Comments on: Trades stigma strong among young workers

By: Rob Nurse

Rob Nurse — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 17:45:41 +0000

There is no question there is stigma of the trades, with the automotive industry representing the worst of all trades. We lure young individuals into our trade by representing a cool persona of performance, racing, restoration and new technology only for them to find out later that it is not as glamorous as they were made to believe . We do not need to find solutions of attracting the next victim to this industry. What we need to do, is show the people that have taken the leap of fate that this can be a very lucrative career choice, for the right type of person. To survive in this industry you have to be able to deal with disappointment, failure, anxiety and problem solve the unknown. You need to have an insatiable desire to prove yourself to everyone. Young techs need to know that their salaries are fair and comparable to any other middle class industry and need to be taught to live within their means. Everyone wants and believes they deserve more money for what they do, regardless of what they do. We need to know as an industry and monitor the stats of how many people are entering as techs, how long are they staying and why are they leaving. We need to know how many techs are evolving into owning and operating their own shops and how long into their careers for this to become possible, compared to how many are throwing in the towel making career changes. We as an industry have to do our due diligence to sift through the ones that are not going to stay and guide those victims to another career choice sooner. Just because you make it to the big leagues in sports does not mean you will endure a life long career. We then need government incentives, tooling companies backing, and lending institutions to promote and support seasoned techs to start up their own small businesses. We as an industry have to slow the rapid change of technology down. We do this by simply educating and keeping consumers in their cars longer. Showing the next generation that success can be achieved over time is how we solve our technician shortage issue.

By: Jer

Jer — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 23:50:45 +0000

Any “blue collar trade” is a direct route to entrepreneurial aspersions. Trade work in essence serves the public. There is a sense of instant gratification for Tradespeople who feel confident in a job well done. Not many sectors of employment offer this. It takes years of post ~education “Field Learning “ to master any of these actual crafts. In the end only a few find their way to becoming entrepreneurs. In my trade life it took 25 years of experience to finally hang my own shingle on the door. That’s when I believe your ready. The shingle is 8 years old now.

By: Geoff Walton

Geoff Walton — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 18:56:19 +0000

I believe this stigma exists mainly with the people supposedly guiding this generation, not the kids themselves. From what I can see with my own kids and their friends, there seems to be a reckoning coming against the educrats telling all of our kids they need a university diploma to be successful. Fortunately for the kids who pursue these industries in the future, the competition level will be low and the profits will be high. It’s not going to be hard to eat every other kids lunch who have learned nothing in the way of real world skills.