worldwide skills shortage

[Mike Mcdermid]

i came across this on facebook Reedley company seeks to fill manufacturing positions | abc30.com

its not a unique to the USA problem

we are already looking to hire people for bicycle manufacturing but cant find the skills especially in the UK

anyone had any bright ideas alternative approaches to solving this

[Jake Rosenfeld]

-Bring back shop class.

-Give young adults a choice at grade 10 to pursue a trade school instead of pushing college at all costs while those with no intentions for it idle the last two years of high school while they put in their 'time' which is basically study halls and early release for the last year.

-Promote common sense in regards to safety and admonish people who are inventing danger where none exists and are administering their opinions about it with an above normal level of outrage. This only leads to higher costs of everything when employers are forced to comply to an ever increasing set of safety rules.

-Realize the long term detriment of instant gratification and show children what they can achieve with patience and that the knowledge of how to plan, execute and complete a project is a skill they can apply to nearly every aspect of their life for the rest of their lives.


We didn't get here overnight but we all got here together. It will take all of us to get back.

[dgaddis]

-Bring back shop class.

THIS. It wasn't even an option in my high school.

[Dallas Tex]

YES. Create a real network of actual trade schools. Vocational education in the US has become the red haired, step-child of the educational universe.

Look at the German model. Real trade education teaching real skills. Employers chomping at the bit to get grads.

This can't be yet another system of for-profit-schools ripping off the student loan system.

[e-RICHIE]

It all sounds like a plan, un-ringing the bell and all that, until you realize we're exactly where we're supposed to be.

I am big, it's the pictures that got small atmo.

We won't be returning to silent films, or vinyl, or any of the ways that are part of the past.
Some outliers will. But on balance, most of the others won't.
The worst you can do is lament about it.
And the best you can do is accept it.

[Mike Mcdermid]

It all sounds like a plan, un-ringing the bell and all that, until you realize we're exactly where we're supposed to be.



We won't be returning to silent films, or vinyl, or any of the ways that are part of the past.
Some outliers will. But on balance, most of the others won't.
The worst you can do is lament about it.
And the best you can do is accept it.

Sounds like your saying hey mike employ a robot its the future people dont/cant make things anymore

The downside for me is that we already have

[e-RICHIE]

Sounds like your saying hey mike employ a robot its the future people dont/cant make things anymore

The downside for me is that we already have

Part of what I'm saying is that the worry, and looking back rather than ahead, is more harmful and less productive than simply getting on with it. If you want something to happen, make it happen. Trying to make a movement out of reverse engineering where we are now is charming, but won't bear fruit. Well, that's part of what I'm saying atmo.

[Mike Mcdermid]

Part of what I'm saying is that the worry, and looking back rather than ahead, is more harmful and less productive than simply getting on with it. If you want something to happen, make it happen. Trying to make a movement out of reverse engineering where we are now is charming, but won't bear fruit. Well, that's part of what I'm saying atmo.

Richard we didnt reverse engineer anything we started from scratch and hope we used every production trick in the book to be production competitive we left enough in the kitty for purchasing skills only to find the hardware store for the minimum skills was empty and you cant teach

The old guys with skills like the guys who taught me are getting fewer because mortality is not something there's an escape route from the guys we need now simply don't exist and we need training for a few years there's no middle ground where a guy walks in and can do even simple shop tasks maybe I'm expecting too much

[einreb]

If you want something to happen, make it happen.

YES. Create a real network of actual trade schools. Vocational education in the US has become the red haired, step-child of the educational universe.

Look at the German model. Real trade education teaching real skills.

Saw this a while back and found it interesting...

BMW apprenticeship program trains workers to rise through the ranks without 4-year degree | PBS NewsHour

[e-RICHIE]

Richard we didnt reverse engineer anything we started from scratch and hope we used every production trick in the book to be production competitive we left enough in the kitty for purchasing skills only to find the hardware store for the minimum skills was empty and you cant teach

The old guys with skills like the guys who taught me are getting fewer because mortality is not something there's an escape route from the guys we need now simply don't exist and we need training for a few years there's no middle ground where a guy walks in and can do even simple shop tasks maybe I'm expecting too much

People are always gonna get old, some less gracefully and with less acceptance than others.
And markets are always gonna self-correct. I'd say it's all sad and shit, but I don't feel that way.
Some businesses just mature, and then fade. Pretty normal.

[blasdelf]

This can't be yet another system of for-profit-schools ripping off the student loan system.

Unfortunately that's exactly what we're getting

[EricKeller]

Reminds me of the storyline in "hitchhiker's guide" where an advanced race sends all the phone desanitizers and hairdressers off planet and then die of a disease spread on telephones.

I think that we took the trend to offshore production a little too seriously. The U.S., and I assume the U.K. still have a large manufacturing sector. But what seems to have happened is that too many school systems stopped training the people those manufacturers need because they bought into the hype that we are all going to be programmers and engineers. Can't possibly be true. Of course, this can be turned around, but we need a certain amount of public support for it or it's not going to happen

[zetroc]

I'm having a hard time finding people who can read and pay attention to details. Never mind having applicable job skills - give me English majors or give me death.

[crumpton]

Watch this Mike Rowe interview on Maher's Real Time. i love the bit about the stupid high school counselor(mr dunbar) with the greasy mechanic pic on the wall like its a bad thing. Mike Rowe gets it. and I have a DIRTY JOB!!

[edoz]

Hey, it's cool. Us remaining trade workers will just make up for the shortage by working lots of overtime for less and less money.

[nash]

I'm having a hard time finding people who can read and pay attention to details. Never mind having applicable job skills - give me English majors or give me death.

What are you looking for them to do? English major here who can read and pay attention to details and currently drives a truck to pay off debts from English degree.

[ryker]

Reminds me of the storyline in "hitchhiker's guide" where an advanced race sends all the phone desanitizers and hairdressers off planet and then die of a disease spread on telephones.

I wouldn't have believed it if it didn't happen to me but one day there was a notice slipped under my office door that indicated the time window a phone sanitizing crew would visit the next day. And they did.

[bencooper]

When I went to school, I took technical studies - even then, H&S was getting in the way a bit, but responsible kids were allowed to use welders and machine tools.

Now, none of it. A friend was studying to become a technical studies teacher, and even a grown adult training to be a teacher was not allowed to use this equipment to make his student project, he had to come borrow my workshop.

I learned framebuilding from a guy called Willy Bell, one of the last of the old-school guys, who started out as a welder in the shipyards and moved on to working for Rattrays in a Glasgow making frames. Now we don't really make ships in Glasgow much any more, and there's only a few of us building frames in Scotland.

I don't know what the solution is. A relaxation of over-paranoid health and safety would help. More people wanting to learn to work with their hands. More respect for skills compared to knowledge. There's not a simple solution.

[EricKeller]

Watch this Mike Rowe interview on Maher's Real Time. i love the bit about the stupid high school counselor(mr dunbar) with the greasy mechanic pic on the wall like its a bad thing. Mike Rowe gets it. and I have a DIRTY JOB!!

I recently saw the Mike Rowe is putting money into training people for industrial jobs. Tool Shed « mikeroweWORKS
(Not an endorsement of giving his foundation money)

One of the problems with getting trained people is that employers want to pay fast-food wages, and I mean that literally. There are bridges in the U.S. that were worked on by welders making less than $10 an hour.

I have to say that the people that say that safety regulations are an issue trouble me. We have to work with fairly strict safety regulations, and I don't see anything wrong with it. Injuries are not something they can pay you enough to suffer through. The bad old days safety-wise were really bad days. My wife's grandfather was killed in a mining accident. They didn't have to worry about bothersome safety regulations.

[Matthew Strongin]

I'm having a hard time finding people who can read and pay attention to details. Never mind having applicable job skills - give me English majors or give me death.

Some of my biggest recruiting successes have been English majors brought into the technology field.

What are you looking for them to do? English major here who can read and pay attention to details and currently drives a truck to pay off debts from English degree.

I won't speak for Steve, but I've hired English majors with a basic amount of technical aptitude and seen them take off as technical trainers and training developers. Once they have that technical foundation, the value of the English degree kicks in and they're able to do something very few highly technical people can...they can talk to others effectively. This opens up the world of product, project, and program management, which accounts for a large number of jobs at most tech companies. In fact, I've had more success with critical thinking English or Lit majors who learn tech than with Tech (engineering, math, etc.) majors who try to learn to communicate and work well with others. And with the amount of programming and engineering work that is also being off-shored, these are the types of jobs that tend to stay here (here meaning in the US for US based companies, your here may be somewhere else). And since I mentioned technical off-shoring, I should note that the teams I've met overseas are highly engaged and highly capable.

All that said, I wish I could have had the option to take shop. Other than basic bike maintenance, I can't do shit with my hands.