skills, while allowing them to spend the year partying uni style. High intake and a nice cash earner for universities, but ultimately the weeding will begin during basic training.
4 comments:
He didn't get laid during his gap year, simple.
I think the most important part of a "gap year" at uni would be the grammar and history of the English language, it is important and it helps you kick arse writing wise.
What would the HECS configs be for this uni gap year? Would it be like colleges in the ACT/Qld? Not quite a university, not really a high school? Or more like the "mature age" entry scheme that most unis have operating-user pays.
I personally think that your experience with the NSW high school system clouds your judgement in this matter. Say, for example, years 11 and 12 are scrapped, moved to a separate location like a college, and based more in an academic AND practical education (for example, you can take English, Mathematics, Sciences, Philosophy, Psych, Drama, Legal studies, AND gain qualifications like Cert 2 in Hospitality, Mechanics, Photography, tourism, aged care, viticulture, multimedia, Art etc etc) as opposed to the "one test to rule them all" approach. This new year 11 and 12 program can be taken part time over 4 years for people who have to work to support themselves or who have had kids already. The college is linked to a high school to encourage kids to go straight into the pseudo-year 11 straight after finishing year 10, but this is not compulsory.
This approach gives kids the academic skills to enter university, but also the practical foundations if they do decide to pursue qualifications in a more practically oriented training field.
This is the system I was educated under in the ACT, and it was fantastic. There were kids who were completing year 11 and 12 by also gaining (under a public education scheme, so free of charge) certificates in hospitality and viticulture, as well as kids who were doing things like construction/engineering. Considering the socio-economic background some of my mates came from they would not have been able to afford a "gap year", but under the college system they were able to gain skills which would fast-track them through tafe, and essentially get them trained up and working towards a career much quicker than diddling around in the HSC system, taking a few years off to work in unqualified labour, and then finally being able to afford to study in their late 20's, if their spirit hadn't already been crushed by the weight of the world.
People are far more likely to take on an apprentice or trainee if they already have foundations in the industry, getting these skills (for free) while they are still in a public education setting just makes sense. It is a pity that the ACT government has recently taken the backwards step of amalgamating colleges and high schools in the territory, starving funds and basically destroying lives.
/rant
Imagine the possibilities if people were trained in childcare-no more of this "early education" degree bullshit clogging up universities.
If 17-20 year olds who had an interest in the industry could attend college and get a cert 2 in childcare they could work in centres straight out of school for a wage, whilst completing their further certificates through a TAFE if they wanted to pursue careers in childcare. They would then be working as well as studying, which would actually be !CHEAPER! for the various bureaucracies because they wouldn't be getting the student dole.
If you make people do the free "placements" as is the current scheme for teaching, childcare, nursing (as well as just about everything at uni these days) there is no motivation to actually do any more than the bare minimum so that you pass your practicum class; if people are working for a wage as part of their training, they become valued members of the organisation/business they work for and probably learn a hell of a lot more too.
Why can't I edit my comments? This is retardulous.
I have often suggested implementing a system which is possibly similar to what you say is the Canberran system of colleges instead of years 11 and 12. My argument is that you need to adequately prepare students for university if a degree is to mean anything. At the moment the under graduate degree probably amounts to the equivalent of finishing year 12 in the seventies, and post grad is equivalent to what undergrad would once have been.
There is the new Victorian model of university degree which offer only five under graduate degrees, covering areas such as humanities, science and mathematics while all 'job preparation' degrees are only offered as post graduate. I do like this model in many respects, it still has flaws.
There needs to be greater emphasis on making year 11 and 12 significant and properly directing students into training and education which is appropriate and of a high standard rather than the current system of pushing students through universities that resemble TAFES with funding under the guise of education. We need to stop cutting the underprivileged who can not afford university free to drift in the unskilled jobs market, and stop clogging universities with those who would be better trained on the job or with training that does not pretend to be academic.
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