I have been repeating year after year, “We need tech
and trade schools.” No one listens or investigates the
value of a technical school education. I know we have the skill
center — and it does a great job for those youngsters
in high school who wish to augment their education. But we
need more.
Parents and grandparents have been guilty for years of pushing
their offspring to go to college and become professionals;
doctors, lawyers, engineers and business executives. We scrimp
and save to pay for an education that will lead to a professional
degree for our children.
Those that hope for a doctor in the family fail to realize
the extensive number a years a student has to invest. The estimates
we see of the cost of a college education are generally based
upon a general degree. The additional amount necessary to gain
a professional degree, plus the cost of setting up a practice
is staggering. Many, many years will be spent before there
is a chance to break even.
Yes, we all believe the white-collar jobs are what we want
our family members to pursue; we even try to bribe or force
them into a field of our choice. As we push our plans on our
younger generation, we fail to consider the field we are endorsing
may not have job openings once the six, eight or 10 years of
higher education elapse. The world may change direction in
that length of time.
I’m
not saying professional positions are not worthy. But if
everyone becomes a doctor, few people would need
medical assistance. If they did, how would they find
it? Without
mechanics, (my friend paid $80 an hour for a brake
job) there would be
no means of transportation to find one. If everyone
was a lawyer, there would be no lawbreakers, maybe just a
divorce case or
two but that would not pay the food bill. Of course,
without farmers, we would have little food. How would
pharmacists
survive without truck drivers to deliver the drugs
to
their store?
I’m sure you are getting the idea. Now let me return
to my opening statement. “We need tech and
trade schools.”
As I see it, everyone agrees one of the greatest problems in
our country today is jobs. That may be true, but there are
not enough trade and tech schools to prepare those capable
to fill jobs that become available. Not all high school graduates
are qualified for college; they could provide the work force
needed for blue-collar jobs if there were enough tech and trade
schools to train them.
It’s
simple. White-collar trades cannot survive without techs
and mechanics. As our country became
the training
school for the world and our values slipped,
tradesmen were laid
off or forced into early retirement. Now we are
in desperate need
of those we decided to let go.
As blue-collar industries rebuild, retool and expand, they
are faced with a shortage of machinist and maintenance personnel.
So not only do companies outsource work, thus denying jobs
to our workforce, they are now importing labor.
The
premise that you must attend college to be successful in
this world is plainly wrong. We
can’t all be placed at
the top of the ladder. We need technicians, mechanics, farmers,
computer geeks, nail drivers, truck drivers and all the other
non-professional trades people. Let’s
start converting some of our unoccupied school
buildings
into trade
schools.