Feeling weak (Post 3 of 3 Posts)

Posted to The Age (15/4/2012) on 18/4/2012 at 2:45 PM
Commenting on "Feeling weak"
http://watoday.domain.com.au/real-estate-news/feeling-weak-20120414-1x0g2.html


@Andrew Smith, you're quite correct to point out about international students market. In fact, I've written many articles about this AUD18.8 billion industry (when at its peak), second largest "export income" after the mining industry.

When the government policies brought in so abruptly, billions of dollars were wiped out, even if a third to quarter is gone, that will equate to AUD6.1b to AUD4.7b, good enough to achieve budget surplus without hurting the taxpaying public.

Will the students swamp the colleges again? I doubt so. UK, USA and Canada have been attracting the students with more favourable Visa and after-graduation-stay conditions than Australia.

Many private colleges and TAFE could not survive such disastrous downturn, and became history. Dragged down by this collapse are many teaching staff, mainly sessional teachers, who are the baby boomers. Reduced income implies reduced investment in property or stock market.

Australia is not an isolated island in the global market. Our success attracted many vultures who wanted a slice of the action. Our government should learn a lesson not to introduce policies on the run!

Counting eggs before they hatch (Part 1 of 4)

Posted to The Age (13/1/2011) on 13/1/2011 at 2:54 PM
Commenting on “Counting eggs before they hatch”
http://theage.domain.com.au/real-estate-news/blogs/domain-investor-centre-blog/counting-eggs-before-they-hatch-20120110-1pt5n.html

Costs of material and labour have soared substantially and new constructions are not good proposition for many, unless they are replacement of properties in prime areas. In the 50’s to 70’s blue collar workers could earn a lot more than white collar workers until Paul Keating decided that Australia needed more people to be academically qualified and the switch from trade oriented training to college and university education. With those pieces of certificates and degrees, the paper-qualified workers’ income began to climb, and less people would turn to the less glorified jobs including those related to construction.

The older tradies are retiring fast, and there are not enough to replace them. Australia is still facing a shortage of tradies, and enrolment in TAFEs is still disappointing. If it is not for the overseas students or new migrants doing these courses, the labour cost will even sky rocket further.

End Part 1 of 4

Federal Budget 2011 - Swan's blueprint for surplus

Posted to Adelaide Now (11/5/2011) on 11/5/2011 at 1:07 AM
Commenting on “Federal Budget 2011 - Swan's blueprint for surplus”
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/in-depth/swans-blueprint-for-surplus/story-fn8o0uyv-1226053507909

Does it mean that people like me mature-age person need to be retrained to work in mining towns in Western Australia or Queensland, go under the house to fix plumbing or up the roof top to install solar panels? I am well-trained, with post-graduate degree and other qualifications, more than qualified to train the untrained, and yet I find myself unemployed.

I had been a sessional TAFE and VET trainer for 15 years, until the international education bubble burst when the government changed policy. More than half of the international students choose not to come to Australia anymore, and therefore, many trainers like me are unemployed.

Life as a sessional teacher is very tough. We are hard working people, and no dole-bludgers. Each term, we queue up, not at Centrelink, but at the course coordinator office asking whether there is any work for us.

VET needs funding upgrade

Posted to The Australian (4/5/2011) on 8/5/2011 at 12:12 PM
Commenting on “VET needs funding upgrade”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion-analysis/vet-needs-funding-upgrade/story-e6frgcko-1226049332247>

Skills funding is going to be another humongous news on how service providers ripping-off the system. According to a source, this is already happening, with at least one provider signing off and issuing two to three thousand certificates in a year with hardly any students require attending a class, online or otherwise.

The funding model is a joke, too. Some programs are receiving both state and federal funding at the same time, which was once a cardinal sin known as double dipping.

The demise of international students coming to “study” makes some surviving service providers to become smarter by offering degree courses, in order to accommodate the so called “competent learners” to hang around longer. Hopefully the degrees, some of which are not worth the paper that is written on, will help to these desperate ones achieve their goal in getting permanent residency PR.

Computer technology creates bigger crooks in the education sector, and plagiarism is so widespread and getting more and more difficult to detect. One wonders how many “trained learners” who are deemed competent and become professional, are developing computer programs full of bugs which cost millions of dollars due to downtime or customers going to competitors; providing financial advices causing huge financial write-down of large institutions and livelihood ruin of ordinary mums and dads; building houses that crack or collapse with small earth movement, etc.

In the name of perceived cost saving and following the Jones’ trend, many service providers offer online courses. In reality online learning system is a false economy - it wastes more precious resource known as time, encourages slap-dash assessment and worst of all no one can tell who is really at the other end attending the course or doing the work!

No longer only the VCE examination solutions can be purchased from Victorian market, so the story goes, post graduate thesis are written by professional for a fee. Honest system only works well with honest people.

Literacy and numeracy education system flawed - Part 2

Posted to Adelaide Now (5/4/2011) on 5/4/2011 at 10:53 PM
Commenting on “Literacy and numeracy education system flawed”
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/literacy-and-numeracy-education-system-flawed/story-e6frea6u-1226033651976

The previous comment I posted is based on my many years of experience as a trainer (a word I dislike to use) in competency-based-training (CBT) in private colleges and TAFEs. There is a push to introduce CBT in primary and secondary schools. This will worsen the LLN problem.

LLN is fundamental and basic requirement upon which other knowledge and skills can be built on. CBT is good for task-based training, but makes the learners very much one-track mind. As an example of CBT, a sportsperson may excel in a particular sport he/she is trained and coached in, but nothing else.

CBT is also a cause for many mature-age workers being unemployed. While they may have years of solid background and know-how for a particular field of work, an employer or the employment agency prefers to seek out candidates, probably with little or no prior working experience but have specific skills, to fill the position for that particular instance. Resume can be fabricated so that a candidate has an advantage over other applicants, but when problem arise, all hell breaks loose.

LLN skills are not an option. They must be compulsory to job seekers, because of our stringent industrial and employment laws.

Literacy and numeracy education system flawed - Part 1

Posted to Adelaide Now (5/4/2011) on 5/4/2011 at 12:14 AM
Commenting on “Literacy and numeracy education system flawed”

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/literacy-and-numeracy-education-system-flawed/story-e6frea6u-1226033651976

The education system fails Australia! Too much emphasis is placed on training instead of teaching, and competency instead of quality.

In the name of being a developed, affluent English speaking country, we have a misconception that we are more superior than our neighbouring Asian countries - poor, underdeveloped or developing.

Whatever we do in Australia, we do it the most expensive way, because we are bound by many legislative requirements such as equal opportunity, anti-discrimination acts. Our system produces half-baked Rolls Royce instead of quality T-Ford learners.

From early childhood days, children are brainwashed to take things easy, not to be overloaded with knowledge - the key to future success. Instead of building solid foundation based on language, literacy and numeracy LLN skills, children are forced to learn things that even adults have problem in grasping such social responsibility, global warming, bullying, etc. Children are encouraged to think and debate without the underpinning knowledge, and hence grow up to be unreasonable and arrogant - Jack of all trades, and master of none.

My motto is "being good is not good enough, my minimum standard is excellence!"