Commonwealth supported Uni places - open to abuse

[J_Moore]

I reckon HELP needs tweaking.

I've paid mine off now, but I always saw it as double taxation. If you earn $100k for example, you pay $8k in HECS then income tax on $100k. It should be HECS applied to your net income or HECS applied to your gross income and deducted from your taxable income,

Oh, yeah, I'm not arguing there's no room to tweak things. But the general system of deferred, no-interest loans with minimum earning thresholds and no time limits for repayments is a good one that should be preserved, I think. It's a great balance of accessibility and accountability.

 

[Borry]

I spent heaps on getting an environmental engineering degree, and I have been forced to move back to live with parents in Perth and relying on casual labouring work and living with parents for free to pay bills. This is due to the one of the worst job markets in a generation.

I had my first interview in my field in 13 months this week and the manager has been working in the industry for 30 plus years and believes that all sources tell him its been the worst job market of all time.

In the 2006/2007 boom it was dead easy to get into a graduate program for 3 years for a major consulting firm regardless of marks. It has gotten tougher since due to both GFCs.

I wouldn't say I have been abusing my government supported place. I haven;t had much of a chance to utilise my degree to the full extent due to the job market.

 

[Run n Spread]

I spent heaps on getting an environmental engineering degree, and I have been forced to move back to live with parents in Perth and relying on casual labouring work and living with parents for free to pay bills. This is due to the one of the worst job markets in a generation.

I had my first interview in my field in 13 months this week and the manager has been working in the industry for 30 plus years and believes that all sources tell him its been the worst job market of all time.

In the 2006/2007 boom it was dead easy to get into a graduate program for 3 years for a major consulting firm regardless of marks. It has gotten tougher since due to both GFCs.

I wouldn't say I have been abusing my government supported place. I haven;t had much of a chance to utilise my degree to the full extent due to the job market.

Check out youth unemployment rates round the world. I reckon this has gone beyond one of the worst market trends of all time to a major structural problem that needs addressing. It is biting Australia now and things don't look like letting up.

A lot of the time in the job markets there simply are not enough jobs to meet demand. No amount of whinging about dole bludgers etc changes that. The industries/areas were plenty of jobs are needed/huge areas of development people of employment age simply lack the skills to be employable in those fields.

It would almost take huge reforms. Simply shuffling all into uni at any cost is not the answer.

 

[checkraiseulite]

In the 2006/2007 boom it was dead easy to get into a graduate program for 3 years for a major consulting firm regardless of marks. It has gotten tougher since due to both GFCs.

do you think it has gotten tough because of the GFC or because of the fact that it was easy to get into a grad program at a major consulting firm for three years regardless of marks, and that this rate of grad intake was unsustainable in such a narrow field?

 

[Gough]

For some uni is a great buffer between school and adulthood/actually having to work for a crust. I don't understand the need to rush a bunch of eighteen year olds into the workforce. Most kids will come out of uni far better people, and I argue that is almost as important as the degree they get.
Let the young be young FFS.

 

[Borry]

do you think it has gotten tough because of the GFC or because of the fact that it was easy to get into a grad program at a major consulting firm for three years regardless of marks, and that this rate of grad intake was unsustainable in such a narrow field?

I got this response from a mate I worked with about that

Hi long time how are things?

In regard to your quote, I think that the rapid end of the mining boom resulted in less projects and caught the industry off guard with most companies downsizing to stay alive.

Now companies are just trying to be efficient and cope with the reality of the industry. Jobs will be scarce until resource prices increase.

Unfortunately graduates represent a high initial cost with no immediate return. Further they take up resources that could otherwise be profitable.

Companies are in survival mode, consolidating and cutting costs. Training grads do not fit this process.

Hope that helps.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Scotland]

Yeah grads are a burden to services firms without work coming in.

Rio, BHP, Woodside etc. can (they don't) afford to take on 100 grads every year if they want - regardless of workload - because their income is generated by selling a product.

Firms which derive income from selling labour don't have the same luxury. Grads have the advantage of being cheap, but clients often don't want to pay for them and their actual usefulness isn't that high.

 

[MarcusP2]

Yeah I work in consulting in the mining industry and we've gone from 100ish people to 30 or so. We took on no grads this year.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Yeah I work in consulting in the mining industry and we've gone from 100ish people to 30 or so. We took on no grads this year.

That's because when times get tougher people realise that consultants (in any industry) don't actually do anything, or tell you anything you didn't already know.

 

[MarcusP2]

Except that in engineering consulting companies do a lot of project work as very few mining and other large industrial companies keep significant in house teams any more.

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[JD11]

That's because when times get tougher people realise that consultants (in any industry) don't actually do anything, or tell you anything you didn't already know.

Fresh perspectives from intelligent people can always be valuable.

 

[Scotland]

Consulting is a pretty generic term.

Resource companies farm out design and construction work because it's more efficient to do it that way. People that design and build plants and infrastructure for a living should be better at it than people who dig up rocks and might need something built every 5 or 10 years - plus it saves companies keeping idle engineers, draftsmen, planners, estimators etc. on the books year after year.

Resource companies also bring in external consultants to tell they should already know from information they already have so they can ignore their recommendations, which is less efficient.