Learn a Trade

The road to salvation?

Here is a decent piece from the Wall Street Journal, which talks about how many blue collar job there are out there, and how few people there are to fill them.

It dovetails nicely with a piece I saw in the New York Times a while back, about law schools that keep pumping out more and more lawyers every year, without a thought to quality or job availabilty. And why shouldn't they? As the piece shows, running a law school means big bucks.

Law school has an image that high school grads and their mothers dig. Plumbing apprenticeships do not. Hence, a lot of lawyers and not so many plumbers. This is why I have a bone to pick with the headline editor of the WSJ piece. The headline says Help Wanted: In Unexpected Twist, Some Skilled Jobs Go Begging.

An unexpected twist? Since when? Society's been telling kids for decades that the only way to get ahead in life is to graduate from university. The university grads - unemployed or otherwise - shouldn't be surprised now that their toilet's stuck and their call goes straight to voicemail.

"Learn a trade." It was advice I heard a lot when I was younger. If things didn't work out, "Learn a trade." As it happens, I didn't go to school for a trade, but it was good advice back then, and it still is now.

As a note to the kids who have been watching too much TV, a tradesperson is still cool at parties. A carpenter and a surgeon deserve equal respect in my books, and as far as I can tell, they both get that respect. If it'll make you feel better, just say you're a "contractor." The doctors and lawyers immediately nod and say, "Wow, a contractor," and start thinking about renovations.