It was heartening to see so many students attend the recent Experience the Trades Expo, held Nov. 16 and 17 at the John D. Bradley Convention Centre.
Thousands of students attended, seeing displays from the municipality, colleges and a number of area businesses that would like nothing better than to see these kids head into skilled trades programs and apprenticeships.
Something happened years ago that left us short on skilled tradespeople, a problem that seems destined to get worse before it improves. Baby Boomers who flocked to the skilled trades and manufacturing jobs saw a university education as a ticket to a better life for their children.
These boomers got grease on their hands and figured, with a little nudging from government and the education sector, that their offspring should receive a better education than they did.
The problem is a university degree is no guarantee of better employment. We’re not talking about engineering and other specialized degrees, but rather Bachelor of Arts degrees.
In some cases, these degrees can lead to success, yes, especially for those opting to attend teachers’ college; the ones who are fortunate enough to land a teaching position immediately rather than languish for years as a supply teacher seeing only occasional work.
So what has this push to higher education served to accomplish? The early Baby Boomers have kids who boast they have university degrees, but they are also saddled with university education debt. Many can’t find jobs in their areas of schooling expertise. They instead settle on low-paying jobs for which they are overqualified.
But they are well educated!
Meanwhile, many manufacturing operations have shop floors where the youngest skilled tradesperson is in his or her 50s.
The numbers are thinning. There is such a shortage that when Lambton College thought about starting up a general machinist apprenticeship program in the fall of 2015, regional industries reached out and encouraged the school to push up the program to start nine months earlier.
What’s more, Lambton and Chatham-Kent businesses essentially lined up to hire the students as they completed the program.
These are decent-paying jobs, and can be high-paying as well.
Success is measured by more than just a piece of paper handed out at an institution of higher learning. It’s time to educate our children to this reality.
