Getting young people into the trades

BobC

Interesting discussion on getting young people into the trades -

https://www.wearegenerationt.com/buzz/article/7-questions-with-matt-risinger-and-jordan-smith

I think eliminating trade schools to meet testing requirements was a huge mistake in my city. Locals that still have the trade schools operating along side the traditional academic schools offer students a better choice.

Bob

hot_rod

Slow progress, I do see more and more young folks getting into the trades again. Live-able wages helps

I know a number of contractors that make it easy for students to work after school, on breaks, etc and have a spot open for them when they graduate.

Remember a lots of companies looking for the same worker these days, every construction trade, mechanics, delivery and truck drivers, factory workers, etc.

Many of the construction workers moved to the trucking industry or other jobs when the economy went south, not sure many come back when construction ramped up, knowing it is so economy sensitive.

I'd look to service industries more so than new construction related trades, stuff breaks in good and bad economies.

Tinman

Having shop classes in high school again wouldn't be a bad idea either. I took metals, electronics, woods, plastics, and mechanical drawing classes in high school. That's what planted the seed for me. Heating up iron in a forge and bending it on a jig was all it took for me.

GroundUp

We have plenty of young people coming into our local, which is great, but the issue is that very few of them aren't allergic to work and fewer yet are even remotely mechanically inclined. I got into the trades at 18 in 2007 and my apprenticeship class had only 2 others under 30 years old (27 total in the class). All 3 of us young ones are foremen now, but all 3 were farm kids too and grew up working on cars, equipment, buildings, welding, etc. Roughly half my class is no longer in the local at all, and a couple of them I've personally had on my crew in recent years I'm surprised they're able to hold a job more than a week at a time. I go through a lot of help on my crews and I must admit, the best help I've had has been from younger folks, <25 yo. I feel they're easier to train and less prominent to having crappy habits impossible to break. My most recent apprentice was 36 years old, been in some sort of construction all his life, and as a 4th year pipefitter he was unable to figure out how to use a crescent wrench. Nice guy, always on time and eager to work, but completely impossible to teach. Unfortunately there are just some people that don't belong in the trades; not for lack of effort but just not the least bit mechanical. It seems all the time we're losing our good hands to retirement and prison and are unable to refill the void. The future is scary

BobC

I had asn uncle who was not at all mechanically inclined. One time he ran over the cord to the electric lawnmower, he tied the cut ends together in a knot and could not understand why it wouldn't work. Another time he put hinges on a access door under a porch and installed them at a 30 degree angle to each other.

He was great guy and had a good job, just no clue how things worked.

Bob

Big Ed_4

If you pay them, they will come ...

ChrisJ

I agree shop classes are needed and vocational schools are needed, but there is also the fact we do not need to rely on schools to teach our children everything.

Not being allergic to work starts at home in my opinion and at an early age.

SlamDunk

This goes back to the 90's, maybe even the late 80's, when Andy Rooney did a piece on 60 minutes encouraging people to consider going into trades. Unfortunately, all I could find is this quote, it was the last sentence of his commentary:

"Don’t rule out working with your hands. It does not preclude using your head."

There is a stigma attached to working with your hands. I feel it constantly.

I think, if you filled a room with one hundred trades people and interviewed each one of them, not on their jobs but life in general, thirty may come across as intelligent enough that you wouldn't know they were in a trade, and the other 70, you'll understand why they are in a trade. That's the stigma.

I hope that's not too harsh but I can't tell you how often my wife has told me she couldn't believe I work with certain people when she meets them at a work social function.

ChrisJ

SlamDunk said:

This goes back to the 90's, maybe even the late 80's, when Andy Rooney did a piece on 60 minutes encouraging people to consider going into trades. Unfortunately, all I could find is this quote, it was the last sentence of his commentary:

"Don’t rule out working with your hands. It does not preclude using your head."

There is a stigma attached to working with your hands. I feel it constantly.

I think, if you filled a room with one hundred trades people and interviewed each one of them, not on their jobs but life in general, thirty may come across as intelligent enough that you wouldn't know they were in a trade, and the other 70, you'll understand why they are in a trade. That's the stigma.

I hope that's not too harsh but I can't tell you how often my wife has told me she couldn't believe I work with certain people when she meets them at a work social function.

Perhaps others feel this way, but I honestly have no idea what you're talking about.

SlamDunk

@ChrisJ

I'm happy for you! You're very lucky.

ChrisJ

SlamDunk said:

@ChrisJ

I'm happy for you! You're very lucky.

SlamDunk, I'm no longer really in the trades so this isn't about me being lucky.

Never in my life have I looked down on someone in the trades nor does anyone I know. I was being serious, I don't know of the stigma you speak of.

I'm not saying you're wrong either, just it's not my point of view is all.

hot_rod

ChrisJ said:

SlamDunk said:

@ChrisJ

I'm happy for you! You're very lucky.

SlamDunk, I'm no longer really in the trades so this isn't about me being lucky.

Never in my life have I looked down on someone in the trades nor does anyone I know. I was being serious, I don't know of the stigma you speak of.

I'm not saying you're wrong either, just it's not my point of view is all.

Maybe the point trying to be made is trades folk are often not as polished in social settings as the "sales" type.

Schools and classmates in my era had a habit of looking at the trades and industrial arts students as lower class. Troublemakers were often pushed to the shop classes.

I'm proud to have been one of those student
I don't recall being offered Algebra as a path out of my trouble maker ways, detentions the course they applied.

The trades have served me and my family well.

I just finished Trever Noahs book "Born a Crime" talking about growing up in South Africa, dumpster diving just to exist. Now he is at the top of the game in the comedy business.

It's all in the mind and the drive, not the label society applies to skills and occupations.

SlamDunk

What @hot_rod said.

Tinman

Someone is going to have to make me work harder for a "Disagree" than me advocating for shop classes in high school. Geez.

ChrisJ

Steve Minnich said:

Someone is going to have to make me work harder for a "Disagree" than me advocating for shop classes in high school. Geez.

It could be a mistake, it's near the center of the screen on a cell phone.

I don't know who would be against shop class on this forum.

Tinman

@ChrisJ I'm just having fun. A year or two ago, someone gave me one and I asked if I could have more. He obliged by giving me 3 or 4 more.