Opinion | Get a degree or become a plumber: which is really better for our youth, and Hong Kong?

Peter Kammerer says Hong Kong is paying the price for overvaluing university degrees and undervaluing vocational training, especially as electricians, plumbers, carpenters and the like are making better-than-average salaries

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Bamboo scaffolders are among the specialised trades that make surprisingly high salaries in Hong Kong. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 12:30pm, 18 Jun 2018Updated: 5:56pm, 18 Jun 2018

Tradition is the bane of Hong Kong. There’s a closely followed Chinese saying, attributed to a Song dynasty writer, that all pursuits other than study are of low value. The result is that most parents push their children down a career path that involves university rather than vocational training or apprenticeships. Consequently, the skills that are essential for the continued growth and prosperity of our city and nation are looked down on and not prized.

There shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that there’s a severe shortage of people like electricians, plumbers, carpenters and construction workers. Or that university graduates are so plentiful in number that they have trouble finding a good job, or even a job at all. Then, there’s the matter of prejudice: what would a Hong Kong parent say if their college-educated daughter wanted to marry a baker or a bricklayer? I wager a heated debate would ensue.

But there’s more than a 1,000-year-old saying at play. “Lowly” jobs also happen to be ones that involve getting hands dirty, often in environments that don’t have air conditioning. That is at odds with the claim that Hongkongers are hard workers. It also means that if we’re no longer prepared to put up with sweat and dirt, we’ve become soft, pampered and, dare I say, lazy.

Paradoxically, many of those sniffed-at jobs happen to be the better-paid ones in our city. Try this out with your Hong Kong colleague or friend: how much do you think a plumber earns? The answer will most likely be a little above the minimum wage. At present, that is HK$34.50 an hour or HK$310.50 for a nine-hour day. But, proving how wrong perceptions can be, as of March, government figures showed that the average daily wage for the trade was HK$1,442.10.

A worker inspects taps at a flat in Tak Long Estate at Kai Tak. Photo: May Tse

Pick any blue-collar job and you’ll get similarly surprising numbers, whether for an electrician, carpenter, concreter, bricklayer, gas fitter, or even a bamboo scaffolder. Workplace dangers obviously factor into the salary of a number of these, especially if it involves working on high-rise construction sites.

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