Great interview with Mike Rowe

[scdavis50]

I just saw this interview with Mike Rowe about education, college and the skilled trades. Thought the GS would enjoy it.

A couple of quotes:

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.

and

The first time I heard the phrase shovel-ready jobs, I was in a water tower in New York with the guys that replaced the wooden water towers on top of skyscrapers. A guy had a small TV, we were on break, everyone was watching it. Everyone just laughed at the expression and one of the guys I was working with said: He's going to have a lot more success selling shovel-ready jobs to a country that still values the notion of picking up a shovel.

There's an article about it here if you'd rather read it.

[1369]

Working in the industry Mike is trying to "undemonize", I hope he word reaches a lot more people.

[Playa]

Read a similar article with Mike in Southwest Airlines Spirit magazine. Ha makes some very valid points, we have. 50 yr old deteriorating infrastructure & very few skilled people to rebuild it. On the other hand in a few more decades we will likely have a slew of college educated burger flippers & toilet scrubbers who can't afford to pay their student loans back. But, hey at least the accomplished getting their degree!

[1369]

Working in the industry Mike is trying to "undemonize", I hope he word reaches a lot more people.

"The", not "He".

Stupid coffee hadn't kicked in yet.

[Roscoe]

I agree with Mike Rowe on some many levels.

[DJM]

Some plain ole unbiased common sense.

DJ

[1369]

Some plain ole unbiased common sense.

DJ

Unfortunately, that's not the case anymore. Far too many folks from all walks of like look down at those that work with their hands to build and make things as being "not smart enough" to do anything else.

[scdavis50]

Far too many folks from all walks of like look down at those that work with their hands to build and make things as being "not smart enough" to do anything else.

1369, I don't know what you do, but the irony is those jobs can't be sent overseas. You can't outsource fixing your wiring or plumbing, just to name a few. But the "college" jobs can be. I even know of a company that has lawyers in India that draft all their documents and are only reviewed by a single attorney here.

[47]

Working in the industry Mike is trying to "undemonize", I hope he word reaches a lot more people.

Unfortunately, that's not the case anymore. Far too many folks from all walks of like look down at those that work with their hands to build and make things as being "not smart enough" to do anything else.

Anyone remember this poster in High School?

[1369]

1369, I don't know what you do, but the irony is those jobs can't be sent overseas.

I work for a heavy industrial construction company (we build alumina refineries, sugar mills, cement plants, power plants, etc.) and you're partially right, but you do see a movement to import skilled labor from overseas here because we can't find qualified people to do the work here.

Part of it is the work we do has been so marginalized by society, people coming into the workplace think they're a "failure" if they have to resort to working with their hands, because that's what society has always told them.

The other issue we have, is quite frankly wages by and large suck. It wasn't too long ago that a journeyman pipe fitter could work and raise a family with a stay at home mother. But, when corporations went "union busting" in the 60's-70's in search of a cheaper labor pool, that's when the die was cast. The union hands who had to go open shop to get a job were already trained and very skilled in their craft, but that generation is all but gone. We failed to follow up and train the next generation and are paying the price for that.

You get the owners to realize they have got to allow for higher wages to be paid, put trade schools back into the curriculum for those who don't want to go to college to train the future workers, and have society come to the realization that working with your hands is honorable work and we might get somewhere.

[47]

You get the owners to realize they have got to allow for higher wages to be paid, put trade schools back into the curriculum for those who don't want to go to college to train the future workers, and have society come to the realization that working with your hands is honorable work and we might get somewhere.

Precisely! I worked for public schools for 12 years and from about 2000 on, it was easy to see where the $$ was being shifted. Yes, toward needed technology, but at the detriment and in some cases, the near elimination of vocational programs. Programs that can and used to easily, take a high school kid who had no interest or means to go to college and train him to be an apprentice welder, carpenter or electrician, on a road to earning a very good living.

Somewhere along the line(mid 70's), the 4 year "degree" camel got it's head under the tent along with banks(financing) began minimizing the need for these skills in place for the current message...."every kid deserves to go to college." Deserves got nothing to do with it.... but since then that has been the focus, push them to enter college(often unprepared), taking on mounds of debt before they could ever dream of getting a job, let alone a job in Women's studies or countless other Liberal Arts "degrees". Add to that, the over saturation of a generation in those same fields of study, and the net result is where we find ourselves now as a society. Jobless, in debt and un "skilled."

[scdavis50]

Anyone remember this poster in High School?

[ATTACH]607862[/ATTACH]

That's the same poster he references in the interview. He's selling this version on his website to raise funds for his scholarship program.

[47]

That's the same poster he references in the interview. He's selling this version on his website to raise funds for his scholarship program.

Yep... saw similar interview he had with Glenn Beck last fall. Glad to see this is still gaining traction.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/23/mike-rowe-of-dirty-jobs-speaks-about-hard-work-how-many-are-following-the-worst-advice-in-the-history-of-the-world/