A visiting European Commissioner is warning that Australia and countries like it are losing a central competitive challenge to increase the skills of our workforces.
China is making a vast investment in high-skills education and poses a huge challenge to the rest of the world.
China India and South Asia are making a heavy focus on STEM studies – science technology engineering and maths.
As the finance and banking sectors decline as potential high-earning career sectors she advises us as parents to be the first mentors of our children.
She says it is important that we tell our children: “If you want to have a really good well-paying job with fulfilment and where you can travel you need to get involved with science technology engineering and mathematics. They may be a little more difficult than other subjects but they are well worthwhile.”
She also said that it was possible that a rising “anti-science” sentiment particularly related to the science of climate change was a negative factor in study decisions. This was worrying because “if there is one area in which science has proved its worth beyond any shadow of doubt it is climate change. It has proven what is happening and what is continuing to happen. To anyone who looks at it seriously there is no question that climate change is occurring. The consequences of not accepting the science of climate change would be enormous.”
She is also quite buoyant about Europe. “The economic crisis has forced us in Europe to forge the kind of fundamental change in our economies that would not have been possible 5 years ago. I believe we have done 30 years’ work in 2 years. We have put in place a staggering amount of financial security measures laws regulations and treaties to cope with this.”