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Five Ideas On How to Steer Teens Toward Trades

By Peter Kray posted 11-21-2019 05:32 PM

  

In a new blog, Ken Lambert, current CSI Chapter President in New Hampshire, says the Construction Industry “Needs to Steer Teens Toward Trades.” Here, five CSI members share their ideas on the most effective ways to make that happen.

The short answer is there's no easy answer. It took a long time of neglect to get us here and it’ll take some time to get us out. It starts with us getting involved in schools and helping educate kids (and educators) on what these careers mean, and that working with your hands isn’t brainless and certainly doesn't equal life-failure as our education system so clearly communicates.

In St. Louis, a new organization was created after tragic events in Ferguson to tackle this issue; www.CCDI.org. It started more as an underprivileged area assistance idea, but quickly morphed into a mentoring and promotion of careers in Design and Construction. I personally mentor an impressive young man who’s in his second year of college as he chose the path of Civil Engineering and received a great CCDI scholarship to do so. But every year we are moving more and more kids into the trades, right out of high school.
Derek Maschek CSI
 

This has been a growing problem that started over 20 years ago. Many high schools were discontinuing industrial arts classes, not necessarily just because of students lack of interest, but because of the school's liability exposure and higher insurance coverage costs for student classroom injuries.

Unless parents themselves are in or familiar with the trades, most of their attitudes about construction careers are not very positive. I’ve given quite a few Career Day class presentations for 6th - 8th graders focusing on construction trades and the free "on-the -job" training, Union pay rates and exciting projects. I was always surprised at how many young students had NO idea of the great benefits of working in the trades! 

We need to start "planting construction career seeds" at an earlier age than just high school. If parents see their children developing interest in working with their hands and not being able to afford 4+years of college tuition debt, they may develop a lot more interest in encouraging their children to pursue a trades career. 

While no careers are recession-proof, buildings needing to be built and they will always need the trades. Today’s tradesperson is working with the latest tools and technology, they are able to work in safe conditions, and at the end of the day they're proud to say, “I built that building!”
Alana Sunness Griffith CCPR, FCSI, Distinguished Member, Lifetime Member

 

The simple answer is, get the trades back in high school classes. We old timers took wood and metal shop, drafting, electronics and carpentry before we graduated and headed out into the world. Get on your local school board now. Also steer students toward a good technical college for a two-year degree before entering the workforce or attending a university. They will get a marketable skill with low or no student debt.
Gene Fosheim MS, MA, FCSI, ADDA, CD

 

  1. Money
    One attractive aspect of the trades is the income potential relative to the very minimal (or nil) education debt incurred. Most teens do not understand what the impact of $30-80k in student loans will be when monthly payments come due, and they will need to start putting $150+/month towards their payments while they are still building their income. I think teens do understand that student loans are burdensome to so many people post-graduation, but it’s not spelled out clearly to them by adults in their lives (I think adults/ school counselors downplay this so as to encourage teens to get college degrees). You can still pull a healthy income in the trades and not be saddled with massive, burdensome student debt.
  2. Access/ Inclusion

This is changing, but I think the trades are still not appealing to most women and LGBTQIA people. There still remains a perception that the work culture is not for us. When I was a teen I never even considered trades as a career path, and I really wanted to find a way to make money without going into debt (this was around 2010, when we were still crawling out of the recession). But I didn't see tradeswomen modeled for me and I felt that I would not be respected on a jobsite. I'm not sure how common this is, but here in Portland, OR we have a program called Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., which provides free women-only 8-week apprenticeship programs. This program breaks down so many barriers to entry for people and cultivates a safe learning environment for women. Obviously, once these women enter the workforce they will be working alongside men, but I think it's helpful to provide a space that is focused on providing resources for women entering the trades, to set them up for success once they do enter the workforce.
McKenzie Baird CSI-EP

 

This is a battle that we have been fighting for as long as I can remember. There is no easy answer but I can testify that introducing the latest technology into our process has proved to be attractive to the younger generation. The use of drones, laser scanning, Revit, BIM and CNC fabrication is appealing to students into technology. As far as actual building, I think prefab panelization offers many opportunities to build in a controlled environment. Panels are now shipped with brick, metal panels, siding and so on. This could be more appealing than conventional construction for many.
Vincent Neault CSI

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