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He watched his friends work long hours as paralegals while studying law and weighed the all-encompassing commitment. That was five years ago. Today, Osielski, 29, is a journeyman electrician rather than a law firm associate. Or, as Osielski might say with his minor in French, an ?lectricien.
In a region in which 47 percent of Washington area residents have a college degree, the highest rate in the nation, Osielski is among a small but apparently growing number of the college-educated who are taking up the trades.
They started out studying aerospace engineering, creative writing and urban planning. But somewhere on the path to accumulating academic credentials, they decided that working with their hands sounded more pleasant -- and lucrative -- than a lot of white-collar work. So bye-bye to term papers and graduate theses, and hello to apprenticeships to become plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics and carpenters.
The slow demise of vocational education in the past three decades and gradual growth of career and technical education (CTE) and cooperative programs between area community colleges and high schools–see above–is a back-story that needs telling for two reasons. First, there is persuasive evidence that CTE is effective for youth from minority and poor backgrounds and those effects last well into young adulthood. Second, the truth that not all students want four more years of academic work after getting their diploma seldom merits mention by the current crop of school reformers.
On the matter of evidence, James Kemple has studied CTE exhaustively using “gold standard” designs and found that those students in Career Academies, especially males, who completed these programs earned more money than those who were in non-Academy programs. Moreover, larger percentages of Career Academy graduates were living independently with a partner or spouse and children than non-Academy graduates.
As for the simple truth that not all students are eager for continued academic work divorced from real-world work, such recognition of that truth would give ulcers to most top-level policymakers (and parents) committed to “college for everyone.”
Truth-telling would undermine the current and widely popular reforms of making all K-12 classes college preparatory. Truth-telling might sway policymakers (and parents) to consider alternative pathways that include CTE and joint programs with community colleges. Truth-telling might inform parents that millions of jobs created by 2018 will not require a four-year degree. Truth-telling might reveal that of all high schools in the U.S., for example, half do not offer any CTE to their students–yes, that is correct. No program at all. And that was in 2002 before the frenzy for “everyone goes to college” had ramped up. Only 5 percent of all high schools in the nation have full-time CTE.
While we have had small discussions on the benefits of learning a trade I think it should be an honest discussion, while these articles are talking almost strictly union jobs, I know plenty of non union trade type companies having trouble getting trainable people. The problem is that for whatever reason many people seem to look down on people who work in the trades, despite the fact that they often make good money with top guys making around the $100,000 mark, which is almost double the average household income in the country.
I also do not understand when it became college for everybody, I know there were people who thought that way when I was in high school, but the teachers, guidance counselors, and other people who were in direct contact with students would bring up the idea of someone going to a trade school or learning a trade. College is just a bad idea for many students, not everybody should work in IT or be a lawyer, we still need people who can work with their hands and the money trades pay today those kids would be considerably better off learn a trade sooner rather then later.
When do people wake up and realize that not every one needs college, and that you can build a career very easily without ever having to sit in an office all day? When is the push for more college prep courses, and fund raising for sports, Art, & music, going to include shop class and programs to help kids actually start learning useful skills for the rest of their life?
Problem is, too many young folks went to college. Many didn't have the capacity to graduate, which is why so many ended up dropping out. Don't know if this is a new phenomena, but I blame guidance councilors with their heads up their you know what... I also blame predatory promotion of college to people who don't belong. There's a huge racket going on among the sub par colleges who want warm bodies with easy access to student loans.
The problem with the trades is you're much better off jumping in when you're 18. Nobody wants to be the guy pushing a broom or cleaning up a work site earning peanuts when their 26. Better to enter a trade young so you can drive a nice sports car when you're 26
I've worked with some college grads who started out in the trade after they graduated. Most held a sort of grudge about the crappy labor they are expected to perform and the crappy paychecks. It's not the employer's fault that they lack the necessary skills to do better paying work. It's certainly not the employer's fault that they have a large student loan bill. Nobody forced them to go to college and nobody told they couldn't have a successful career in the trades. They have always been there but most people wanted different careers.
There is a need for smart people in the trades, although there are also plenty of brainless jobs. There is a major disconnect between the intelligent folks needed and the jobs themselves. IMO, this has to do with schools, parents, society and employers themselves.
While I don't think that everyone should go to college, let's not think of college as a trade school because I don't think that's what it's meant to be, even if sometimes it feels like it should be due to the exorbitant prices that colleges are charging these days. Trade schools and colleges really shouldn't be compared directly, in my opinion, because the value of the degree should be found in producing well-rounded graduates with strong critical thinking skills and excellent verbal and written communication skills.
I hope as time goes on guidance counselors and schools will not put the focus on college as the only path because I think that does a disservice to many students whose aptitudes may lie in the trades. Ultimately it should be the job of our schools to help students figure out what's best for them as individuals and not simply put everyone in the same box.
After spending the last 5 years in school and about 70k in student loans. I have come to realize education is a big scam. It doesn't matter where you went to school. All higher education institutions have one thing in mind, generating more money to come into their system. If I take those 5 years and say I was working you can throw another 150k on top of the cost of education. That is a total of $220,000 for the cost of a bachelors degree these days. If I could do it over again I would have stuck to one of the trades. I have a brother who went to school for 3 months to be an electrical lineman. He now makes close to $200,000 a year.
I would have tried my hand at a trade too, then maybe did my college major later on because I wanted to be a leader. I mean let's face it, as you go up the management chain, you need more soft skills rather than hard skills. I think the issue is we have trained people for soft skills jobs that don't exist now.
It's not easy to get in. There are training programs available (not very cheap for someone who's unemployed or 'unemployABLE') and of course what people here have been telling me....the "backyard" way of getting in by stalking companies and offering yourself. But part of the problem is that many companies want someone else to do the training for them. 60 minutes did a story on this. Hopefully things will change when the older generation starts retiring, and these companies have no choice BUT to take matters into their own hands or fall behind.
Like Peter Cappelli said on the program, one of the main reasons is rock bottom wages. If you are offering fast food wages for a skilled labor job and you can't find employees, the reasons should be obvious. The masses would rather work at mcdonald's for the same price, no brain power, experience, or fancy certifications required.
There was a web page about a 93 year old woman still working putting in rivets into aircraft structures. She was being paid $40 / hr to do this. I'd do any factory work despite my degree if it paid $30+ /hr + benefits.
It's not easy to get in. There are training programs available (not very cheap for someone who's unemployed or 'unemployABLE') and of course what people here have been telling me....the "backyard" way of getting in by stalking companies and offering yourself. But part of the problem is that many companies want someone else to do the training for them. 60 minutes did a story on this. Hopefully things will change when the older generation starts retiring, and these companies have no choice BUT to take matters into their own hands or fall behind.
Like Peter Cappelli said on the program, one of the main reasons is rock bottom wages. If you are offering fast food wages for a skilled labor job and you can't find employees, the reasons should be obvious. The masses would rather work at mcdonald's for the same price, no brain power, experience, or fancy certifications required.
Whoah. Another parried post making excuses.
Rock bottom wages for who?
Our LOWEST paid construction employee for the 100 million dollar construction company I am a manager at is a fire watch. They just watch welders and make sure nothing starts on fire.
Pay? Full benefits and vacation. $14/hr working 50 hrs/wk. Also receive $250/wk tax free per diem.
Thats the lowest paying job.
My first job out of tech school was $19.35/hr working 56 hrs/wk. Full awesome benefits as well. Made 53k my first year.
4-5 years later I make about triple.
What do I know. That troll parried will tell you his VAST knowledge about how he has an excuse for every single job or career ever.
I am guessing that the whole "too many people go to college" started when parents, guidance counselors, family, etc... put the fear of god into the student that "If you don't want to end up working at Shop Rite/Burger King for the rest of your life you better go to college". And surely no high-school student wants Burger King or cashier at CVS to be his life long career, thus whether or not he wants to college, he ends up going to college anyway.
So what results is a situation, a problem in which there are more college grads than job openings for college grads, in most cases-employers wanting very specific degrees even for the entry level stuff and college graduates who end back at CVS anyway because that is all they could find at the time. I imagine that the solution is many fold but emphasizing trades as a viable option is probably part of the solution.
For what it is worth I remember back in High-school that those who gravitated towards trades, had aspirations for trade school instead of college (GASP!) where looked down upon, thought less of etc... This was largely because when I was in school, college ( majoring and graduating in whatever degree you want) was touted as the ticket to the middle class life.
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