Who is better off when unemployed? Your run-of-the-mill junkie with a dysfunctional family, or your new graduate in an extended state of in-between-jobs? He who is on the register for a little something extra on the side, to round the figures when added to the two part-time jobs in construction (or in a bakery, for you can never tell what the white powder covering one's body is) might not be so upset with being unemployed, nor would be he who has made of his incapacity for work a lifestyle.
Not surprisingly, she who worked so hard to obtain decent certification, at tertiary level nonetheless, would be extremely flustered at not finding work, and would be on the alert to pounce on any opportunity that might arise.
So if my logic does not fail me, for the country at least, it's better to have graduates on the dole rather than the other kind. Don't get me wrong, being unemployed is a tragedy for everyone, but it is by far better to be qualified and unemployed, than unemployable.
It is therefore at this juncture that during this long dark night of the economy that I urge substantial, even heavy, investment in tertiary education and research. Even for the sake of over-40s who are at a loss as to their potential for employability.
The University, along with other tertiary education institutions, public and private, has turned many an unemployable middle-aged person into a valuable resource for the country. And it is also tertiary education that trains trainers (a.k.a. teachers). When looking at numbers, the distinctions between a significant turnover on the register, of graduates in-between-jobs, a sign of job mobility, and those with low potential of employment, is often blurred, if not lost. So be not afraid of statistics showing a few graduates on the dole, it is only a natural phenomenon as we progress towards that ephemeral goal of "Malta a Knowledge-based Society".
But why invest in research when the economy is out for tea? Because, I shall claim without numeric proof, the investment in research is directly linked to the capacity for production of graduates by tertiary level institutions. It also affects the quality of such graduates, and makes the country more attractive to investment which yields a higher return.
Allow me to note that these ideas are nothing original, they are inspired by recent writings in a local newspaper which traditionally glorified manual, ideally backbreaking labour, and occasionally snubbed tertiary education as a waste of resources. If even those who in the Eighties broke (physically) the university are now urging more investment in it, it is only proper that this column pushes this government to sustain it.
Email This Page!