Children may soon be learning 'real estate' in high school, in a move to encourage real estate as a career and create a "more committed, less transient workforce".
The Real Estate Institute and industry training organisation, Real ITO, are working on level two and three real estate qualifications for secondary school students, with the hope they will be available from late next year, the NZ Herald reports.
The unit standards would be taught to create an interest for students but would not mean they became licensed agents
"From there they may have an interest in property and choose to go on to do a property degree at university or go into working in property management or an administration position and then carry into a level 4 qualification later on. It's creating a career path," Real ITO spokeswoman Victoria McArthur said.
Real ITO chief executive Lesley Southwick says more than 17,000 people are licensed to work in real estate offices around the country.
"But virtually all of these people entered as adults from a previous job," she said.
"Our intention is to make sure a career in real estate can be viewed in the same way as a career in finance or any other specialist skills career."
There was also a high turnover of employees each year.
"Offering very early qualifications, and opportunities to advance these studies, will encourage more people into long-term careers and create a more committed, less transient workforce."
Barfoot and Thompson managing director Peter Thompson said although it could be an opportunity for some, he had some warnings for young people looking to enter the profession.
"Not every young person that gets in is going to be a successful salesperson because they may not have even experienced the purchasing or selling of a property themselves.
"But then some of the younger people are more dedicated, hard workers and it's a good opportunity to make some income."
"Times are tough at the moment. The average income is a lot less than a lot of people think and to even get that income you have got to be working 24 hours, seven days a week.
"If they are thinking they are going to get in and make a lot of money easily, that's the wrong reason."
26 Comments
I would regard this as a good idea provided some understanding of urban economics is involved, and the history of ups and downs in property values, especially the downs and the fact that they do exist and are possible.
Some idea of the "responsibility" of Real Estate Agents would be helpful too. It is all very well to point the finger at banks after a crash has happened - why are Real Estate Agents not just as responsible towards all the "underwater" first home buyers at least?
Beacuse the duty of the RE Agent is to get the highest price they can for the vendor they work for. If they did anything less they'd be liable for prosecution.
How can it be anyone else but the bank's fault? They set thier interest rates and lending margins, they had their lending criteria - which we can assume was met by everyone that took out a loan. Now if they then go and change thier lending criteria and interest rates increase and the people they lent to cant afford to stay in the house they bought what does that tell you? Hopefully that the lending criteria wasn't strict enough.
Oh, fine, I'm sure the banks could use "duty" as an excuse for their behaviour too.
My point really is that "let the buyer be aware" needs a LOT more emphasis at school. I was taught this in 5th form economics, but most school kids don't take economics.
A kind of sooky attitude is overwhelming society, where no-one needs to be aware, because it will always be possible to blame some scapegoat group like bankers - and nanny state will rescue me anyway.
I couldn't agree more with your post PhilBest. Are we entering an age where we can all bury our heads in the sand because no matter what the (bad) consequesnces of our decisions and/or actions are, it is entirely possible to blame someone else? AND get compensation or a bailout.
Exactly.
Why teach a sales course?...because that is what it is.
Better off teaching the basics and stuff like money management, budgeting, the effects of compounding etc etc and teaching people how to learn and think
Barfoots after some more foot soldiers. Just a numbers game for the Real estate principals. The more reps, the more listings, the more sales, the more commissions to them.
Kindergarden’s should buy some more plastic China ware such as boats, cars, motorcycles, brum brum, farms and yes houses, so the kids can learn to deal with most everything which are really important in our society.
..and don’t teach them how those ”Things” are made – unnecessary - because Asia make them for us anyway. We just deal/ pay with them – or precisely they do with us – HA - what an economy !!!
.. and yes teach them Wallstreet also - so they can join the club later.
..and in correlation to above more lawyers and some more doctors also - for later.
Oh my flippen gawd. They want to teach kids to be sleazebag sales people from an early age. Teaching this in schools is tax payer subsidised real estate education. Gimme a break. How about some balance - teach these kids about the sharemarket. I was lucky enough to have my father teach me about the sharemarket and am really glad he did. FYI he was a builder and only ever had the one house, but made all his money by saving and investing in the sharemarket.
VL - nice thought. Some schools already do unit standards which can be counted toward apprenticeships. Plus many do CD&T, metalwork, woodwork, etc. I know MEA have been engaged in school visits and informing careers teachers, taking them around businesses to prove they are not, "dark satanic mills crushing the souls from hapless labourers!" Plus MEA have a close relationships with Competenz, IPENZ, Unis and Polys in appropriate areas, including MBA programmes and supported IPENZ's 'Future-in-Tech' programme. MEA have also supported the young entrepenaurs college and if anything I think school students learning about entrepenaurship would be more useful than getting them to make more widget thingys or learn how to sell a house, given ...
My personal view is that schools should give students a robust general education, (3R's and all that boring old stuff) rather than get too focused on vocations too early in the students journey. That way people can have more choice going forward, rather than feeling constrained by an earlier choice they made - when they didn't really understand the breadth of the world around them. Going off on a tangent a bit, one thing I would like to see however is formal assessment of learning style (eg. against Flemming's VARK model, say) then a degree of consented matching on that basis, rather than just grouping by outcome focused results. I also see that as necessary, but improving the input (formal matching of learning style) would surely improve the outputs - results, qualys, competence and confidence.
I think, cheers, Les.
“ Wolly? Where’s your homework? What do you mean you couldn’t finish it because of the GST rise and unseasonably bad weather. Go sit in the corner and write out 1,000 times “property does not fall in value”
And when you’ve finished that come and explain to me why we discovered you’ve been following Bernard Hickeys twitter feed on the schools computers. “
"Mornin class...right today you get Tort about why real estate marketing involves all mannner of lying"...
"Who knows how to tell lies ?".....great..they all put their arms up..what now!
"Good that's progress already...everyone passes NCEA real estate level one...now who can tell lies and not get caught out?"....bugger...quick think of something else!
"Oh hey that's super....how about we sneak outside in the sun and pretend to be working in case the boss is on walkabout....don't run...move quietly...take something to look busy....leave your bag in the room Sandra....cos I know you hide your fags in there that's why"
What about teaching our students some work ethic, not rewarding the failing.
My problem with most learning institution is that they put there own spin on a subject or syllabus which often is b.s all depends on how they feel.
How can you teach something you have no experience in? Would get some real scholars out of that lot.
Teaching students to build pyramid selling schemes that fall over every few years that's a bad idea.
What about some decent engineers to design a road that lasts more than 5 minutes or even better build some future into our infrastructure so we don't have to rip it up every 5seconds to see what down there.
The demand for more marketing agents is not what we need. They produce nothing that lasts longer than the piece of paper they have talked you into signing.
Hope My ramblings make some sense.
Regards
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