Why Former ‘Dirty Jobs’ Host Mike Rowe Says You Might Not Need to Go to College to Earn a Good L

I am posting this up as so many people think that there are no jobs available. Truth is, there are a ton of available jobs. Granted you may have to go to a trade school and actually get your hands dirty with something besides french fry grease, but they are there. In fact I know of a very high end welding shop that is a leader in race exhaust systems, they can't find a decent welder and when they do, their work ethic is crap. This job pays $32.00 an hour. How many more are out there just like it?

There is a real disconnect in the way that we educate vis-a-vis the opportunities that are available. You have — right now — about 3 million jobs that can’t be filled,” he said, discussing openings in traditional trades, such as plumbing, construction and welding.

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As I said I don't usually post up reprints but this is IMO important stuff. Not everyone can be a CEO or CFO.

Totally agree with this. I work at a university and I just shake my head at some of the majors these kids are going for. Then they wonder why there are no jobs available. I believe you should do something your passionate about, but you also need to be realistic when it comes to the ability to be employed and the amount of money to make. Nobody is learning a skilled trade anymore. In another 10-15 years, I believe we are going to have a major need for electricians, sheet metal fabricators, plumbers, welders, woodworkers, it goes on and on. My father worked his whole life in commercial HVAC. He made pretty good money at the time. Sure, there were some long days and busted knuckles but he also learned skills from that job that I wish I had. My dad can do it all, wire a house, plumbing, framing, drywall, etc. I'm trying to learn as much as I can from him now that I'm a homeowner. I have 3 kids of my own, and I wouldn't have a problem at all if they wanted to go to a trade school instead of college. In the near future, we are going to need them.

I agree, there are hundreds of jobs available to skilled workers,
but the American education system seems geared to pumping
out millions of individuals that are only suited to the service industry,
waiters, fry cooks, maids, etc. I think there is a concerted effort to
erradicate the middle class by turning them into servants.

Not to mention, the average middle class individual in America
is SO ENTITLED work ethic is non-existant. This isn't meant as an insult,
it's something my own culture faces, everybody grew up on (American) pop culture
telling them they're going to be sports stars, IT moguls and trade tycoons,
to the point that actually doing a dirty job and working your ass off with your hands
feels beneath most people.

As much as people love to blame our politicians and China for outsourcing jobs that
were held by our fathers and grandfathers , it's down to our own complacency
and sense of entitlement that things have gotten this bad.
We have no one to blame but ourselves.

I know plenty of tradesmen who earn a far better living, and incidentally, are far more brighter, than nearly all college graduates I know in my age range (40-50)

The drive to turn universities into remedial high school, or, 'You need College to make any kind of living!' is based purely on the premise of funneling ever more student loan $ directly into university coffers.

High school grads often spend their first year of state & community college in HS level English, Math, Science, History, etc... which is where you see the failing of public school in stark reality.

Its an exploitation by the academic elite of the young & naive (once again, and just one example) who often end up owing $200k for their degree in Underwater Basketweaving and wonder why they can't get a job bagging groceries. After all, they have a fancy, expensive college degree!

Electrician, plumbing, HVAC, carpentry, etc... all have apprenticeships and they can't get enough kids to be interested. Getting your hands dirty is just so, well... icky & stuff!

College, notably liberal arts schools are responsible I think, for the proliferation of leftist mush-head graduates who reliably mistake Education for Intelligence. One can observe this phenomena everywhere and I am certain its not a coincidence.

There are many practical college courses that are not worthless, unlike Urban Lesbian Minority Studies which won't even get you a job cleaning office buildings, for example.

Media production degrees are still valuable as they actually teach you how to use the tools and typical workflow process. Many business degrees are useful, and medical training is highly useful, pharmacists alone are in great demand, pay 60k right out the door, but math and chemistry is like, hard & stuff.

But, professors need to be funded, universities need to build more elaborate, worthless buildings, so you kids need to line up enslave yourself to whopping student loans!

Or better yet, get enough to vote for taxpayers to directly fun bloated universitys by making them pay for your loans!

reply to post by Mamatus

As I said I don't usually post up reprints but this is IMO important stuff. Not everyone can be a CEO or CFO.

Maybe if we remove the Fed/corporate Ponzi schemes and stop overpaying CEO and managers who do nothing really usefull, we might be able to pay a decent salary to people so they wanna do this work. And we might even drive down the prices a bit so that the salary we give them is worth something and they do not have to be enslaved to the banks to have a house. Of course everybody want to be into making high level money since being at the bottom means being a slave to the tax/bank system and the banks/politicians parasitizing on you.



The whole debt money system is broke and do not follow the constitution.

Its true there are few people getting in these fields now. I speak as one of the few that actually went for a "dirty" job. Im an electrician and a train mechanic and have been since I was done with highschool. To give an idea of the lack of younger people getting into these jobs I can honestly say that I have been the youngest in both companies I have worked for until a year ago. Worst part is that we get countless idiots getting into the company with no skills just to be canned anyway.

Our society really goes against getting a dirty job. My entire family looks at me as the # up because I am not getting a college degree. I have a cousin who gets encouraged to live at home with her mom and live-in boyfriend while she pursue s a degree from a community college in women's studies. Meanwhile I am getting a technical certificate in welding and can expect to make more than my mom and anybody else in my family within the next 6 years. It is rediculous. I live in a major white collar area and anything except college is frowned upon. Most kids around me drop out of college to smoke pot and "find themselves."

Its just a problem with this country. Anyways id like to see mike rowe run for president, that is a vote i would be happy to cast.