Using your own comparable comparison (lol), do you think an engine mechanic is more or less skilled than a mechanical engineer say.. three years into their relevant training?

What you seem to be overlooking with your statement of 'education provides you with skills the work place can't and vice versa' is that work place training often includes an element of 'education' (in the sense of formal education)

Has any educational institution developed a course in Common Sense yet?

Don't be silly, all the women are at the kitchen sink. Way too busy to set it up.

I did point out in my post that some careers combine a mix of both, and the 'vice versa' was showing respect for both pathways. It's interesting to note that the big earners amongst graduates are those that fall under the 'trades and services' sector (source http://content.mycareer.com.au/salary-centre/graduate/) so clearly a degree with practical application is a better move provided thats all you base your future on.(average wage as a grad is also above average for trades http://content.mycareer.com.au/salar...es/-/australia , although that stat is rather unfair because of the deviation created by the trades and services grad stats).

Straying way off topic, so I'll bow out of this one.

Exact same in Alberta, so unfortunately, you can't blame that one on Perth, although I'm sure people will try.

No.

Certainly in Queensland there is a Professional Engineers Act which requires that all professional engineering services have to be performed or supervised by a Registered Professional Engineer (RPEQ). In order to be registered an engineer has to have qualifications and experience suitable for him to gain Chartered status from the Institution of Engineers.

In spite of this, the actual term 'professional' or 'professional engineer' is not specifically defined in the Act.

Being an RPEQ myself I am actually very critical of the misuse of the term 'professional' - I just have difficulty relating it to media studies! Or in fact to any recent university graduate - I don't know any 'professional' field where a graduate can be considered competent until he has been working for at least 5 years under the supervision of an experienced elder. Would you feel happy living on the top floor of a tower block designed by someone straight out of university?

Interesting debate, on and off topic!

On topic ...


Some Aussie kids do get life easy. So do kids in Spain, USA, UK and so forth.

My children enjoy a better standard of reward here than they would have in the UK, because we have higher quality of life. BUT ... it is a reward and as such they have to earn their "goodies".

To add another but though, I don't think that classes them as spoilt.

To give an example :- my children are 9 & 10 and very active, capable boys. As a result they do have motorbikes, water skis, kneeboards, wake boards, body boards, basketball sets, trampolines .... can you see what I mean by active! Anyway these are items they use continually, they promote fitness and outside time and most activities we enjoy as a family with a big group of friends. We do have a Wii in our family but if it's used an hour a week I'd be surprised. There's no DS etc.

As and when they get to the phone stages, they'll have to pay for their own add ons, I'll do the basics. Likewise when the eldest son "had to have" a pair of Tigers (nice shoes but expensive) I contributed the normal amount I'd pay for a pair of shoes and he topped the rest up out of his pocket money.

This would be the case for a lot of our friends.

Motorbikes, basketball, trampolines I can understand - but watersport equipment? Used continually? At Keith? It's a long hike to the nearest water from there! It's 60km to the nearest part of the Coorong and 120km to the Murray or Lake Alexandrina.

Just curious.

My daughter has an Iphone on an unlimited plan, she is in year 11 and currently has 2 jobs and pays for it herself.....maybe the OP would assume she gets it too easy?

Also any clothes that she wants that I view as unesesary she also pays for, along with getting her hair done and buying make up etc.

I think its unfair to judge someone on what they have, almost as bad as judging someone for what they dont have.

To correct you - we're the other side of Keith so it's 200 km to the Murray and 200 km to the beaches we like (further south than the Coorong).

That's 2 hrs door to door. We do that nearly every other weekend - I'd say that's continually! Obviously not in winter but we're normally in the river 1st weekend of October and push on until late April if possible :sunglasses:

We love it!

To me a professional is traditionally a 'white-collar' type:

perhaps in the Higher professions - Medicine, Law etc...

Other professionals - Academia, IT, Media etc.

Engineers with degrees are Professionals. To me a professional generally would have a degree or postgrad but lots of people either don't have a degree, or a degree in their field. IT is a good example. The beauty of some of them is that their trade is 'hard' whereas a lot of professionals get it in the neck for being 'soft' skill based. The Arts are often looked down on.

I wouldn't call a blue collar tradesmen 'a professional' but I think some are better trained, better qualified, have better prospects, are better paid, train for longer and are better at their jobs than all of the above..they get my respect.