• Suddenly More Appealing: Skilled Trades

  • Sep 27 2024
  • Length: 6 mins
  • Podcast

Suddenly More Appealing: Skilled Trades

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  • Summary

  • Plenty of jobs, decent wages and less fear of AI
    With abundant, well-paying jobs available across the U.S., and the soaring costs of a four-year college degree, more high school graduates are considering a path that not long ago was seen as less desirable: a "blue collar" career in the skilled trades.
    Only 25 percent of Americans believe it is extremely important to have a college degree to find well-paying employment in the current economy, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center. Forty percent of respondents felt a degree was not important at all.
    Skillwork, a Nebraska-based agency that connects employers with skilled workers, estimates there are nearly 3 million unfilled trade jobs in the U.S., including some 500,000 in manufacturing. It cited a plumbing company in Seattle where many employees earn more than $100,000 annually and an electrician in Ithaca who makes $90 an hour, which translates to $172,000 a year.
    Michele Santiago, a guidance counselor at Beacon High School for 20 years, said she's seen an uptick in interest in the skilled trades from students and parents. "Ten percent of our 11th and 12th graders now attend the Dutchess BOCES Career and Technical Institute" in Poughkeepsie, she said.
    BOCES stands for Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which offers vocational training for students in districts that contribute funding. It also provides training in fields such as graphic design, fashion design, and film and audio for students who may pursue four-year degrees.
    Students in the 10th to 12th grades also can attend the annual Hudson Valley Construction Career Day, held in the spring. "It's hands-on," Santiago said. "Students speak to members of local unions about their trade, apprenticeship programs and benefits of being in a trade union."
    In Cold Spring, about 10 percent of the juniors and seniors at Haldane High School receive vocational training at the Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES in Yorktown Heights, said Amanda Cotchen, a Haldane guidance counselor. "Students know that a trade is an option; we promote career readiness as opposed to just a college focus," she said.
    Tommy Andrews, 18, a recent Haldane graduate, is pursuing a trade by another route: the military. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve and will attend boot camp in December before training to become a construction electrician. "I'll make up to $1,000 a week during the 22 weeks of boot camp and trade school," Andrews said. "And I'll receive a $20,000 bonus for signing up. I can't wait to go."
    As part of a six-year commitment, he'll work one weekend a month plus a two-week stint each summer. He hopes to land a full-time job through the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Although the Air Force and Army also offer training in skilled trades, the Navy was an easy choice for Andrews because his father and grandfather served.
    Stephen Lowery, director of career and technical education at Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES, said college costs and rising student debt have changed the landscape over the past five years. Depending on the trade, BOCES grads can step out of high school into a job that pays as much as $70,000 a year.
    Lowery also has seen a shift in parental attitudes. "Parents who have always pushed going to college now see they won't have to pay that big tuition, and their kids are going to get a good job doing something they love," he said.
    Asked to pick the five trades offering job opportunities for BOCES grads, Lowery quickly named electrical; welding; heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC); carpentry; and landscaping-urban forestry.
    While the role of trade unions has declined in recent decades, he sees a resurgence there, as well, because unions realize workforces are aging and they need to recruit younger members. He pointed to the Sheet Metal Workers as one union that has been working closely with BOCES to fill its dwindling ranks.
    Nicholas Millas, the principal at Dutchess BOCES Career and Techn...
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