Blue Collar Shortage
In the last 30 years, we pushed college education...
30 years later, we find ourselves with:
👎 a shortage of blue-collar workers
👎 a shortage of skilled tradespeople
👎 High Student Loan Debt
👎 People with degrees that have nothing to do with the work they perform
When I meet parents of students, I encourage them to look at the trades. I have had plenty of parents say, "My son is going to college, maybe they will come to your company after that."
I then talk to them about a few things...
👍 Get a job right after high school and let the employer pay for the education to avoid that student loan debt. A lot of employers have Education Assistance Programs that will cover the costs of education, which you can take at the same time you are getting a paycheck, too.
👍 The trades are making bank. 🤑 Don't discount them. An entry-level tradesperson will most likely start their career at a higher pay than most entry-level salaried roles and will probably make more money over their lifetime than the average salaried employee.
👍 If you don't know what you want to do, get a job. We have to get out of the mindset of doing what everyone else is doing. Don't go to school just because that's what everyone else is doing. Try out what you want to do, if it's not your current job, but it's something you are interested in within the company, ask your manager how you can get exposure to that area of the business. If it's something outside the company, find an opportunity to volunteer to shadow someone doing that job.
👍 Trades aren't as dirty of a job as they used to be, most factories are very clean, air conditioned and are focused on preventative and predictive maintenance, so these employees aren't always just fixing things, they are preventing equipment from breaking down.
Let's turn the ship 180 degrees, instead of a total 360 this time so we have a reasonable number of people for all occupations and don't have to bail people out from debt they probably shouldn't have incurred in the first place.
#trades #technicalroles #education #hiring #bluecollar #highschool #college