An available, but unfillable job is no job at all as far as the economy, hurting workers, the unemployed or employers are concerned and host of ‘Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe makes the case for making work “cool again.”
I wrote about the problem of a lack of vocational education and the prevalence of skill-shaming almost two years ago.
First, employers are increasingly complaining about not being able to find workers trained in trade skills:
U.S. companies are reporting that they are increasingly struggling to find workers with the proper skills for the labor market, suggesting a serious problem with the American education system.
But why? Certainly, our massively tax-payer funded behemoth of an education system can turn out highly-skilled welders, electricians, plumbers, framers, general contractors… right? Nope!
The public education system centers on the skills that helped make the careers of those that run the schools – teachers, bureaucrats and administrators. Classes like industrial arts/shop/construction skills, are rarely offered and certainly not pushed by counselors with the same vigor as STEM-aligned coursework.
Not every student is meant to pursue a Rhodes Scholarship or an Ivy League invitation and it would seem that employers also need workers that are better-skilled than they are well-rounded.
Decades of “skill-shaming” may also be to blame. The cultural notion that if you don’t get a college degree, you’ll just be some poor, blue-collar bumpkin has been prevalent for the last 50 years.
Mike Rowe has been publicly making his case for years and I absolutely, positively support the idea that making $70k as an electrician or welder is just as good as making $70k as an engineer or scientist if that is the career that matches your skills.
Mr. Rowe does a better job at making his point than I so please watch as the host of a show focused on jobs that require work help Americans understand that we must “make work cool again.”
