The "trades"

[randyt]

I hearvyoung folks are chosing the trades as a career more so than the last 20 30 years.

Any thoughts on why this may be?

 

[Pearl]

Besides "woke" colleges, I definitely think more young people are wising up! Apparently many got up and voted the right way!! Hopefully more are looking for sustainable futures!! The trades are more secure futures, and capitalism will be strong again!!

 

[Amish Heart]

University costs are ridiculous. And so there's the student loans that need to be taken out. I don't see the reason for going to a university unless you are studying medicine, engineering, or something in the sciences. Anything else can probably be accomplished in a two year program, and there's many two year programs for trades. Trades pay decently, and there's more of a need for a plumber than there is for a person degreed in womens' studies.

 

[Morgan101]

Affordability and a clearer path to a career seem to be two of the biggest reasons. Some professions will require a specific degree: Engineering, Accounting, Medicine, Law, Architecture, Education, I'm sure there are others. Getting a general Liberal Arts degree can be expensive, and there is no guarantee what kind of job you may get.

 

[Amish Heart]

There's different levels of medical that can be done out of the university. Our youngest was at University for 8 yrs...degree in biochem, then four years of pharmacy. Her sis a bit older than her went 2 yrs of university for education originally, hated it there, went into a non university two yr program for ultrasound, and did that.
Our son did 4 yrs in film making at the university, graduated with honors. Total waste of time and money. He is a general manager at a plant nursery and loves it.

 

[Tommyice]

One of my cousins' son was talking about that last year at Christmas. He originally planned to go to university to study finance but started talking about a trade--either electrician or plumber. I suggested plumber--my friend who is a plumber charges as much as a lawyer and has a really comfortable life. Also, you always have a plumbing "emergency", very rarely is their an electrical emergency that you can charge a premium for.

 

[d_marsh]

The make-believe path to a better life has always been "college", but now people know that unless you select the right degree - college just means getting a mediocre job plus a ton of debt. You can go to a 2 year school without debt and make $70k a year or you can go to a 5 year school with $100k+ of debt and make $50k a year. Colleges are going to go the way of newspapers as time moves forward. They will never go away, but there will be a whole lot less of them.

 

[Tirediron]

Most of the "degreed" paths can be done by a data base, hands on brain and hands can't and people are , especially the younger generations realizing that being indoctrinated to be a minion for the WEF is not a place where they want to be.

 

[randyt]

I thought maybe kids were working with their hand more lately.

Guidance counselors in school push the college. He didn't like me choosing professional trapper

 

[randyt]

I would suck as a guidance counselor. I would be like you have one life to live, follow your dream

 

[Morgan101]

The make-believe path to a better life has always been "college", but now people know that unless you select the right degree - college just means getting a mediocre job plus a ton of debt.

It doesn't have to be that way. If you are raised to be responsible with your money you can get a degree that is useful and affordable. Go to two years of Junior College and two years at a State school, and you will have a degree that you can afford. Your career path is your choice, but my recommendation would be to find a profitable company that offers career growth. If the company makes money you will make money. Just about any company is going to train you to do a job the way they want it done. If you show you are trainable they will give you a shot.

Early in our careers a good friend was working for a major corporation. His boss told him to get a degree. "I don't care what the degree is in, but if you get a degree I can promote you." He ended up gettng a degree in Art, but he had a very successful career. That same story hold true for a lot of people.

 

[Cabin Fever]

 

[Bacpacker]

Many folks currently in the trades are approaching or already past retirement age. Then a whole generation that had collage forced down their throat. No one coming behind to replace them. The younger folks are realizing they can make a nice living without taking on enough debt to buy a house with. If you get in the right trade and take some specialty training you can easily go well over 100k per year, over 200k with some OT which is almost always available. At that point if you want to get a degree to advance, many times the business will pay for or at least help pay the tuition.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Trades are always in high demand, plus they pay very well. Many of the 4 year college degrees are worthless and way over priced. This country has been saturated with college educated dumbshyts. We started an education fund for the grandkids where we'll pay for trade school. We won't pay for 4 years of college.

 

[Morgan101]

Trades are always in high demand, plus they pay very well. Many of the 4 year college degrees are worthless and way over priced. This country has been saturated with college educated dumbshyts. We started an education fund for the grandkids where we'll pay for trade school. We won't pay for 4 years of college.

Can I just play Devil's Advocate here? Why don't you let the kids decide. Not everybody is cut out for college, and not everybody is cut out for Trade School. Give them good career guidance, and explain the options and let them decide.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Can I just play Devil's Advocate here? Why don't you let the kids decide. Not everybody is cut out for college, and not everybody is cut out for Trade School. Give them good career guidance, and explain the options and let them decide.

Good question. But since it's my money I'll have control over how it's spent. If they want to go to a 4 year college, that's fine, it's just that they can pay for it themselves. If I can guess the future, I don't think they would choose a 4 year college. The boy already wants to be a mechanic, equipment operator or a gold miner.

 

[Morgan101]

Go by the old adage "If you love what you are doing it isn't work." If he wants to be a mechanic by all means go to a trade school, and pursue that career. What if one of them wants to be a teacher? What if they don't have the mechanical aptitude for Trade School? They may need alternatives.

 

[Supervisor42]

Trades are always in high demand, plus they pay very well. Many of the 4 year college degrees are worthless and way over priced. This country has been saturated with college educated dumbshyts. We started an education fund for the grandkids where we'll pay for trade school. We won't pay for 4 years of college.

You nailed it!
A great example is me and my little brother.
He went to 4-years of college and got a degree in archeology.
I bailed after my first year of college and went to trade school.
Choosing my field was as simple as thumbing thru the want-ads and choosing the one with the highest starting salary.
I went to work a year before him and was always paid well because my employer knew I always had 4 more job offers in my back pocket.

Little brother graduated and discovered there are effectively ZERO job openings for archeologists.
He got a job as a 'helper' in industrial construction and eventually moved up to 'instrument-fitter'.
My dad (who had paid his way thru college), was furious and disowned him.
...A tale of 2 brothers.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Go by the old adage "If you love what you are doing it isn't work." If he wants to be a mechanic by all means go to a trade school, and pursue that career. What if one of them wants to be a teacher? What if they don't have the mechanical aptitude for Trade School? They may need alternatives.

I doubt the grandson will want to be a teacher or an office worker. But if he did of course I'd support it, just not financially. Same with the granddaughter. We're giving both kids ideas for a career path. If the grandson wants to be a welder, mechanic or equipment operater, I can teach him all he needs to get a job. If he wants to be a gold miner, I can get him set up in that too. He won't even need trade school.

 

[zoomzoom]

The old adage was "You get paid more sitting down". I still believe that to be true, but...

Back in the day (and at least including most baby boomers), men were also "jacks of all trades".

By career, I developed software but I could always do my own plumbing, electrical, framing, equipment repair, heavy equipment operating...

IMHO, what's missing nowadays is that newer generations aren't as well rounded. They have their niche and that's about their only skillset so the demand for trade jobs as exponentially grown.

 

[dademoss]

I abandoned college after a semester, what they were teaching was not going to apply in the future. Mechanical engineering, with drafting using tables and T-squares. This was 1978, anybody with vision could see the future was computerized/automated. So, I did a few varied things, found a lot of things I didn't like to do, some things that were OK, some I was really good at.

Worked for the same company for 30+ years, doing things I liked, didn't like, or wasn't good at and moved around till I found the right spot . Took a while , but the last 20 years were pretty good, and I learned a lot of different skills in the time I was there.

My degree is from the "The School of Hard Knocks"

 

[Mountain trapper]

It's too bad that many "educated" people look down on anyone who works with their hands. I've heard many desk workers say things like "that's the only job they can get". If we assume that a careers sole purpose is for someone to make a living, then how much would that amount be? I paid some of my pipeliners $85/hr with guaranteed 84 hour work weeks. Many of my welders, mechanics and equipment operators made $150,000 per year. These were rotational jobs where they had 6 months vacation per year. This time off allowed these guys to live anywhere they wanted.
The office snobs with their college degrees made way less than that, plus they only got a couple weeks vacation per year.

 

[randyt]

The old adage was "You get paid more sitting down". I still believe that to be true, but...

Back in the day (and at least including most baby boomers), men were also "jacks of all trades".

By career, I developed software but I could always do my own plumbing, electrical, framing, equipment repair, heavy equipment operating...

IMHO, what's missing nowadays is that newer generations aren't as well rounded. They have their niche and that's about their only skillset so the demand for trade jobs as exponentially grown.

I'm more tired sitting down.all.day than if I'm out in the trenches so to speak. It takes all of us to get the job done