There has been a constant push to get kids to go to college, and with the large number of college graduates who cannot get jobs that actually require a degree, it is refreshing to see this interview with Mike Rowe with an opposite opinion.
https://reason.com/blog/2015/12/15/mike-rowe-to-bernie-sanders-stop-telling
The skilled trades do require post-high school education and training, even though they do not require a bachelor’s degree. Also, North Dakota is shale oil field country, so the jobs there are presumably very oil price dependent.
It does appear to be the case that there is creeping credentialism, where employers ask for bachelor’s degrees even if the jobs require neither specific skills or knowledge taught while studying for a bachelor’s degree nor the higher level of thinking skills that bachelor’s degree study supposedly trains one for. Perhaps it is a cycle of employers wanting higher credentials, more people feeling that they need to get the higher credentials, increasing the supply of people with the higher credentials, allowing more employers to be able to select for higher credentials, etc…
Social status may also be a factor. For whatever reason, many people seem to think that even lower paid white collar jobs with little in the way of career development are higher status than the skilled higher paid blue collar jobs. Vance Packard’s 1959 book The Status Seekers mentioned that, and it does not appear to be different today.
There is a huge shortage of tradesmen. The carpenter who has worked on our stateside house over the years told his high school guidance counselor in the early 80s that he wanted to be a carpenter. The guidance counselor then told our carpenter friend that he was “too smart” to be a carpenter and said he should pursue engineering. Our carpenter friend, being a young kid, followed the guidance counselor’s advice and despite a couple of school transfers eventually finished a degree in nuclear engineering, then landed a job at a nuclear power plant that eventually shut down. During the time that our carpenter worked as a nuclear engineer he also built his own house in the local area, got married to a teacher at one of the local schools, and got involved in town politics and whatnot. When he lost his job because the power plant closed, he didn’t want to relocate anywhere, he wanted to stay in the place he had made home. So in his mid-30s, he became a carpenter so he could continue to work locally. He of course has an engineering background to go with his carpentry skills, and he does impeccable work. But it isn’t just parents who are steering kids away from high paying skilled trades, it is our educational system, and society as a whole.
I think those are great options for students who are not academically inclined.
Re: #2
Seems like he should have gone into civil, rather than nuclear, engineering. Then he could design houses and do a lot of the building himself.
Also, one should not underestimate the intellectual skills needed in the skilled trades. A carpenter may well find that high school geometry and trigonometry (which some college-prep students apparently fear to take) is quite useful in the daily work of his/her trade.
If one of my kids had an interest in one of the trades, I would encourage them to pursue it. Aside from the guys who own their own businesses in the trades, the ceiling on earnings is probably lower in the trades than it is in the business world.
But the average person in the trades seems to do better than the average person in the business world, at least as far as retirement benefits, retirement income, and age of retirement go. I’m talking specifically about people in the better trade unions in major cities. I have no idea how the two worlds compare in rural areas.
Of course, the skilled trades are affected by economic and industry cycles. For example, any of those which are related to construction are affected by the demand for construction that is related to local economic conditions and real estate markets. This is not too different from any other type of work, though how each type of work fares in relation to economic cycles and specific industries differs.
My S is academically inclined, if a HS 4.0 + GPA, 800 on the CR SAT, and AP scholar with distinction, among other things, count. He is also a voracious reader. He was accepted to Pitt engineering and the Honors College, but it wasn’t for him. He wanted something hands on, so that’s what he is doing.
He is getting 2 associate’s degrees in 3 years in Heavy Equipment and Diesel Technology, as well as his CDL. He had an excellent internship last summer and has already been invited back for next summer. The company has also expressed interest in him post-graduation.
I do worry about the physical toll his job could take, and also the fact that there probably is a salary ceiling he can’t break without a ton of overtime or moving to Alaska (too far!). But as long as he is happy…it did take some time for us to accept his path—we both went to a traditional college and just assumed he would as well, especially with his grades and smarts. He’s just using them differently than we expected.
He was obsessed with construction equipment as a young child, and now it has just come full circle!
Re: #7
Being a voracious reader certainly helps in just about anything. The service manuals for the construction equipment that he will be working on are likely to be enormous.
I just spoke with someone last night who told me about his son who was at Iowa State, studying Construction Engineering. His S has always wanted “to build stuff.” S apparently did not want to even go to college until he realized he could study something like this. Sounds like a worthwhile field to me… We need infrastructure.
I agree with both of these points. There is certainly a stigma associated with trade work that turns off many kids, and I think that is a shame. It makes no sense forcing kids down the white collar path when their skillset may be geared towards more physical/spatial jobs. IMO, parents need to come to terms with this reality, and the school systems need to be more supportive of these kids.
We have a number of family & friends in the “trades”. I would not recommend it as a career unless you really hate school & love the work.
When starting out, you often don’t make a lot of money & don’t work full time. My nephew is late 20’s & just starting to see some really good paychecks & work hours.
My friend’s husband makes lower 6 figures now in his late 40’s, but when he started out they often had to borrow money just to pay rent. Now he is hoping he can work long enough to get his youngest through college as his body is shot & he is tired of travelling & living in hotels while they are on different jobs. His wife recently commented how he finally hit the point where he can be choosier about the jobs he takes, makes great money, but can’t take it physically any longer.
My nieces’s husband gave up tiling in his early 30’s because his knees were shot. He still does it on the side for extra income, but could never earn a living at it.
So, lots to look at where the “trades” are concerned as well.
^ Ok, but at some point, we need people to work in these trades, or our infrastructure will fall apart. Houses are not going to build themselves, and magical fairies are not going to fix your washing machine.
If not your kid, then who?
I can’t get a plumber to walk through the door for less than $85.
Supply and Demand. One year we had a pipe spring a leak on a Sunday - Superbowl Sunday. That was an expensive visit.
I grew up around skilled trades and artists (some of whom were successful, most were not). Since a lot of what goes on with skilled labor involves problem solving, having problem solving skills in a variety of areas is going to serve you well no matter what you do.
You can’t get around math; I had to scale up a tiny actual conch shell to a 2 foot soft sculpture pattern, and I was using geometry until my brain was on fire-my artist’s sketchbook had the volume of a cone all over it.
I’d say any kid who wants to go into a skilled trade needs to have a business degree-that’s where my family mostly crashed and burned-they could make $100 an hour, but they’d spend $150/ hour and had no idea how to run a business or be part of a business and save.
When you watch The Profit on CNBC (I love Marcus Lemonis), these people have good ideas and work hard, but they make a lot of really basic business mistakes. It’s like watching reruns of my family’s business sometimes (anyone remember the florist episodes-it gave me flashbacks to my childhood).
The older I get the more I push my kids towards some sort of at least a minor in business. Luckily, they watch The Profit as well and don’t think I’m a complete idiot about stuff like that.
@ErinsDad - that sounds suspiciously like our AC which always goes out on Friday night. 
My dad was a master plumber who owned his own business. I made it up through journeyman status in plumbing. My whole childhood was filled with tradesmen and tradeswomen.
There are down sides. My dad was disabled in a car crash and there goes his entire livelihood. But on the other hand, he used to say that his job was recession proof.
I’d be thrilled if one of my future kids wanted to go into a trade. However, they are often tough physical jobs that can take an enormous toll on your body. Further, they are stigmatized in our society. As long as they know that, the trades are a great choice.
I really like the idea of studying business, at least a little, even if you want to do a trade.
When I was practicing law (and I don’t anymore), I detested the business side of it.
We had an electrician who used to do work for us who was excellent about managing his business. I always admired that about him. But he told me he got up at 3:30 - 4 am every morning to do his paperwork, billings, etc. His wife helped him too.
The construction trades are notoriously cyclical. There’s high demand for these skills in boom times, when there’s a lot of construction, but during economic downturns construction comes almost to a standstill and unemployment rates in the building trades are very high. For example, there’s a shortage of carpenters in many areas right now, but in 2010 the unemployment rate for carpenters hit 22%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Wages and benefits also vary widely. Union carpenters in high-demand markets make good money and benefits, but according to the BLS, at this point only 16% of carpenters are unionized—more in traditional union strongholds like New York City where an estimated 60 to 75% of carpenters are union members (though the non-union market share is growing even there), fewer in “right-to-work” states. Non-union construction trades workers generally have lower wages and less generous benefits, e.g., they pay more for health insurance (if they have employer-sponsored health insurance at all) and most have meager or no retirement benefits. And in many markets, the union jobs are overwhelmingly held by white males; blacks and Latinos have made only small inroads into the construction trades unions, despite decades of trying.
Even apart from the union/non-union question, there’s a lot of regional variation in wages. According to the BLS, annual mean wages for carpenters range from a high of around $70,000 in Honolulu, Anchorage, and the New York City metropolitan area (though union carpenters in those areas can earn considerably more, especially if they work a lot of overtime), to $25,000 or less in some non-metropolitan areas in the South.
Building trades can also put a lot of wear and tear on the body. Many people in these occupations retire early, often out of necessity.
It’s good, honest work, but it has its downsides, and it’s not for everyobody.