The " User Pays " principle !

The phrase " Once upon a time " comes to mind when we look at the history of education.  In a kinder and gentler age kids completing their school years were usually faced with selecting one of three career options.   If they were academically gifted - and came from a wealthy family - they went to university, spent several years gaining a diploma and thereafter earned a very good living as a professional.

Bright kids from a working class family looked to a trade career and sought apprenticeships in carpentry, welding, plumbing or a host of similar trades.   To gain the necessary qualifications they attended Technical College several nights a week.   The good old " Tech " has been renamed " Trade and Further Education "  ( TAFE ) these days.  The principle of this training was on a " learn and earn " basis.   Work by day and earn the required qualifications by night.

The last category left school without gaining any sort of certificate.  They simply applied for any vacancy offering in unskilled work and spent the rest of their lives labouring or working in a low wage industry. At that time, such jobs were plentiful.

Times have changed in this twenty-first century.   The people with the bright minds have developed machinery to replace manual labour and such jobs are now few and far between.   A changing work place has made university qualifications no longer a sure bet for a top job with a big salary, and the humble tradesman or tradeswoman has emerged as the new elite, in high demand for their services and earning big money in their specialised fields.

The universities are now open to all sections of society, but at a cost.   Course fees are beyond the resources of many families, but education is available on a " lay-by " system called HECS.   Simply rack up the fee to get a qualification, and start paying it back when your income reaches a certain level.   Now precisely the same system is being applied to TAFE students.

Many TAFE students are horrified to find that the fee for the full year Visual Arts course in 2013 will be $ 10,500.   In the 2012 year it cost just $ 1308.     The lesser "Certificate " course has jumped from $ 984 to a whopping $ 7500.

The TAFE world has expanded far beyond the traditional building trades.  We live in the computer age and the jobs of the future are going to be concentrated in areas of technology that are only now starting to emerge.  As an example, the use of Nanno technology is fast expanding the world of cosmetics and medicine and seems likely to take us to undreamed of destinations.

It costs big money to provide the education system provided by both universities and TAFE and cash strapped governments are committed to making education available to all.   To do this, it has become necessary to recoup costs from those gaining benefit from this training - and it seems that high fees are now a fact of life.

It seems that we are seeing a " merging " of the differences between university and TAFE.   What TAFE is now offering is expanding into the higher qualifications only previously available to those who attended a university, and as a consequence - a similar cost structure is starting to apply.

It gives credence to that old saying " that you only get what you pay for ! "

Which goes hand in hand with another venerable witticism.    " There's no such thing as a free lunch ! "