Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York and an astute and highly successful businessman, commented recently on the merits of a university education as against gaining trade qualifications.

He says that being a tradesman is an integral and highly required skill these days because there is surety in the work to come. Be the trade electrical, building, engineering, painting or whatever…there is always a need for tradespeople. Houses are always being built and businesses have an on-going need for skilled staff to run the Factory Floor in manufacturing companies.

With mounting student-loan debt and increasingly high unemployment, some people might question whether a university degree is still worth the cost. Mayor Bloomberg suggests that mediocre students skip university altogether and become plumbers instead.

Of course, a university degree provides a student with a lot more options. A job as a plumber might cut down on student loans and time, but it may keep a person restricted in the longer term. In today’s economy it helps to have a wide range of skills. Even a lot of basic jobs require higher education, and while it might take more time for the job to start paying back, it will be ultimately worth it.

A university education can be expected to pay back in the long term. Picking the right course to doÊis very important.

With the thousands of graduates coming through our universities in New Zealand each year it is a question of where and when they can be employed to maximise the time, effort and money invested in achieving the qualification.

 This is where our manufacturing companies and business leaders come into play. To create the level playing field so that available positions across the country are known. Might not be a bad idea to have a National Barometer of growth and opportunities of where the vacancies are…not like now where they are sporadically advertised in our newspapers.

-Doug Green