Saturday, February 04, 2012

Jobs worth doing

There has been mixed reaction to the news that ‘Dead end’ (ie vocational) courses are no longer to count towards a school’s performance in the national league tables. Engineers in particular have objected strongly – and quite rightly – but most commentators are agreed that nail technology services must go.

The Conservatives should remember that they need to take care to keep the female vote.

Of course this is a bit difficult for some feminists – those for whom equality with men is the main aim would prefer to talk about getting girls into engineering.

The prospect of owning & operating your own nail bar offers a realistic prospect of independence & liberation for many women. And the industry is even saving our High Street – the fastest growing business & often the only new one opening up in some areas, according to a report from the Local Data Company. A report for the US EPA says that nail care is fastest growing segment in beauty industry - worth $6 billion worldwide. The industry is even worth a case study for those studying GCSE Economics, which I assume has escaped the axe.

Even working as an employee in the beauty industry offers a great deal of job satisfaction to many, contributes to the self-confidence of other women, the happiness of the nation, & counts as a social service, part of the glue of society, part of the health service even. Ask any woman stuck in a hospital bed what would most make her feel better (other than cure, of course) & she will most likely answer Having my hair done. For a younger generation that may well include nails.

This may be dismissed by some as just a passing fad, liable to change as quickly as heels & hemlines, but maybe not. One of the contributors to a recent Radio 4 programme on nail art offered the suggestion that nails have become important because they are now always on show, tapping away at key pad or board.

Art? Well it certainly can be a highly skilled craft, every bit as all those others which contribute to fashion – such as the exquisite embroidery on the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress.

Richard Morrison in The Times added his two pennorth by saying that nobody needs a GCSE in housekeeping.

Of course not; that’s a skill which just comes with the (female) hormones, imbibed with mother’s milk or learned at grandma’s knee.

We were recently told that Her Majesty the Queen has become the new management guru for the denizens of Downing Street. Well the Royal Household takes housekeeping very seriously, has helped to develop university courses for buttling & attaches great importance to proper training for all staff.

These skills are in great demand worldwide at the top end of the hospitality industry.

And we all know that careless lack of attention to proper housekeeping led to some dire consequences in our hospitals.

If a subject is worth studying, it is worth a non-zero rating in the league tables.

Next targets in the move to get rid of mere vocational qualifications provided by our revered institutes of education: medicine & the law.

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