Premier Doug Ford had choice words for students expressing concerns over recent cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) Tuesday, telling them to “not pick basket-weaving courses” and to invest in education that gives people in-demand jobs.
Speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park, Ford said he received “thousands of calls” from students over the long weekend, who expressed concerns about the province cutting the amount of grant money students can receive through OSAP.
“I mentioned to the students, you have to invest in your future, into in-demand jobs,” he said.
“You’re picking basket-weaving courses, and there’s not too many baskets being sold out there.”
Probably not put super well but the basic idea is fairly reasonable. I graduated with folks who majored in stuff they really enjoyed (critical lit, history, philosophy) and then had a rude awakening when it turned there weren’t many businesses with a burning need for someone who could explain the significance of the battle of Hastings.
From the other side, I have a buddy who teaches a film course. According to him, if he assigns a movie as homework, only a quarter of the students will actually watch it. So he started failing kids. Well, the institution did not like that so now he legitimately shows movies in class for a huge chunk of his class time. I love movies and film fests but I feel less than ideal about subsidising a course on them and feel downright annoyed to subsidize kids sitting and watching fucking movies in class time.
Like I say, I don’t hate Ford’s basic thrust here.
Ford would be a better person with a liberal arts degree. His whole life has been a closed bubble of corruption and Nepotism from his father, and he literally knows nothing. I doubt he has ever read a book.
We have libraries for this.
The notion that we should pay tens of thousands of dollars for everyone to go and get an arts degree and then be basically unemployable is a ridiculous one though. (Remember, OSAPs are just pure grants, there’s no repayment, it’s just a gift.)
Lol agreed. In law spent years in uni getting a phych degree. Mad student debt now. Works at a bakery making bread. Had a budy also did some sort of bs social sciences program. He struggled for years after, until he lucked out, got a job driving go bus.
There’s a guy out there I met a while back he did a few traning seminars for a few hundred bucks from bosch on rebuilding diesel injectors. He makes a killing rebuilding injectors, injector pumps.
Guys go to welding school for a year, in 3-4 years they’ll probably be making close If not over 100k.
These Reddit myths about $100K trades really need to stop. Even if true, you physically cannot do that for 30 years.
Are you in the trades?
Maybe depends on the trade. I know a good few older plumbers, welders etc who at this point, don’t bother leaving home for anything under several thousand dollars (much to a friend’s vexation while trying to reno.) You don’t want to be a roofer for 30 years though.
Become a licenced mechanic (provincial govt pays for your school) and make over 100k. It’s a tough job though.
Over 100k. Bullshit. Most make $60K, $75K tops.
https://redsealrecruiting.com/salaries/welder-salaries-information/
Median is 83K. Throw on a combo and you’re golden. I have a friend who moved from welding to underwater welding and is laughing. Loves the job, never sweats about work, has all the OT he wants if he ever wants it etc. Not a brutal job, just requires attention and care.
You seem to be arguing for choosing a major with some job prospect, but Ford seems to be arguing for not taking any courses that aren’t directly beneficial to some economic purpose.
I disagree with Ford’s stance at least. As an old tech person, my non-tech uni courses were most beneficial to my overall capabilities in my tech job, at least in the long run. Creative writing, ethics, history, and tort law were things I took because they were interesting (to me at least). None of these had much relevance to tech as far as I could see, but I’ve been much better off for them.
I mean, if you read the article, it’s pretty clear the students understand he’s talking about programs as a whole. Heck, most economically viable majors require you to take courses to become a well rounded person.
I agree that people should expand their horizons but asking us to subsidize that, when there are a hundred open online courses freely available is a little silly. (And if you read my original comment, the notion that I’m helping pay for kids to watch movies in class because they refuse to do so as homework? Just gross.) Heck, my mom just finished a comparative religion course via Stanford online and had a blast.
Money is a limited resource. While there are many fascinating courses, and heck, I could spend a lifetime learning if someone was willing to pay the bill, if you’re asking society to pay for you to learn things, society is willing to do that as an investment in the future. While medieval history is fascinating, that’s not a great investment for the rest of us.
Yes but I imagine, y’know, getting the tech skills, was pretty fundamental to getting the tech job. If you’d applied saying “I don’t know a thing about tech BUT I am a well rounded person” they would have laughed you out the door.