School leavers shun uni

The Australian: School leavers shun uni:

"New figures provided by the Department of Education and Training reveal that the percentage of young Australians who complete Year 12 and go straight to university has fallen 20 per cent since the Howard Government was elected."

In a time of skills shortage and older workers being sacked you'd have to ask why and where this is all headed. Obviously a tertiary education means little at the moment. Why has it no value and could the increased fees and shorter tertiary terms have anything to do with it? Or maybe it's all the part time work the young ones do. Haven't got time to study. Or do they go off and have a break, head overseas and see the world? That's not such a bad thing to poke your head out of your own country and see how the rest of the world lives. Do they plan to study later? Has word got out it's not worth it? The figures by themselves are meaningless. A country that does not value a sound education is in a precarious position. No one will know or care and that will be that. But maybe it's the "adultescents" just flexing their new lifestyle and it'll make sense later on down the track.