Posted on 12/14/2013 5:50:08 AM PST by Kaslin
Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs chimes in on the US education system in an interview with Nick Gillespie on Reason.Com.
click on above link if video does not play
Rowe: If we are lending money that ostensibly we don't have to kids who have no hope of making it back in order to train them for jobs that clearly don't exist, I might suggest that we've gone around the bend a little bit.
Gillespie: We are doing everything we can to push every kid to go to a four-year college. What's wrong with that?
Rowe: It's not working. You have a trillion dollars in debt on the student loan side. You have a skills gap, something [interrupted by Gillespie]
Gillespie: What do you mean a skills gap?
Rowe: Right now you have about 3 million jobs in transportation, commerce, trades, that can't be filled.
Gillespie: Anything from carpentry to electricians, plumbers,
Rowe: [interjects] Heating, electric, truck drivers, welders is a big one, jobs that typically parents don't sit down and say to their kids - look if all goes well, this is what you are going to do.
Rowe's advice is summed up in the following clip I took from the video.
Get Ready to Get Dirty
The video is a lengthy 41 minutes but Reason.com provides this synopsis so you can skip to topics that interest you.
Work Smart, Not Hard
The 3:20 mark discusses this higher education ad campaign thrust upon Rowe by Mr. Dunbar, high school guidance counselor
Picking up at the 7:50 mark ...
Gillespie: When did the idea disappear that you should learn a skill that is actually useful or in need?
Rowe: That's a good question for a real social anthropologist. My own opinion is there is a kind of inertia that most parents would agree that it exists. And it's a desire see something better for your kids than you had. The question of course is "what is better?" Is it better, right now today, to have $140,000 in debt but a degree from Georgetown, or is it better to be that kid I described in Butler.
It's an excellent interview, please listen to at least a portion of it.
My Take
Many technical jobs are available in the Marcellus shale industry. Technical programs are available to channel young people into those jobs.
As a college drop out with a succesful manufacturing shop employing several people, I find the best coffee in the world is a coffee served to me buy someone with a masters degree in sociology.
Rowe spoke to jobs and education on FBN’s Independents program this evening. Excellent points.
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