School leavers pass up uni for mining trades
Justin Warburton, 18, passed up on a commerce degree for an apprenticeship with a mining company. Pic by: Andy Tyndall
Three universities in the mining boom states of Queensland and Western Australia have relinquished hundreds of student places as school-leavers increasingly choose the quick money of the resources industry over a university degree.
Last month's return of more than 1700 tertiary places by Edith Cowan University in Perth, Central Queensland University in Rockhampton and Queensland University provides solid evidence to back up what to date has been anecdotal reports of the mining boom syphoning off potential students.
Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard confirmed that the number of places handed back to the Government was the highest since the funding arrangements were introduced in 2005.
By relinquishing these student places, the three universities could surrender commonwealth cash in the next triennial funding agreement.
Representatives from all three universities said the lure of high wages in the mining sector was the main reason they were unable to fill their quota of places allocated by the Government.
However, the mining industry claimed that school-leavers were being encouraged by industry and government to take up vocational training in the workplace.
The University of Queensland has had its allocation of public places reduced permanently by 615, followed by Western Australia's Edith Cowan University, which will lose 571 places, and Central Queensland University, which will lose 524 places.
About 1662 places, believed to be from five universities, were handed back last year and just 690 in 2006, according to Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations figures released to The Australian yesterday.
For Justin Warburton, it was an easy decision to give up a commerce degree at the University of Western Australia for a job with a mining company.
"I loved it," he said of his job as a first-year apprentice plant mechanic with underground mining contractor Barminco.
"I was getting messy and working on trucks all day and I knew immediately, 'This is what I want to do'. I don't want to go to uni and write down notes in a classroom. When the university offers arrived in the mail, I didn't even look at them."
Mr Warburton, who turned 18 last month, can earn up to $135,000 a year on remote mine sites when he finishes his four-year apprenticeship. Perhaps not surprisingly, his parents were not disappointed when he told them he wanted to drop his university plans and instead start an apprenticeship in the mining sector.
"Most of my friends are at uni or taking the year off," he said. "But when we go out, they don't have any money."
The state's mining and resources sector has a seemingly insatiable hunger for workers and will require an additional 42,000 people by 2015. And with $96 billion worth of mining and resource projects planned in Western Australia, young workers such as Mr Warburton are confident of long careers ahead of them in the industry.
University of Queensland vice-chancellor Paul Greenfield told The Australian it was "a major concern that in a state where the population is increasing, the number of 18-year-olds coming out of high school wishing to gain additional education is dropping".
Asked if he was concerned that young people with talent enough for university were being lost to the mines, he said: "Will they after a couple of years (of work) decide they want to advance themselves and then go to university? We don't know that either, but it's a phenomenon we should be understanding better than we currently understand it."
Central Queensland University professor of regional economic development John Rolfe attributed "at least half" of the 1710 places lapsing to the so-called "Dutch disease", named after the 1970s North Sea oil boom that caused declines in other non-mining sectors.
Professor Rolfe, who has been researching the social and economic impacts of the coal boom in Queensland's Bowen Basin, said 18-year-olds could earn $60,000-$70,000 in the resources sector, rising to more than $100,000 by the time they were in their early 20s.
"We've got huge growth in resources jobs but it's sucking up a lot of young people and labour, and we can't keep up with vocational and higher education," he said.
"The problem is we will have an ongoing skills shortage out of this because we can't attract the young people. We as educational institutions can't compete on salaries or incentives."
Last month's return of more than 1700 tertiary places by Edith Cowan University in Perth, Central Queensland University in Rockhampton and Queensland University provides solid evidence to back up what to date has been anecdotal reports of the mining boom syphoning off potential students.
Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard confirmed that the number of places handed back to the Government was the highest since the funding arrangements were introduced in 2005.
By relinquishing these student places, the three universities could surrender commonwealth cash in the next triennial funding agreement.
Representatives from all three universities said the lure of high wages in the mining sector was the main reason they were unable to fill their quota of places allocated by the Government.
However, the mining industry claimed that school-leavers were being encouraged by industry and government to take up vocational training in the workplace.
The University of Queensland has had its allocation of public places reduced permanently by 615, followed by Western Australia's Edith Cowan University, which will lose 571 places, and Central Queensland University, which will lose 524 places.
About 1662 places, believed to be from five universities, were handed back last year and just 690 in 2006, according to Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations figures released to The Australian yesterday.
For Justin Warburton, it was an easy decision to give up a commerce degree at the University of Western Australia for a job with a mining company.
"I loved it," he said of his job as a first-year apprentice plant mechanic with underground mining contractor Barminco.
"I was getting messy and working on trucks all day and I knew immediately, 'This is what I want to do'. I don't want to go to uni and write down notes in a classroom. When the university offers arrived in the mail, I didn't even look at them."
Mr Warburton, who turned 18 last month, can earn up to $135,000 a year on remote mine sites when he finishes his four-year apprenticeship. Perhaps not surprisingly, his parents were not disappointed when he told them he wanted to drop his university plans and instead start an apprenticeship in the mining sector.
"Most of my friends are at uni or taking the year off," he said. "But when we go out, they don't have any money."
The state's mining and resources sector has a seemingly insatiable hunger for workers and will require an additional 42,000 people by 2015. And with $96 billion worth of mining and resource projects planned in Western Australia, young workers such as Mr Warburton are confident of long careers ahead of them in the industry.
University of Queensland vice-chancellor Paul Greenfield told The Australian it was "a major concern that in a state where the population is increasing, the number of 18-year-olds coming out of high school wishing to gain additional education is dropping".
Asked if he was concerned that young people with talent enough for university were being lost to the mines, he said: "Will they after a couple of years (of work) decide they want to advance themselves and then go to university? We don't know that either, but it's a phenomenon we should be understanding better than we currently understand it."
Central Queensland University professor of regional economic development John Rolfe attributed "at least half" of the 1710 places lapsing to the so-called "Dutch disease", named after the 1970s North Sea oil boom that caused declines in other non-mining sectors.
Professor Rolfe, who has been researching the social and economic impacts of the coal boom in Queensland's Bowen Basin, said 18-year-olds could earn $60,000-$70,000 in the resources sector, rising to more than $100,000 by the time they were in their early 20s.
"We've got huge growth in resources jobs but it's sucking up a lot of young people and labour, and we can't keep up with vocational and higher education," he said.
"The problem is we will have an ongoing skills shortage out of this because we can't attract the young people. We as educational institutions can't compete on salaries or incentives."
