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High-Paying Trade Jobs Sit Empty, While High School Grads Line Up For University (npr.org)
An anonymous reader shares an NPR report: While a shortage of workers is pushing wages higher in the skilled trades, the financial return from a bachelor's degree is softening, even as the price -- and the average debt into which it plunges students -- keeps going up. But high school graduates have been so effectively encouraged to get a bachelor's that high-paid jobs requiring shorter and less expensive training are going unfilled. This affects those students and also poses a real threat to the economy. "Parents want success for their kids," said Mike Clifton, who teaches machining at the Lake Washington Institute of Technology, about 20 miles from Seattle. "They get stuck on [four-year bachelor's degrees], and they're not seeing the shortage there is in tradespeople until they hire a plumber and have to write a check."
In a new report, the Washington State Auditor found that good jobs in the skilled trades are going begging because students are being almost universally steered to bachelor's degrees. Among other things, the Washington auditor recommended that career guidance -- including choices that require less than four years in college -- start as early as the seventh grade. "There is an emphasis on the four-year university track" in high schools, said Chris Cortines, who co-authored the report. Yet, nationwide, three out of 10 high school grads who go to four-year public universities haven't earned degrees within six years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse. At four-year private colleges, that number is more than 1 in 5.
In a new report, the Washington State Auditor found that good jobs in the skilled trades are going begging because students are being almost universally steered to bachelor's degrees. Among other things, the Washington auditor recommended that career guidance -- including choices that require less than four years in college -- start as early as the seventh grade. "There is an emphasis on the four-year university track" in high schools, said Chris Cortines, who co-authored the report. Yet, nationwide, three out of 10 high school grads who go to four-year public universities haven't earned degrees within six years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse. At four-year private colleges, that number is more than 1 in 5.
I guess Mike Rowe was right all along!
The reason for this is the current generation looks down on blue collar work thinking that its beneath them. This myth is propagated by many high schools with the elimination of shop and auto mechanics classes.
This isn't helped at the university level where lots of liberal teachers preach that blue collar workers are nothing but a bunch of dumb hicks that are not smart enough to find something better.
Truth be told lots of the blue collar work today requires ether at least one advanced degree or months of apprenticeship.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
I counsel any young person that is curious to stay out of IT.
Do not get trapped in an office your whole life.
Stay away from IT because it is always understaffed and overworked. Yeah, you make good money but your health goes to shit and your ability to impact is often limited.
I suggest hands-on engineering where you get to go outside and travel to different sites....things like HVAC tech, aircraft engineer, electrician, or something involving industrial controls or construction.
It is very tough to find a good company to work for in IT--have to get lucky. There is no standardized skill verification so you often end up working with a bunch of hacks who poke around in a GUI who have little idea what is going on behind the scenes. Your attempts to fend off disaster go ignored and those who recover from disasters get all the credit--even if they caused it.
If you love tech....make it your own...do your own thing and love it. Stay away from corporations.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
I believe Mike Rowe has been trying to get the US to take notice of this for quite a few years.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Yes and no.
Some people do not have the drive to be entrepreneurs. I know for a fact that I don't. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with having the drive and being an entrepreneur, either.
You're falling into the same fallacy as the schools -- one size fits all. That's not the case.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
It is not that complicated. People need to be trained properly. I have never met anyone who was trained properly. I taught myself and devoured blogs, books, forums for years that involved discussions around best practices, patterns, and case studies to hone myself into a professional developer. Most people devour reddit.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
If we get to the point where an AI robot can perform electrical old work in a 50+ year old building, then nobody is going to have a job, and we have bigger economical problems.
I work as an electrician for a year and a half.
Fuck all that noise. Way too fucking hot. The pay was bad. The hours worse.
The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
It doesn't matter that a journeyman plumber can charge $70 an hour. The plumber is RARELY going to have 40 hours of work in a week. If they find 20 hours of work they are doing great. Same with contractors. A contractor can have 8 months of work building a house or doing a total renovation followed by 6 months of no work at all. It's wildly unpredictable work. An office drone goes in and does his 40-50 hours and collects his salary like clockwork every week. He doesn't need to worry about any union shop finding him sufficient hours. Now some people are very good at finding business and are the exception to this rule and are always busy but its an endless hustle and why no one in the trades wishes the same job on their kids.
My family (both blood and marriage) has multiple trades people. A good lot of them tend to get put on suspension and have to draw from unemployment for multiple months during the slow seasons. The ones that are gainfully employed year-round make about as much as I make, but when they're 50 or so they're seeing chiropractors, doctors, and are dealing with a variety of health issues.
College also has prepared me by exposing me to more general forms of knowledge. Philosophy, basic finance, mathematics, and how to do research and communicate and validate. It's been my own personal anecdotal experience that these tradesmen are often the easy targets of misinformation. They often believe in crap like Alex Jones, health supplements (delaying their medical care because of "big pharma" by using bullshit like rose hips or whatever), and live in this fear that "ALL gubbermint is bad" and blah blah blah.
They're highly trained and skilled at a very specific specialty. But generally have little to no capacity to learn outside of that specialty, because they generally weren't ever taught how to THINK like an academic.