Posted on 04/17/2020 9:23:29 AM PDT by GuavaCheesePuff
t age 13, Montez King took a machine shop class at a Baltimore high school that later landed him a job at what was formerly Teledyne Inc., earning $10 an hour. Back in 1991, that was pretty good money for a teen.
A few years later, King was earning $16 an hour as a full-time apprentice machinist, while Teledyne paid for him to attend community college two nights a week. At age 18, he had saved enough to buy his own home.
King credits that apprenticeship with giving him the opportunity to make a solid living. But he acknowledges that today, so few young adults in the U.S. are interested in so-called “blue-collar” jobs that there’s now a frightening shortage of workers who have traditionally been the economic foundation of this country—be they builders, welders, plumbers, pipe fitters, miners or mechanics.
(Excerpt) Read more at shrm.org ...
> You do realize that Bush gave total control of the “No Child Left Behind” policy to Ted Kennedy. <
Oh, yes. But that in no way lessens Bush’s responsibility for this fiasco. The buck stops at the White House.
NCLB gutted trades classes all across the country. Music and art, too. How tough would it had been for Bush to say, “Sure, let’s rank schools based on their math and English scores. But let’s rank them based on other skills as well.”
NCLB is lunacy. I saw kids who should have been in a welding class struggling to interpret some damn English poem from 100 years ago. Bush signed NCLB. He owns it.
99% of the time, no trust.
My otherwise joke of a high school offered 3 years of auto mechanics or ag.
I took auto. That was enjoyable. The rest was boring and easy.
My HS only cared about college prep, band, football, and the rich kids. The rest, so what.
Even the Bill Gates of the world will need a plumber sooner or later!!!
For those who like animals & being their own boss outdoors-—there is a severe shortage of farriers (people who shoe horses0 in this country.
There are more horses in the USA today than before tractors came onto the scene.
Kids today cannot even read analog clocks-—they want all the clocks in schools changed to digital!!!
How should anyone expect them to read a dial gauge or use a calipers???
Why should they have to pass a piss test? What counts is on the job performance, not off the job recreation.
“How should anyone expect them to read a dial gauge or use a calipers???”
My grandfather (who at the end of his career was sort of an internal consultant to machinists, a “setter”), said that was a problem - but he said it in the mid 1970’s, when there WEREN’T any digital gauges or calipers!
I try to hire craftsmen all the time, but I can’t find any good ones who can pass a piss test.
Why should they have to pass a piss test? What counts is on the job performance, not off the job recreation.”””
Because if they get hurt on the job & are under the influence of drugs-—or alcohol-—the workmen’s comp insurance won’t pay them.
Also- IF any such employee is driving a company truck, the auto insurance won’t pay out for being under the influence behind the wheel.
IF I owned a company, I would be piss testing randomly on a continuing basis.
I went to high school before the Bush II era. Boys (and they were almost all boys) who took the welding, air conditioning, bricklaying, auto mechanics, electrical, plumbing, and similar classes (and the girls in cosmetology) in their junior and senior years also had to take and pass the regular mathematics and English classes. The mandatory junior English class covered that classical British literature, interpreting centuries-old poetry. Generally, welding students took 3 hours of welding, one hour of English, one hour of American history or government, and as many as two additional hours, usually including mathematics (trigonometry; many continued to calculus), science (chemistry or physics; many took both), and foreign language. They also could take music and art classes (if available in their schedules).
Incidentally, the vocational/technical-school crowd almost without exception managed to pass these difficult classes. A few took honors and even advanced placement classes. Those who enrolled in the technical classes generally had sufficient drive, determination, or parents. Many such students probably didn’t get particularly high grades but still managed to eke out passing scores while behaving appropriately. Other pupils simply failed away.
Like I said. What counts is on the job performance, not off the job recreation. What you're saying is that the potential liability is greater than the productivity minus the compensation of the worker. I imagine that the value calculation could be refined.
Ha!!! Okay... so you’re telling me that I need to hire a meth-head simply because he can weld or fit pipe, and I can trust said individual to come in here every day sober and not high as a kite? Not happening. No friggin’ way. Our insurance company would crap a brick and the corporate folks would fire my a$$ yesterday!
A friend of mine’s nephew started getting in trouble in high school. His mother convinced him to enlist. While in the Navy he got training in Diesel engines and when he was discharged got his ASE certification. Diesel repair may not be the most glamorous job out there but he’s now making good $$$ and doing very well for himself, without any student loan debt from some overrated diploma mill hanging over his head.
That is surely part of the problem; one other part is a general unwillingness to perform an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wages.
My buddy has fired several young men because they can’t leave their damn phones in their cars!
Great idea, and I am not sure he has done that.
I’ll ask him when I see him again.
(Although, I actually passed mine by providing a hair sample. The HR guy told me these tests are more reliable because a guy has to be clean for several weeks to pass whereas a week or two will get you through a piss test.)
ping
> [trades students] also had to take and pass the regular mathematics and English classes <
Right. And that’s just the way it should be. Algebra 1, for example, is actually a very practical class. It has real-world applications.
But NCLB forces everyone into advanced math classes like pre-calculus. Who needs a class like that? Maybe someone looking to go into engineering or physics.
The trades kids don’t need it. Their time is better spent in the shops. But NCLB eliminated the shops. So kids who should have been in those shops are instead in pre-calculus, a class they neither want nor need.
My Grandpa worked as a tool&die for one company - Michigan Brass - for 40 years (1930 - 1970) and yes, he was hired during the depression, in Detroit. He retired and lived 19 more years as a single man (he had outlived my Grandma and his 2nd wife) spending half a year in Fla. with my Uncle, the other half with us in Mich...
My Dad also a tool&die retired in 1998 and enjoyed over 20 years retirement, he just passed this past Feb...
Me? they started me as an apprentice working the tool crib, I enjoyed the good pay but (all important ‘but’), I decided I had a wanderlust so I joined the military...
If I had stuck with tool and die, I’d be retired by now...
Still putting my 40 hours+ a week here and NOT retired...
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