verging_on_random

The end of adolescence?

August 26, 2007 on 10:53 pm | In Uncategorized |

Whenever I start teaching a new class, I run a few ice-breaking exercises to let people get to know each other. One reason is so I can find out how much work experience students have had and what kind. It helps me work out how to design classes if I know how much prior knowledge the students have about organisations and the employment relationship.

When the class consists of local students it’s pretty much a given that everyone will have some work experience. Even when I used to teach at TAFE and some students’ only reason for being enrolled was to satisfy Centrelink’s activity test, they’d usually done paid employment somewhere or other.

I was surprised when I began to teach international students to find that young Australians aren’t really typical. When I asked Korean, or African, or Chinese, or Middle Eastern undergraduates about their work experience, more often than not they would answer “None”. They had gone to school, and now they were at university. They’d get a job later, after they’d finished their studies … much like my generation did back in the 1960s.

I used to wonder if this reflected the fact that most of these international students came from middle class families who were comparatively well-off by the standards of their home countries. It seemed doubtful, given that the wealthiest international students are increasingly likely to study in Europe or North America. Many who come to Australia do so only after their families have made great financial sacrifices (which adds a new dimension to failing one of them, knowing that they will shame their families and might have to go home in disgrace, but that’s another issue).

Anyway there was a story at the weekend that claims Australian teenagers work more than any other country in the world.

A report by the United States Department of Labour, comparing international labour force data, says that Australia has more teens in the workforce than any other developed country.

A Chartbook of International Labour Comparisons, covering 1995 to 2005, finds that 60.6 per cent of 15- to 19-year-olds are working, compared with just 9.1 per cent of South Korean teenagers. Teenage rates in the US are 43.7 per cent, while 30 per cent of German and 13 per cent of Italian teenagers are in the labour market.

It’s not really any of my business of course, but I think this is just depressing. So many students in my classes don’t seem to have much time to have fun any more. They’re taking a full-time study load plus working 15 - 20 hours a week. It’s not at all unusual for students to be employed full-time while enrolled as full-time students; they rush into class late, having come straight from work, and look at the clock all the way through class, waiting to get back there. They ask if they can submit their assignments late and get pissed off when I tell them no, sorry, if they choose to take on such heavy commitments it’s up to them to work out how to meet them.

These stressed-out people present a sad contrast to the many happy carefree international students I meet, here in Australia to study and have a good time. Lots of the Scandinavian students (who are nearly all amazingly good-looking … in my next life I want to come back as a Swede) seem to have one endless party for the whole time they are here, yet most of them get good grades. Students from other places strike their own balances between study and social life but they all seem to be enjoying the student experience. Unfortunately they don’t meet many Australian students … they’re the ones who look permanently harried and seldom have time to stop for a chat.

I don’t pretend to know what the answer is, or even if there’s a question that needs answering. But it does seem to me that these young people have lost a terribly valuable part of their lives, and I’m not convinced that adequate compensation can be found in them having the material rewards that they get from being in the workforce so early. Most of them are in crappy low-paying jobs, when all’s said and done.

And it seems to be a uniquely Australian phenomenon. I wonder why.