As a resume writer, I see heaps of kids with worthless degrees. Universities are flogging degree programs for all they are worth. Below are some of the median salaries for jobs you don’t need a degree for. Are they REALLY worth the HECS debt?

• $143,471 Median annual income for an air traffic controller
• $122,018, Median annual income for a train controller
• $116, 056, Median annual income for a miner
• $114, 125, Median annual income for a train driver
• $91,649, Median annual income for a crane operator

“Kelsey Segar oversees the movement of millions of people every day. She is a train controller, and she directs trains that pass through Flinders Street Station, the busiest suburban railway hub in Australia.

From her cubicle at Metro’s train control centre, she monitors every suburban train that passes through the station, and whenever there is an issue on the network – such as an ill passenger, a track fault or a faulty train – she is tasked with keeping things moving.

She can see a network map that shows all the train tracks in and out of Flinders Street. It updates in real-time as trains make their way through the area, and she can plot out the paths a train can take if it needs to be diverted or see if it is running behind schedule. If a section of track is damaged it shows up on her screen, and she can instruct the driver to take an alternative route.

It’s like a puzzle getting all the trains in position, Ms Segar says, and every time she makes a platform change she has to weigh up the impact on passengers.

“It’s about looking for the best option to make the trains move properly and what is going to work best with the restrictions for routing.”

You don’t need a university degree to become a train controller, and it takes five weeks of training to learn the key skills, followed by 12 weeks of supervised on-the-job experience There’s also a three-hour exam in which you’re put in charge of a control panel during the morning or evening peak.

Ms Segar says she was “shaking like a leaf” during the exam and during her first solo shifts as a train controller: “It was very intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, like all jobs, you’re like a duck to water after a while.”

The job pays incredibly well too for one that doesn’t come saddled with a massive higher education debt. The starting salary in Victoria is $120,000 and senior network controllers earn $180,000 on average.”

This from The Age, 9 January 2019 by reporter Craig Butt.