A man who is good with this hands will never have to worry about where his next meal is coming from.
I'm not sure where that little bit of doggerel originated, but we can't argue with the truth of it. There will always be a living for people who can make things, for people who can build things, for people who can fix things. Welders, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, you name it. The problem is, here in the United States we are not producing enough of these people, skilled tradesmen, and as a staunch proponent of the trades, Mike Rowe, recently pointed out, that's a real problem.
Intense demand for workers in the skilled trades is leading U.S. companies to ramp up training programs to expand their workforces and to poach workers from other companies to fill vitally needed positions.
Mike Rowe, CEO of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, which helps the next generation get training in the skilled trades, told FOX Business that it's "been very surreal for me to watch the skilled trades come back into something like favor."
"I don't want to overstate it, but I can tell you that not a week goes by that I don't hear from the CEO of some consequential company or some industry leader who is straight up freaking out over the barriers to recruiting," Rowe said, adding that many large U.S. companies are establishing their own training programs to attract workers to the skilled trades.
What Mr. Rowe mentions here may well be the best answer, having companies set up their own training programs to bring in young people who are willing to learn essential skills. And it's in the interests of the young people to gain these skills; as Mr. Rowe points out in the linked article, a skilled tradesman can easily earn a mid-six-figure income after three or four years in the business. That's more than an Underwater Ethnic Dog-Polishing Studies major will make in their lifetime.
This is something that we have to address through our education system as well. For too many years the United States K-12 education system has seemed to operate on the "every kid should go to college" notion, and that's just plain wrong. Not only should some kids not go to college, many don't have to. As Mr. Rowe informs us, right now, for every five skilled tradesmen who retire, only two replace them. That's an opportunity; in employment as in all things, supply and demand apply. Fewer people competing for more jobs mean higher wages.
More to the point, this is a matter of America's long-term prosperity. We are headed back towards being a country which makes things: An economy based on production and industry. That requires people who can make things, people who can fix things, people who can produce. That's something we should bring back to K-12 education, in the form of shop classes: Wood shop, metal shop, auto shop. We need to encourage young people to enter the trades, to learn how to work with their hands. It is the primary purpose of any educational system to produce young adults with marketable skills, and right now there are no skills more marketable than welding, carpentry, plumbing, wiring, and the rest of the trades.
A man who is good with his hands will never have to worry about where his next meal is coming from. That's as true today as it ever was; perhaps more so.