[ExNewsExSpook]

Mike Rowe, who has been very active in trying to get more young people in the trades and advanced manufacturing, summed it up very well:

“The average age of people who make stuff in America is 58.”

And there are very few millenials and Gen-Xers willing to take their place. They've been sold the fiction that everyone needs at least a bachelor's degree, when many good jobs require training programs that are less than two years in length, and don't involve a deep fryer.

[T-Bird45]

Here’s one way that manufacturing is trying to address the problem:

http://www.themanufacturinginstitute.org/Image/Dream-It-Do-It/Dream-It-Do-It.aspx

We have a local group that is working with this program to address this and carry the message down as low as elementary school.

[CorporateStepsister]

You’re right.

Thing is, that young people are too busy getting a degree, thinking that a degree from a top (haha) university will be a pipeline to the elite, but these days, it doesn’t work that way. The fact is, if you aren’t born with a title or trust fund, you have to work no matter what. FEW can afford to mess around for four years and frankly, young people need to be trained to focus less on their grades and more on work experience.