I got about a third of the way through that malarkey before I decided the author knows not of what he speaks.
There IS a skill gap. Particularly in the skilled trades: plumbers, pipefitters, welders, electricians, carpenters, boilermakers, and on and on.
I know this from personal experience after having worked with construction contractors for decades. They complain that young people don’t want to get into the trades because they don’t want the manual labor; as a demographic, they would much prefer playing with technology all day.
Therefore, if I were a mature skilled tradesperson, I would sell myself to the highest bidder. Good ones ought to be able to pull $70k - $100k per year, and their market value seems destined to rise in the foreseeable future.
You are correct.
I know several companies looking for technicians to install and repair fuel dispensing equipment from manufacturers like Gilbarco and Wayne. The guys doing it now are gray-hairs, not far from or past retirement.
Welders are always in short supply, too.
Younger guys just don’t want to show up every day or get dirty, regardless of pay.
We really need to stop this ‘tradition’ of looking down on people who work with their hands. Used to be that if you wanted a middle class life, you HAD to know a skilled trade.
The skills gap is prevalent in the design fields, too. Had a draftsman who was a college grad but still could not add fractions. As you may be aware, section and elevation drawings should generally match up but his often did not. The descriptive information on the section drawings was often replete with misspellings in addition to inconsistent dimension strings.
“There IS a skill gap. “
I think the author was saying that the problems are not the lack of sills, but hat there is a lack of investment by those desiring the skills to obtain them, and I totally agree with that as a fact.
The difference is that people will and can do the jobs but where is the motivation to do so? Supply & Demand requires a demand and demand requires paying such that the supply wants to meet the demand.
The author is pointing out that people are not dumber than they were yesterday, business and colleges and dumber.
Let’s face it, why would anyone spend the countless hours learning computer programming for the $75k-$120k salary when they can do practically nothing and be a project manager for even more money? We’ve turned ‘manager’ into a career field and not a position of higher responsibility. “What do you do, Mr. Smith?” “Why, I am a manager.” “Anything else?” “Nope, I just manage stuff.”
A degree in “Business Communications” or “Marketing” plus a 3 week wonder PMI project manager credential = $100k+ and be the boss. A degree in engineering plus thousands of hours studying the latest technologies = $100k+ and be the subordinate. Hmmm...which one to choose.
I got about a third of the way through that malarkey before I decided the author knows not of what he speaks.Gotta disagree. I work in the copier industry; the guy is dead on target. Everyone in IT faces what he says.
There IS a skill gap. Particularly in the skilled trades: plumbers, pipefitters, welders, electricians, carpenters, boilermakers, and on and on.The copier techs that go onsite to fix the machine are also trades. And you know what? Might pay all right, but it's a dead end job. You'll never be promoted to management. You'll never get out of field service. And they get paid much less than I do, only $15-20/hr a pop. It ain't never going to increase, either.
It’s about hiring “good enough” for the least amount of money.That's the truth!
The ad says: compensation: $16.00/hr The position is PM/Maintenance Tech - 2nd Shift In your opinion, how much should the compensation be for the skillset described?*reads ad*