Trade Jobs

I have said before that I think that as a culture we place way too much of an emphasis on college. We have record high numbers of students enrolling in 4 year colleges to earn degrees. Paying massive sums of money ... that is to say going into massive debt by taking out loans in order to pay the massive sums of money .... and walking out with pieces of worthless paper for the most part.

Part of this is because at the age that most people go to college (just out of high school) they have no clue what to do. They either choose to study a particular degree program because they think it's interesting, or it will be easy, or that they'll get rich. While many things may be interesting if you are going to college and paying to study something you should make sure that what your studying will pay off .... can you USE that to get a job? If you're pursuing something in college because 'it will be easy' you are definitely setting up to go for all the wrong reasons and should really just not spend the money. And chances are that if you're going to study something just because you think it will make you rich ... you're likely to find that 1-you hate it, and 2-there are a million other people doing the same thing. Meaning that there are going to be a lot of other students ... just like you ... looking for the 10 or so of those jobs that are going to be available when you graduate.

What are you going to DO with the degree when you graduate? What does a degree in Art Appreciation or Women's Studies prepare you to do as a career? Conversely if you're going for a career as a journalist (for example) do you really NEED a degree .... what is a college going to teach you that you can't learn at a Tech school ... or better yet by working? Is it going to teach you how to write? I would hope you learned that before high school ... or teach you how to think? How to ask people questions ... or how to manipulate peoples answers? How to report the facts .... or how to manipulate people's opinions?

In MOST cases college degrees are pointless really. The only reason that an entry level accounting position (for example) requires one is because there are thousands of applicants that have one ... and the only reason that thousands of applicants have one is because we have spent the better part of 40 years telling kids they had to get one. Over half the kids enrolled at most colleges have no business being there ... they are either studying something that will not prepare them for any kind of career or studying something they could just have easily (and probably more effectively) learned on the job.

All the while we have, as a culture, turned away from the trades. Treated trades workers as a lesser class of job. The type of job to be done by those too dumb to do a real job ... too low tech to be really useful. Construction, Plumbing, Electricians, Mechanics, Welders .... the economy and society NEED these people to function and yet fewer and fewer people are interested in these fields.

In a very real sense these are the spark plug jobs of the economy ... they aren't the fuel, they aren't the power of the machine, but in a very real sense without them the whole thing simply won't work. They may not steer it, they may not invent it, but they build it, they make it work, and they fix it when it breaks. These shouldn't be 'last resort' jobs ... they should be jobs that people are proud to take. They take skill and dedication to master and they can be just as rewarding as any other career out there. No they aren't for everyone, but the kid that likes to tinker on his car and work on engines shouldn't feel ashamed to become a mechanic ... he should be proud that he can take on a trade doing something that he enjoys and is good at rather than trying to force himself through college and onto a career path just because people have told him his whole life that that's what he is supposed to do.