Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation about the need for more skilled blue-collar workers.
His purpose was to encourage support for industrial education through programs Rowe participates in, such as Go Build Alabama, I Make America, Discover Your Skills, and mikeroweWORKS. Read his entire testimony at the Discovery Channel site. Link -via reddit
In high schools, the vocational arts have all but vanished. We've elevated the importance of "higher education" to such a lofty perch that all other forms of knowledge are now labeled "alternative." Millions of parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training opportunities as "vocational consolation prizes," best suited for those not cut out for a four-year degree. And still, we talk about millions of "shovel ready" jobs for a society that doesn't encourage people to pick up a shovel.
In a hundred different ways, we have slowly marginalized an entire category of critical professions, reshaping our expectations of a "good job" into something that no longer looks like work. A few years from now, an hour with a good plumber – if you can find one – is going to cost more than an hour with a good psychiatrist. At which point we'll all be in need of both.
His purpose was to encourage support for industrial education through programs Rowe participates in, such as Go Build Alabama, I Make America, Discover Your Skills, and mikeroweWORKS. Read his entire testimony at the Discovery Channel site. Link -via reddit
and the company's wondering why they have such a hard time finding and keeping their CDL drivers. where if they paid $15-18 they'd have no problem.
At least my parents encourage me in this. My dad's a mechanic by trade, worked for the airlines for many years, so they know the value of blue collar and are both strongly union. They don't see blue collar work as beneath anyone. Then again my grandfather [dad's dad] built his own house too.
It is still true. An independent plumber makes more than an engineer.
I agree with some of Mike's points; we've certainly made a fetish of higher education. The only reason I tried college was because it was socially unacceptable for me not to go. And god knows a degree doesn't equal a good job either; I don't have a degree and make more than my wife (who's got a science degree).
My bad.