Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Young, educated and underemployed: are we building a nation of PhD baristas?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

The focus of this article by a World Bank consultant is the Australian labour market, but there are some not-so-flattering references to the Canadian and American environment as well. The gist of the article is contained in the title: some 30 percent of Australian graduates are "underemployed" (and in Canada, some 40 percent). "A sizeable educational investment, both in terms of money and time, is finding unfulfilled returns in mundane work that requires none of the sunk investment in intellectual capital, an idea disparagingly called "the era of the overeducated barista'". I find it interesting to note the disciplines where this effect is most prominent: business, management, law, and humanities. The impact is bad in  Australia, but "there is far less support for new graduates in Canada. In the US the US$1.3 trillion student debt is now referred to as an unmitigated "time-bomb".

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 25, 2024 08:41 a.m.

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