If you don't mind my asking, what skills do you need?
I have been considering encouraging my 12-year-old son to take up an interest in modelmaking, tool-and-die work, and machining. I figure that if he can get some skills and a modicum of experience in those areas, not to mention the habits of responsibility and a strong work ethic, by the time he's 30 he'll be worth his weight in gold to somebody...
And I don't say that idly, either. He's smart enough to pursue whatever he chooses, including the toughest of universities.
Let your child learn welding, pipefitting, and other utility skills and he can have his own business and be a multi-millionaire by age 30.
Fine soldering, machine operation, machining, etc. Just basic machine shop and electronics assembly and touch up. The new hires don’t last long, and it has been that way since we’ve owned the business (15 years). They don’t want to learn and they aren’t dependable. We just soldier on with fewer and fewer people.
Truck driving can be lucrative if he pursues the right tract. Some of the more technical areas of automotive repair, too.
Another really good field is HVAC, especially the commercial side.
Most bldgs. have computer controlled systems now so that skill is a must also.
I’ve seen a few time on TV John Ratzenberger (’Cliff’ on “Cheers”) is travelling the country (or something like that) and urging schools to reintroduce woodworking, mechanics, etc. in the school cirriculum where they were taken out in previous years. Here’s a great article:
The Joy of Tinkering
Today’s tinkerers are tomorrow’s technicians
Talk to anyone in a skilled industry—automotive and truck repair and service, plumbing, carpentry, electrical contracting, construction, manufacturing—and you will hear the same lament: it’s getting harder and harder to find qualified workers.
The reasons for the shortage of skilled workers are complicated. One reason is that there are so many directions a young person can take when deciding on a career today: college, trade schools, the military or the service industry.
Another is the lack of skills training in the educational system. Schools have been forced to scale back skills-training programs drastically due to cuts in local, state and federal budgets and the high cost of equipment and liability insurance.
It’s a sad fact of today’s fast-paced society that few of us can spare the time or afford the equipment needed to work on our homes or personal vehicles—and our children learn by our example. The “do-it-yourself” market share is gradually migrating to the “do-it-for-me” category.
There is also an undeniable trend by some educators and parents to push young people to college and white collar professions. Some people suffer from the uniformed opinion that the trades are low-paying, dirty work with little opportunity for advancement or job satisfaction.
As a result of these factors, few young people are exposed to the trades—either at school or at home.
Not so long ago, students as young as the seventh and eighth grade were able to take “shop” classes: electrical, auto, metal, woodworking, and so on. Some of us old “gearheads” already had cars that we were working on in our early teens, so we would be ready to hit the road once we hit the magic age of 16. For me, my career in the automotive and heavy duty industry grew directly from the interest I developed in my youth while in auto shop.
There is a growing movement to address the decline of skilled workers, and the people involved include educators, professionals, parents, legislators—and at least one celebrity.
John Ratzenberger, the actor best known for his portrayal of Cliff Clavin, the know-it-all mailman on “Cheers,” is using his celebrity status to revive young people’s interest in the trades. An accomplished actor, screenwriter, director, producer and entrepreneur, Ratzenberger has a deep respect for the skilled professions, which he highlighted on his television program, “Made in America.”
Ratzenberger and other concerned groups and businesses have established the Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation. Its mission, according to its Web site, is “to avert a growing crisis in America, one that is occurring because too few young people now develop the kind of manual skills required by industries, workshops and engineering practices.
“Through mentoring programs, education and media awareness, NBTF will once again introduce young people to the pleasures of tinkering. And in that way, we will create the next generation of artisans, inventors, engineers, repairmen and skilled workers—in short, a self-sufficient, self-sustaining society.”
Ratzenberger recently took his cause to Washington, D.C. He met with a group of congressmen with strong populations of manufacturers in their districts who have formed a manufacturers “caucus,” or group of representatives with a common cause.
One of this group’s goals is to expose young people to the trades early in their career decision-making process so that more high school students would elect to enter those fields—creating a stable employee base for the manufacturing and trade industries.
By providing a good solid base of knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals through vocational/technical courses, more student will go on to technical colleges and trade schools and become the truck and car technicians, vehicle and component assembly technicians, master electricians, plumbers, and carpenters of the future.
These fields represent good paying, long term careers for many of our nation’s workforce. Through the efforts of Ratzenberger, the Congressional Manufacturing Caucus and other concerned groups, we can avert a national crisis and provide the engine for our national economy.
I urge you to visit the Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation at www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org for more information and ways to get involved.
I have the utmost respect for tool & die makers and have known a fair number. In that field, there is nothing to replace many years of experience.
That said, I would reco you speak (or have your son speak) to some T&D makers you may know. The story told by the ones I know, and I assume they are pretty darn skilled, is not one of plentiful job prospects unless they want to live in some fairly out-of-the-way places (eg; cheap dirt) and the wages paid are nothing like they once were. I’m talking about a classic case of outsourcing.
Regards...
Pull the garbage disposal out of the sink and replace it with a newer model. Adjust the garage door to operate more quietly. Install a new toilet. Teach him how to hang a door. Replace the screen in a window, then the back door. Teach him how to solder, then weld, then use a cutting torch.
If anything breaks in the house, ask him to select all the tools needed to repair it as if he was driving across town to fix it at somebodies elses house.
Teach him to change the oil in the lawnmower, the car, the truck, the boat. Teach him how to replace all the air filters in the vehicles. Change the heater/airconditioner air filter. Teach him how to wash a window. Yes, there is right and wrong ways of doing everything. Glass from the top down. Painted walls, you wash from the bottom up. Painted doors, you wash from the bottom up.
Buy a bag of mortar and build a brick seat in the backyard. Replace the corner posts in your backyard fence. Explain why they are longer, set in concrete, treated for carpenter ants and termites beforehand.
Teach him how to sharpen a circular saw blade with a handfile. Teach him to sharpen the blade on the lawnmower. Teach him to put a new end on a heavy guage extension cord.
Spend just four hours a week repairing and replacing things in the home. In a year, he'll be confident and know how to earn a dollar anywhere. You would be surprised at what a neighbor will pay to have him install a new garbage disposal or wash the walls in the garage.
All of these skills are money makers. Big money savers, over the course of a lifetime, if you have to hire someone else to do it for you.
Carolyn