could you please rate my AWA
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28 Nov 2014, 16:48
The following appeared as part of an editorial in a weekly newsmagazine:
“Historically, most of this country’s engineers have come from our universities; recently, however, our university-age population has begun to shrink, and decreasing enrollments in our high schools clearly show that this drop in numbers will continue throughout the remainder of the decade. Consequently, our nation will soon be facing a shortage of trained engineers. If we are to remain economically competitive in the world marketplace, then we must increase funding for education—and quickly.”
Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.
The editorial claims that there will be a shortage of trained engineers due to a decrease detected in enrollments in high schools, which will last for the remainder of the decade. The newsmagazine implies that the nation should race the funding for education in order to remain economically competitive in the world marketplace. This argument flaws taking in consideration weak assumptions to draw a conclusion.
First, enrollments in high school don’t have a direct relationship with trained engineers, it can’t be determined if the number of students that didn’t enroll in high school were planning to study engineering. Many high school students don’t even contemplate the idea of studying engineering or even going to college.
Second, taking in account that de number of future engineers will be fewer than it was budgeted doesn’t necessarily conduce to a shortage of trained engineers. There is no information about the availability of jobs for trained engineers, and for example, in the case of an over demand the problem would be that trained engineers will face unemployment or wages below their expectations. There is no doubt that a country must have enough funds for education, but before trained engineers, teachers quality, technology access, high school covertures among others are even more essential.
Furthermore, for a country to remain economically competitive in the world marketplace not only trained engineers are required, but also physicians to keep people healthy, teachers to form later generations, scientist to investigate and develop new technologies, lawyers to assure justice, managers and business administrators to have efficient companies among many other professionals. It also depends which sectors the country relies on, if the country is a principle manufacturer, or if it is based in agricultural activities.
In conclusion, the author fail to give enough support to the argument, the assumptions flaw and further information is needed. For a nation to remain economically competitive in the world more than one factor must be taken into consideration.