Many high schools no longer provide any practical skills training. I put it down to the “no child left behind” program of 20-odd years ago, that threatened withholding of Federal education funding, if schools did not meet standards in some academic subjects.
With the pressure on academic training, combined with budget cuts (gotta give that money to the “JCs” you know), skills training was dropped.
One of the guys in a Naval history group on FB works in a southern California shipyard, He claims the vast majority of the yard workers are Mexican, commute from Mexico daily. Because USians with the skills are not available in sufficient numbers.
Steve
Dropping shop classes was a huge mistake but it all comes down to money. Shop is expensive to run. Requires equipment, liability insurance, facilities and hands on experience. Our local JC was originally basically a trade school and forbidden to compete with the close by university. That’s all ignored now.
Most of the trade classes are gone, replaced with online GE.
The county-wide school system that I taught in has a cooperative career education program with 3 neighboring counties. Here is a screenshot of the offerings. You might check your local schools and see if they have similar programs.
I tend to find that people go where the money is. If people are coming from Mexico to do the job it is because it doesn’t pay enough, and the employers have found a way to subsidize their business with lower paid workers. I will do the job, just not for what they want to pay me.
Andy
Don’t forget to add that for more than 20 years, college has been pushed as the way to succeed while becoming a tradesman/women/person has been looked down upon. Who hasn’t seen the advertisement that those with a college education earn $1 million more in their lives than those with just a high school education. The big fault with that “study”, they exclude people that go on to learn a trade/skill that allows them to earn just about as much if not more over a lifetime.
Mike Rowe has spoken multiple times to Congress about the skills shortage. He even has a foundation that helps those interested in learning a trade.
Ever consider that those college “studies” are as biased as the “studies” that tell you to drink more wine, drink more coffee, eat more chocolate, and so on?
Mike Rowe is an actor. In high school, he studied theater and singing. He graduated college with a degree in “communications studies”. His personal experience says he is as qualified to talk about trade skills as I am about parenting.
Harrison Ford is much better qualified to talk about the trades, as he spent a lot of time between gigs working as a carpenter. iirc, Tony Becker, best known for his work in “Tour Of Duty” is also a carpenter.
The net is a wonderful thing. Mike Rowe, posturing about the trades, with Tony Becker, talking about being in the trades.
Learning trade skills is good for old retired guys,too. Most definitely challenges the brain. I’ve got a mini woodshop set up in my garage, and am enjoying learning how to make stuff. Also take a night class in woodworking. Class is small, there are a couple of 19 or 20 year olds in it. The instructor likes us old guys, says we are all business and setting a good example for the young ones. I’m not trying to set an example, I just like it, so the 4 hour class flies by. Youtube is also a really good resource, there are some talented people willing to share their knowledge. Not sure how much money they end up making off of subscribers to their “channels”, but it’s free to watch them.
There are other night classes going on, and there are many 20-somethings in these skilled trades classes.
Only problem there is that, while I knew a ton in most trades, Dad was a carpenter, did his own plumbing, I did electrical electronics. but also built my own 16x24 workshop, from digging the foundation, pouring after all the steel, framing, roofing, elctrical, I did have help with the roofing, but the rest all after work, weekends, most don’t have the interest, to chase down the answers… Kids. grandkids all went into fields of sales, tech far from the trades, and/or didn’t own their own home to face the problems…
And then today, at my age, I just can’t get into he crawlspace or under sinks, or run cable in the attic! So now, have all the tools, skills, I call in help, have had great contractors, one not so great, the good guys are out there, but they all are always looking for help, end up with sometimes marginal helpers, that if you don’t know better, can really leave a mess…
Grand-neice, just now into college is hitting the trades, even hit a scholarship grant to help her out, So they are out there, hopefully more on the way, too…
Granddaughters both took wood shop in middle school, loved it, but by HS, the shop classes were gone, but they at least have some of the basics…
Changing, crazy times…
Whether or not high schools have trades education, the trades are not really offered as a viable career to kids. One of my neighbor’s kids decided college wasn’t for him and entered into an electrician apprenticeship program. By the time he finished the program, he was making $80,000 a year. His college buddies graduated around the same time, strapped with student loans, and couldn’t find a job making that amount.
Apart from not providing trade skills education in high school, our system doesn’t do a good job of explaining career options to students who don’t want to go to college.
Maybe it wouldn’t matter, younger generations seem more attracted to being YouTubers, gig workers, and alternative marketers.
I know a 50-something year old that recently switched from an office-based job to become an HVAC technician! I find that to be quite amazing.
Yeap!
Orienting children and also young adult students to an extremely rapidly changing economy and work environment is crucial but too political to touch. And courses in home and investment economic literacy? Hah. NEVER.
d fb
Here is a stranger one. One of the guys in an automotive group I read, 50 some years old, tired of being a lawyer. So, started taking classes to earn a CDL and drive 18 wheelers.
WOW!!! As a kid, I had a neighbor that was a truck driver. He retired from driving at around 56 years old and explained to us that he simply didn’t have the strength and stamina to drive that much anymore. He did some dispatching for a while, and then retired completely.
I don’t know if trucks beat up their drivers like they used to. I have heard old truckers talk about the difficulty of reading the instruments because their eyeballs were bouncing so much. That is what happens to a lot of guys in the trades. The work is so physically demanding that their bodies are worn out by 60. Jim has had a softer life, so far, so might have a few good years left in his body.
Steve
…is an excellent source!
The Captain
Ronald Reagan, if memory serves, was an actor. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not just an actor but a comedian!.
The comment is actorist! 
The Captain
Ever watch “Dirty Jobs”? While Rowe didn’t make a living working trades, he has experienced many more than you or I ever will.
Plus, he tells the story of how he wanted to be like his grandfather who was carpenter that could build anything. Even built a house without blueprints. Rowe tried to emulate him but didn’t have the skills. His grandfather gave him the advice of “finding the right toolbox” for your trade. Rowe knew he could carry a tune, which lead to bit parts in opera, which lead to TV reporter, to voiceovers, to the rest being history. So he found his “toolbox”. Rowe admits, he was never a good carpenter, but he does know the value of those skills. Which too many downplay until they need something fixed.
Our plumber used to be a computer chip designer. Has his own business with one employee.
Yes, I did, before I fired Comcast. And, as he crawled out of that septic tank, he knew he could hit the shower, and not need to go down in a septic tank again, every day, for the next 40 years. Bet he was paid a lot more for that day in a tank, than any of the people that were down there with him.
Rowe is an actor. Every actor has been in a project he hated, but they do it for the money.
I saw Jim Garner say the project he hated the most was “The Pink Jungle”. I have seen it, and quite enjoyed it, but Garner did it for the money, because he was an actor.
