Professional Documents
Culture Documents
NICHOLAS WYMAN
A thoughtful guide to what is needed to succeed in
workplaces that are rapidly transforming themselves.
PROFESSOR PETER SHERGOLD
JobU_TXT.indd 1
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
Job U is a must read for any young Australian considering their future,
and perhaps more importantly, for their parents and teachers. It dispels
the long held belief that a rewarding career is reached exclusively via a
university pathway by showcasing VET options as viable first-choice
options that can lead to both individual and organisational success.
Mark Callaghan, CEO, WorldSkills Australia
Career practitioners will find Job U a useful addition to their careers
reference library.
Bernadette Gigliotti, CEO, Australian Centre for Career Education
Whether youre a job-seeker, parent, carer, educator or career advisor, Job U
is essential reading. Nicholas Wyman not only provides a compelling case
for change in the way we educate, but provides a blueprint to affect that
change on an individual, organisational and systemic level.
Dan Haesler, educator, writer, speaker and consultant
Praise for the US edition of Job U:
A provocative and well-researched look at education and skills developmentor the lack thereofin the United Statesone of the key issues
facing companies, colleges, and workers in the US today.
Eric Spiegel, President and CEO, Siemens USA
Its so refreshing to read a book as well written and accessible; that so
eloquently nails the problem surrounding the college for everyone
mindset. Above all, the marshalling of the growing empirical and case
study evidence that marketable and practical skills pays will keep a few
of those gilt edged educators awake at night as they continue (for the time
being) to do very well out of the knowledge society myth.
Tom Bewick, Managing Director, New Work Training Ltd, UK; President,
Transatlantic Apprenticeship Exchange Forum
Job U should be on the reading list of every middle and high school
guidance counselor and administrator. Mr. Wymans passion for helping
young and old alike attain the skills needed for our 21st Century workforce
is steeped into every page.
David Dewitt, manufacturingstories.com
Nicholas Wymans message is very important for today because both the
American economy and the British economy are suffering from the same
thing: an enormous skills gap. Job U sets it all out.
Lord Kenneth Baker, former UK Secretary of State for Education
JobU_TXT.indd 2
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
Job U
NICHOLAS WYMAN
JobU_TXT.indd 3
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
C009448
JobU_TXT.indd 4
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
Preface
JobU_TXT.indd 7
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
viii JOB U
JobU_TXT.indd 8
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
PREFACE ix
JobU_TXT.indd 9
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
x JOB U
But the doors to these opportunities cant be found at traditional elite institutions or leading universities. Nor can they be
found at any of the many second-tier educational institutions
newer and regional universities that, although they dont confer
the same prestige and connections on students, can be just
as costly for graduates when entering the job market, in terms
of Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) fees and forgone
experience.
In fact, the paths to these opportunities can be found only
outside the traditional university model, in the burgeoning domain
of skills-based education, such as that found through dynamic
vocational training courses, technical schools, Technical and
Further Education (TAFE) and apprenticeship programsin the
educational pathways ready, willing and able to equip ambitious
students with the job-ready skills that companies actually need.
Note that Im not talking here about pathways to minimum-wage, low-mobility or low-variability jobs that no one
aspires to hold. Im talking about skills-based learning opportunities that lead to well-paying, respectable careers in a diverse
range of professions, such as electricians, cardiovascular technologists, machinists, aircraft mechanics, auto technicians, dental
hygienists, welders, mechatronics engineers and air ambulance
paramedics, to name just a few. When I talk about people with
skills-based careers, Im talking beyond old-style factory work,
with its negative and limiting perceptions of low-paid workers
doing monotonous, routinised tasks. Im talking about the highly
skilled and well-compensated technicians around the globe
repairing aircraft engines at Boeing, who enable millions of
passengers to fly each day, or at Siemens, building gas turbine
generators to power (and empower) communities around the
world, or at the Australian biotechnology company Cochlear,
who have helped 250,000 people gain hearing through cuttingedge implantable devices. Im talking about entrepreneurs who
run their own photography studios, artisans who fill their days
handcrafting high-end bespoke furniture and apprentice chefs
JobU_TXT.indd 10
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
PREFACE xi
preparing meals at your favourite cafe or restaurant. Im talking about the people who build our homes and bridges, perform
preventative and primary healthcare functions, care for our sick
and keep our complex IT networks running; the people who
keep our new world of advanced manufacturing humming by
programming and operating our computer-controlled tools and
robots, and the people we call (and pay a premium to) when our
pipes spring a leak or our dishwasher breaks down. These are the
people who build and maintain the day-to-day world we inhabit,
and underpin the networks powering civilisation. Almost all of
them learnt their skills through high school vocational education,
TAFE or trade certificate programs, traineeships or apprenticeships, formal and informal company-initiated training, or
one of the other alternatives to traditional university that youll
read about in this book. Contrary to popular belief, a surprising
percentage of them earn more than their peers who spent three or
more years and tens of thousands of dollars earning undergraduate bachelor degreesa fact unknown to many parents and career
counsellors, who think university is the best or only p
athway to
building a prosperous career.
We have all been sold on the narrative that university is for
everyone, and have been promised that a traditional Bachelors
degree is a guaranteed ticket to a well-paid, secure professional future. But the truth today is that, more often than not,
a Bachelors degree fails to deliver on that promise. University
has never been for everyone, and with the proliferation of
providers boosting graduate numbers, its increasingly difficult
for employees to assess the inherent quality of many degree
qualifications. Sure, many of those who attend university go on
to successful careers, but the reality is that for many this system
does not work.
And lets not forget that an undergraduate degree comes at a
hefty cost: the dark side of degree education, of course, is debt.
In Australia, student HELP debts recently surpassed $30 billion,
and this figure is expected to peak at $51.4 billion in 201718.
JobU_TXT.indd 11
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
xii JOB U
JobU_TXT.indd 12
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
PREFACE xiii
JobU_TXT.indd 13
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
xiv JOB U
JobU_TXT.indd 14
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
PREFACE xv
JobU_TXT.indd 15
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
xvi JOB U
JobU_TXT.indd 16
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
PREFACE xvii
JobU_TXT.indd 17
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
xviii JOB U
local school districts. You will meet many of these pioneers in the
pages that follow.
Whether you are a high school student (or the parent of
one) trying to figure out how you are going to shoulder the cost
of university education (or trying to decide whether you even
want to go!), one of the tens of thousands of students graduating
into one of the most competitive local job markets in Australia
for decades or someone well along your career journey, you will
benefit from knowing that a multitude of options for acquiring
valuable, marketable skills do exist, which can and will open the
door to greater employment opportunities. And you should be
aware that the door to the opportunities you seek may well
be found in one of the non-traditional pathways youll read about
in this book.
The paths described hereapprenticeships, vocational and
technical education, certification programs and on-the-job
skills trainingoffer compelling solutions to a large slice of
our unemployment and under-employment problems. They
offer a solution for employers who cant find skilled people
and for job-seekers who want to become more employable and
job-ready in an increasingly competitive economy. Through
my work, I am in a unique position to see why we need united,
decisive action now, not only to resuscitate our middle class and
save our younger generation from chronic unemployment, but
also for the future of our economy, national incomes and living
standards. And there is no time like the present. Some may
say change has already overtaken us, and that it is too late or
too difficult to overturn the university for everyone perception,
or to prevent the next generation of unskilled workers from being
replaced by technology and automation, and relegated to the
unemployment lines. Yet new research emerging from prestigious
economic research institutionsmuch of which will be dissected
for the first time in these pagestells us otherwise.
It is time to get moving on these proven pathways. A jobs
revolution is already upon us. To ensure a more prosperous future
JobU_TXT.indd 18
9/12/2015 12:25 pm
PREFACE xix
JobU_TXT.indd 19
9/12/2015 12:25 pm