An Open Letter to Graduates Not Sold on College

As graduation ceremonies mark the annual rite of passage for high school students eager to begin the next stage of their life, are they making decisions that best position themselves for a productive and rewarding career?  For some, college is the correct and logical next step.  For others, college may not make sense, especially with the current, inflationary environment for secondary tuition.  It is now more imperative than ever to decide if college is right for you before spending thousands of dollars to find out it is not.

The popular narrative, especially since the end of the Great Recession, is that education is the best (and maybe the only) method to pursue the American Dream of each generation doing a little better than the one previous.  This narrative combined with the other popular narrative of dying ‘blue collar’ jobs creates a one-size fits all approach for all high school students: if you do not go to college, a high school diploma is not sufficient to be competitive in the labor market.  While a high school diploma by itself is certainly not a winning career formula, there are options, and these options are quickly becoming in high demand with no foreseeable increase in the supply of labor.

These are trade-based employment opportunities, and they will be as needed in the economy of tomorrow as they were 30 years ago.  America’s modern economy is dependent upon facility infrastructure such as heating/cooling, plumbing, and electrical.  Without these foundations of a advanced economy and the skilled technicians to service them, the economy is downgraded from advanced to emerging at best.  According to staffing firm Adecco Staffing USA, a shortage in labor is nigh at hand.

The gap is only getting bigger. Not only does this include the 31 million positions that will be left vacant by 2020 – but it also includes the skills gap that generations X and Y will need to overcome. The best ways to move forward may be to:

• Better educate and train today’s generations in these specialized areas
• Provide incentives for going into these areas of study and/or work
• Tap into underutilized talent pools, such as vocational schools

The most difficult task at hand will be to find skilled workers who are ready and able to sweep in to fill these open roles when the time comes.

Over the next decade, a significant number of the current workforce employed in trades such as HVAC-R, plumbing, and electrical will be entering retirement and the current forecast yields a dearth in replacement workers.  Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, recently published a LinkedIn post co-authored with Michael Bloomberg discussing this gap within the context of public education.  https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/skills-schools-arent-teaching-must-jamie-dimon?trk=hp-feed-article-title-publish.

It used to be that a high-school diploma was enough to qualify for a job at the local factory that paid wages high enough to buy a home and raise a family. Those days are long gone. There are still more than 12 million manufacturing jobs in the U.S., down from a high of nearly 20 million in 1979. But most require far more skill than they once did. A high-school diploma no longer cuts it.  The same is true for many of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy, including health care, computer science and the construction trades. Many jobs in those fields don't require a college degree, but they do require technical skills that high-school programs typically don’t offer. Because we have failed to strengthen and expand career and technical education, few students are given the option to pursue programs that would give them the skills that are an entry ticket into these industries.  As a result, too many students are put on traditional academic tracks that lead to dead ends, often graduating unprepared to perform anything but minimum-wage service jobs that hold few prospects for advancement. Many cannot find work at all, increasing their risk of being involved in crime and violence. We must do better.

The chart above illustrates the gap in working entering retirement and those early in their careers within the killed trades.

The skilled trades are perhaps some of the most misunderstood employment opportunities in the labor market with many would-be candidates not understanding the earnings potential of these jobs.  Reluctance to enter these fields is understandable.  These jobs are not the ‘sexy’ jobs being created in a hot, new, burgeoning sector of the economy, but they are critical to the soundness of the economy.  What would office life be like if there was no cooling in the summer or heating in the winter? 

These careers require abstract thinking, technical agility, problem solving, customer service, and an ability to embrace new technologies as the industry is implementing new technology solutions to improve not only operating efficiency but also the customer experience.  These careers also require a healthy dose of good old-fashioned hard work in sometimes-uncomfortable elements.  For candidates willing to spend six to twelve months in a trade school and apprentice for a period early in their career, they offer salaries that support raising a family and buying a home plus offer a dynamic employment experience one would not get working on a manufacturing line, repeating the same task ad infinitum.  

For those graduates who have the foresight to begin a career in the trade industries in the next couple of years, their skills will be in high demand as the rate of Baby Boomers leaving the job market accelerates. When you are the supply that is being out-paced by demand, you are maximizing your utility and earnings potential.

 Thanks to Adecco Staffing USA for the supporting information and infographics. Please click on the link for more information.

https://www.adeccousa.com/employers/resources/Pages/skilled-trades-in-demand.aspx