The 40-Year Plan:
'cause it ain't gonna happen overnight...
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Learning or Earning
by Ken Krayeske
Hartford, CT
In my quest to learn more about the Australian Office of Youth Affairs I wrote about last week, I bumped into an Aussie this week named Sue.
Sue and I discussed the effectiveness of the OYA, which seeks to coordinate the activities and programs of all public and private youth development agencies in Australia. Our conversation drifted to other efforts the Australian government makes to improve the lives of youth.
Sue reminded me to keep in mind that comparisons between our two countries may be skewed because of massive population differences. Australia has about 20 million people, while the U.S. has 300 million.
That being said, Sue explained how the OYA is a relatively new agency that recommends policy, and it counts on the government to enact it. The recent re-election of the Liberal party's John Howard to Prime Minister last October (we may have missed that because of our election season) will test the OYA's ability to create real change for young people. Howard's government doesn't have to follow the recommendations, and indeed, it may not.
Locally, in Queensland, where Sue's two daughters work in education, she noted the success of Queensland Education's new philosophy: "Learning or Earning."
Australia is crippled by youth unemployment, opposition leader Mark Latham of the Labor Party, said Oct. 6, 2004. Sounds like Hartford. Currently, Australian vocational training, known as TAFE, is underfunded, but a flexible option for youth.
The Queensland model could work for all of Australia, suggests Latham, the John Kerry of Australia.
"Every year, 45,000 young Australians drop out of school early," Latham said. "A Labor government will provide the 45,000 opportunities for TAFE places, apprenticeships and jobs that allow them to do something positive with their lives, to contribute to our economy.
"In return, we'll demand responsibility," Latham said. "All young Australians either learning or earning, no third option of slackening off and causing trouble on the streets."
In Latham's vision, young people shouldn't fall through the cracks in Australia's youth development policy. In Learning or Earning, if you drop out, you must enroll in a vocational training program. Queensland Education offers hundreds of different certificates.
Training programs last from six months to four years, according to the Queensland Government website (www.trainandemploy.qld.gov.au). "Qualifications range from veterinary nursing and retail to engineering and furnishing."
While learning trades at TAFE institutes or on-the-job apprenticeships, students earn stipends. Sue told me the money is not a real paycheck, but enough to cover the transit to and from work, some work clothes, and maybe a dinner or two a week.
This "Learning or Earning" theory acknowledges that traditional, compulsory classroom academics do not serve every child, and in order to best help youth succeed, governments should do their best to equip young people for the future.
Imagine that concept applied to Hartford: Every 16-year-old who drops out of Weaver or Hartford Public or Bulkeley has no choice but to enroll in a vocational school like Prince Tech, and get paid to do it.
Oddly enough, social entrepreneurs in Hartford have already scratched the surface of that kind of program. The Our Piece of the Pie Youth Business Incubator, run out of Southend Community Services, experiments with such a model. But it runs after-school, only serves maybe 1,000 students annually, and is massively underfunded.
During the next 20 years, we need to find creative ways of funding such programs on a large scale, so that every young person is Learning or Earning.
2/9/05
