John Ringo, best-selling science fiction author, put up this post on X.com yesterday. It made me think very hard about the current shortage of skilled professional craft/trade persons, which we've discussed in these pages on previous occasions. Because some readers don't have access to X.com, I'm going to reproduce almost all of it here. If you're on X, please feel free to read the many comments following his post, and reply to John there (and leave a comment here anyway!).
One very critical thing to know/remember about 'the trades' and 'why did we get rid of votech in HS?'
I'm a late boomer and not one to automatically blame everything on boomers, but... the boomers are a big reason.
Essentially, boomers filled nearly ALL of the trade positions that the US needed, even got laid off when manufacturing got outsourced, and there were lots and lots of people born between 1946 and 1964 who were doing plumbing, electrician, mechanic, etc jobs.
And they didn't retire. It used to be skilled union workers could retire after 20 years. The boomers didn't. My best friend is a NETA Level Four and has been doing ETT for 30 years. All the 'kids' who would have moved into his job couldn't... because he was doing it.
During the '90s there just WERE VERY FEW TRADE JOBS AVAILABLE in the United States. There was no reason for HS to keep votech when NOBODY COULD GET A JOB. There WEREN'T (many) plumber jobs, electrician jobs, machinists positions available for people entering the work force. They were all filled up by boomers.
(Example: Have a friend who works in the nuclear industry. Had to regularly certify this big complex part that was hand machined by one guy who had been doing it since 1976. THAT WAS WHEN CARTER WAS IN OFFICE! 'What happens when he retires?' 'We're not sure. There's nobody else on earth that has the skills.')
Now, as they are finally retiring, suddenly WE NEED VOTECH! WE NEED KIDS TO WORK IN TRADES! WE NEED KIDS TO MAN THE ASSEMBLY LINES! WHERE ARE THE WELDERS?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH KIDS THESE DAYS?! THEY'RE JUST LAZY AND WANT TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES/BE INFLUENCERS/PLAY ON THEIR PHONES ALL DAY!
The United States essentially eliminated skilled trade as a POSSIBLE job much less a STATUS VALUE job for at least one entire 25 year generation. We need x million new electricians in 2026. We needed about 5 in 1996. 'Sorry, kid, we're not hiring/training new electrician apprentices unless your dad is a master electrician. We just don't need that many.'
So, most of the training, HS votech, apprenticeships just went away.
It's gonna take time to fix that.
Food for thought indeed! Please provide your own input on the subject in Comments.
Peter
"There was no reason for HS to keep votech when NOBODY COULD GET A JOB."
ReplyDeleteThat didn't stop universities from creating, advertising and awarding all the useless degrees. Of course, there'd all that taxpayer funding paying for it, though.
" My best friend is a NETA Level Four and has been doing ETT for 30 years. All the 'kids' who would have moved into his job couldn't... because he was doing it."
ReplyDelete'All the kids?' How many would do that job? Exactly one. One guy is doing it and one guy doesn't get replaced by two, let alone a dozen.
GGGGRRRRR! I chewed through the first 4 paragraphs before I threw up a little. The reason....blaming the boomers for STAYING AT THEIR JOBS and not allowing the following spawn to get in the trades. Lazy, lazy, lazy thinking. I graduated high school in 1973. That ubiquitous visit to the guidance official was filled with, "if you go into a 4 year college; you will make zillions more than a trades person"
ReplyDeleteTHAT is why there aren't more trades people! Talk about "nudging" a population! The effort to screw around with our society was tremendous. And very covert.
There; I said it. And if the writer of that X post thingy was working towards a different angle/ending then I apologize
I disagree. There have been openings as the economy expanded since those boomers started in the trades. There were not as many as now, but they were there.
ReplyDeleteThe big push in the 70's to college for all turned people away from considering the trades for the most part, and the push for post manufacturing jobs (Finance, IT, etc) was part of it. I suspect another part was fathers feeling the effects on their body and wanting their kids to have something better and physically easier.
Don't forget that the push to require a degree for everything was a solution to the complaints that skill tests were racist in the early 1970's.
Jonathan