Free Republic

The skilled trades workforce, critical to keeping the country's infrastructure and economy running, is rapidly declining. While many companies are working to address the shortage, General Motors has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build its own pipeline of future workers. Over the past five years alone, the automaker has invested more than $242 million in its skilled trades apprenticeship program, which is geared toward training the next generation of skilled trade professionals with a combination of classroom instruction and thousands of hours of hands-on experience at a GM facility, Michael Trevorrow, GM's senior vice president of global manufacturing,...

President Trump on Monday suggested taking grant money from Harvard and giving it to trade schools instead. “I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!” The comments come days after the administration’s feud with the nation’s oldest college intensified when the Department of Homeland Security announced it would eliminate Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification over the “pro-terrorist conduct from students...

Wes Bihn watched his sister slogging her way through six years of university training to enter the psychiatry field, and he knew that path wasn’t for him. “I was raised on a farm,” Bihn told Cowboy State Daily. “And I’ve pretty much worked nonstop my entire life, and I just always hated being in school.” The mere thought of spending six years in a classroom was like torture for Bihn, who is from Indiana, really driving home the realization that he wanted something different. Bihn is like a lot of people in Generation Z, ranging in age from 13 to...

Early last year, The Independent Review published an intriguing article: Hyperpoliticization of Higher Ed Trends in Faculty Political Ideology, 1969–Present. The authors, Phillip W. Magness (senior research faculty and director of research and education at the American Institute for Economic Research) and David Waugh (managing editor at the American Institute for Economic Research), assessed complex data obtained from surveys that evaluated the political views of higher education faculty [e.g., Carnegie Commission on Higher Education Faculty Survey (1969–1984), UCLA-Higher Education Research Institute Faculty Survey (1989–2016)]. The information confirms trends that Legal Insurrection has long noted: Since 2001, 2001 higher education faculty...

A growing number of students are saying "no" to a traditional four-year college, instead choosing trade schools or apprenticeships after high school. Part of this has to do with the increasing cost of higher education. ... U.S. News reports that the average student debt is $30,000 for a recent college graduate. At 23 years old, Brady Woodel makes more than most recent college grads. Without a four-year degree, Brady takes home $25 an hour, while the average entry-level college grad makes $20. “When I came out and got my license, I would have earned as much money as I would...

The next time there is the need for a plumber don’t be surprised if the person carrying a tool box is a woman. That is because American women are getting the message that a degree in Women’s Studies can be worthless while a plumber’s certification provides a good paying job.

Last week, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao announced her Skills to Build America's Future" initiative. This is a "nationwide outreach and education effort designed to attract young people and transitioning workers to" the "key" occupations of the [near] future: "skilled trades." This initiative, understandably, was proclaimed with little fanfare. While President Bush looks toward Mars, Ms. Chao can hardly be proud of her decidedly pedestrian prophecy that "construction laborers, operating engineers, carpenters, iron workers, cement masons, bricklayers, truck drivers and many other construction related crafts are among the trades expected to see the greatest demand in workers over the next...

<p>Trade schools once meant auto mechanic institutes and beauty schools.</p> <p>But specialty schools are opening at a record pace, fueled by dual forces of a lagging economy and demands for more technically savvy workers.</p> <p>In Arizona, more than 170,000 students enrolled in career-training programs last year, studying everything from guitarmaking to personal training to computer repair. That's a 58 percent increase from the previous year, and schools across the board are seeing influxes.</p>