Smart jobs- Gazing at the stars, or aiming for the stars

Smart jobs- Gazing at the stars, or aiming for the stars

Many innovation and technology companies in the region report that skilled talent is hard to come by, despite an economic downturn and the threat to employment by things like AI.

One would think that with rising unemployment and more people wanting to live here, there wouldn’t be too much difficulty. But the facts are clear, with many companies finding it hard to attract talent from overseas, or by poaching from other nearby companies.

The obvious solution, albeit longer term, is to encourage more creative-thinking young people, typically with a bent towards mathematics and science, to orientate their educational and career ambitions towards a future in innovation, technology and science.

But, if our future in New Zealand largely rests on our ability to produce clever things, especially if they can earn a few overseas dollars, wouldn’t we be desperately looking for the next generation of innovators and scientists? That would surely mean our government is encouraging young people, especially through our education system, to at least be aware that there are fulfilling jobs in this area, and ones that can last the test of time.

The truth is there’s no absolute answer, but my recent experiences indicate that the government is hardly grasping the nettle and our schools are patchy in the delivery of encouragement and smart vocational guidance.

Things have changed a little, but maybe not much from when I was one of the 80 or so students, on day one, at Waitohu Primary School. Our class was in Room 2 and we loved our teacher, Miss Pratt.

In the year before I left Waitohu for Ōtaki College, I was ushered into a small room to hear what my future might hold. In the room was the head of Waitohu School, the principal of Ōtaki College, plus my parents.

I don’t recall saying much but the Ōtaki College principal gave his opinion on where my secondary education should be streamed, presumably having looked at the evidence of my primary education.

In effect I would be streamed into one of three areas – General Studies, which distinguished itself from Professional Studies and Technical Studies by the fact I wouldn’t be learning languages or woodworking skills, but would be doing commercial practice and bookkeeping.

So, not feeling particularly excited or inspired, that’s what I did, and without question.

A few years later and towards the end of my final year at Ōtaki College, I had no idea what I might do for further education or a career. Nor do I remember much advice in that regard, although I recall my parents taking me to have a look around the Government Printing Office in Wellington, presumably to see if that might strike an interest.

Rather by default I narrowed my options down to going to university and studying history, since going to university was a family expectation and history happened to be my best subject at school.

Then, completely by chance, a friend’s mother wanted her son to do a design degree at the Wellington Design School and asked me to encourage him by submitting an application myself. Blow me down, my application succeeded and my friend’s application failed, so on I marched to an accidental career.

But it begs the question.  Why does our future prosperity, and the welfare of our rangatahi, have to depend almost entirely on random chance?

I have encountered young women at a girls’ school flatly saying that technology and science isn’t for them because it’s about “boys in overall on a dirty factory floor”. When you tell them that the range of vocations is huge, from arts and culture through to medical research that saves people’s lives, their interest is pricked.

Thankfully the old concepts of “streaming” in education are behind us, but it does seem that siloed thinking persists. A classic example is the government’s education prescription which emphasises what they call “return to basics”. But too often this ignores the fact that the next Professor Margaret Brimble is just as likely to have been encouraged to express herself at school through music, painting or learning te reo. Yet “return to basics” wants to encourage maths and science, and not so much the arts and creativity.

While I can celebrate that I lucked on a satisfying and useful career, and my friend took a different course, I can report that he went to university to do accounting, and that he ended up earning a lot more money than me working overseas for a very wealthy corporation.

So, I don’t entirely knock the whims of fate, but equally, there are far too many young people who don’t get a decent chance at finding their calling, and too many employers grasping at shadows. The result is that our people and communities are poorer. As my school report would say, “could do better”.