National Service.

Between 1951 and 1959 all young men in Australia were required to register for compulsory military training when they turned eighteen.   During that period, 287,000 wore the country's uniform with the majority in the Australian Army.    Smaller numbers served in the Navy and the Air Force.    At the expiration of their six months stint, they were placed in a Reserve listing for an indefinite period.   In a later age, a lottery based on date of birth sent National Service conscripts to fight in the war in Vietnam.

Many have suggested that Australia needs a return of National Service to foster a sense of discipline in the young and to use this as an opportunity to train them with the basic skills necessary to hold down a paying job.  Today's emphasis has swung away from the pure military aspect.    We no longer need vast numbers of " grunts " carrying a rifle.    Today's serviceman or servicewoman is an individual  highly trained in the weapons and tactics of war.   They are fewer in number but their skills make them formidable on the battlefield and reaching those standards is the result of very long term training.

Unfortunately, many school leavers lack an acceptable level of proficiency in either maths or English and supporters of National Service see it as means of correcting those deficiencies.   The original National Service was restricted to males, but in this more enlightened age it would be totally unacceptable unless it embraced both genders.

There seems little prospect that such a scheme will get the nod from either side of politics.   It would involve a huge cost and the present mind set in this country seems to rebel against anything that can be labelled " compulsory ".   The correction effort seems to be directed at reforming the school system to ensure that those leaving have attained a better grade of education - and that skills are more aligned with the jobs available in the work force.

There is no doubt that a large number of school leavers have little to offer potential employers.   Maths is an optional subject in the HSC and yet a basic ability to count and measure is essential in most trades.   A carpenter who can not read a rule or a bricklayer who can not calculate the number of bricks to build a wall is useless to an employer.

We started on the right road many years ago with the separation of " academic " and " Trade " employment  training options.    Those aiming to work in the professions did their HSC and went to University - and those who were more suited to a " Trade " career went to TAFE and learned skills applicable to the many professions open to " Tradesmen and now Tradeswomen " !

It sounds as if the call for a return of " National Service " is simply a rebranding of separating effective training under a new name.   It would be a lot cheaper to simply upgrade the school system and rejuvenate the TAFE colleges to achieve the desired result.

Tinkering with the system is the main reason that what worked well previously is no longer effective today !