A recent article in The Age newspaper has highlighted the changing perceptions in society of trade jobs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Sydney-based author and columnist Elizabeth Farrelly, who holds a PhD in architecture, says back in her grandfathers\u2019 day, when one became a post-and-telegraph boy and the other a painter and decorator, trades had no status.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cBoth highly intelligent, they lived good and useful lives but, because usefulness itself was sullied by the un-education that trapped them into it, theirs were not regarded as lives to emulate,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
It was an era, she says, where it was as though usefulness itself was despised.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Her article, \u201cThere\u2019s no joy in the professions: how tradies have it made\u201d draws a connection between the \u201cdisdain for use\u201d and society\u2019s underlying attitude to physical work.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cIt\u2019s okay, for example, for an educated person to work 10 hours in a windowless office then drive the Lexus thus funded to an equally synthetic gym for the day\u2019s exercise. But it\u2019s not okay for that person to get the same (or better) cross-training by working as a brickie,\u201d writes Farrelly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
But, she declares, these \u201cold distinctions no longer serve us well. Working blue-collar doesn\u2019t necessarily imply under-education\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Farrelly discusses the value of education and the benefits it delivers all of us and that the question of what you do for a living is an entirely separate matter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cAnd the truth is,\u201d she declares, \u201cmaking stuff is fun. Like, really, deep-satisfying fun.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Farrelly says modernism has taken us \u201ctoo far from the ground\u201d and that \u201cincreasing abstraction leaves us craving the real \u2013 yearning to engage more fully with the house-making and food-growing that planetary life entails\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
It\u2019s why, she says, there is interest from young professionals in pickling parties, hand-writing tuition and ceramic courses.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Having taken on the task at her home of waterproofing a retaining wall, she said doing \u201creal stuff is cool\u201d and if she had her choice again, \u201cI\u2019d be a tradie\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
If you are interested in a skilled career and exploring whether doing an apprenticeship is for you, contact PEER.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n