Wanted: Skilled Workers

That could be a problem. many older workers are staying on the jobs and not retiring so young people with the skills are forces into jobs where their skills were not challenged so their skills demished over the years.

Now the older people are getting to old to keep working and bailout.

The same thing is happening in the Medical Proffession. Old Doctors prasticing familt medince just won't retire. Some love the money so bad they will commit malprastcie by allowing a nurse to do all the work and write the prescriptions. Many time they never even see the patients. I know of 4.

The young doctors who would go into family prastice then have to seek a speciality just to get a job.

One of the big culprits is the dumbing down of our schools and the reduction of homework. My kids have far too little homework. I have four kids in schools from grade 6 through 12. The teachers assign way too little homework. There is an unwritten rule not to give homework on weekends. They do not learn the work ethic because little is expected of them. We give them chores to do home, but the schools are giving them free rides and they are not learning what they need to be successful. Our schools get wrapped up in this Maryland School Assessment program where the teacher does everything to teach the 'test' and little else because the test results are the all important metric to the school system. So guess what happens? My kids don't know the times table by heart. Makes me sick. I grill them at the dinner table, but I only get an hour or two a day exposure. The basics are not well covered, in favor of these education processes that supposedly teach group work, problem solving, critical thinking, etc. But, without a good grounding in the three R's, all those other skills are useless. I just wish this grand education experiment would be ended and we can get back to the business of teaching our kids what they really need to know.

And they wonder why home schooling has become so scuccessful.

Hello

I am an engineer and I have been in the industry for 28 years. During my first years of vocational training I was always told I would never get hired in the industry because I was black (actually native american). I was not allowed to take the higer mathematics courses, so I had to educate myself in algebra, trig, geometry, logistics, stastics, logrithims and so fourth. After using the discouragement process to no avail I eventually graduated number one in my class however, I was not allowed to graduate becuse it was said I cheated on a fill in the bubble test.

I eventually joined the U.S. Military and graduated with a B.S. Degree in two years because I took my courses credit by exam. I actually earned a college degree before I recieved my high school diploma. I spent 20 years designing and building airports, harbors and salinazation plants before I retired in 2000.

I recently went back to college to update my skills in autocad and engineering and I find the same discouragement in place as it was 28 years ago. I did not tell the college I am attending that I have been in the field for the past 28 years nor do my instructors know, but I can tell you-until you remove the hatred and prejudice in this field you are never going to succeed. All of the young non-white students in my battlion are still seeking jobs in an industry who refuses to open the door to them.

Please explain?

Sorry, I don't see it. Not saying your not seeing it, but I work where the minority's are not the minority.

When a position opened up in my company, I applied and was told I could not be considered because I was a white male.

What we need to all do is stop looking at the color of the skin, the gender, or by what name they call God, and start looking at what they can do for the company.

Hi,

we can complain but I am not very optimistic about chance of success.

The school is pretty bad all over the western world (except may be Finland).

This may be worse tomorrow.

Although complaints about scholars are as old as writing from ancient times (Hammurabi's, Babylon famous scripts) I suppose that today it is worse than most times before.

So western world: be prepared to live in a "Banana Republic" pretty soon!

RHABE

Some really good commentary. I do not wish to sound facetious, but in one (1) manner of speaking, "if you pay us sufficiently we will come."

I wil attempt to place the blame where perhaps it first lies-our high schools and their lack-of-proper-guidance counselors. Manufacturing is just not sexy and fashionable, and the term "tradesman", "craftsman", or "journeyman" is difficult for many of the academic types to define in several words.

High school level vocational training (where it even exists) is seen by the academic types as a convenient dumping ground for the "dumb" students who wish to work with their hands (and their minds, unbeknownst to others) and gain usuable skills towards something they enjoy doing.

I have a really personal relationship with subjects such as this. Both of my parents are long retired, but achieved advanced university degrees in their lives. My mother-a retired schoolteacher with an MS. My father-a retired Major with a PhD. Me? A class 1A toolmaker who is completing a BSME late in life and who has worked as an engineer for more than twenty (20) years. I went to high school for one (1) year after arrival here, and remember so well the look of disdain and (dare I say) anger on the counselor's face (and my parents' faces) when I refused to prepare for enrollment at a university and work towards a four-year degree.

The problem: At about the age of sixteen, I peeked through the windows of a toolmaking shop, and thought it was the most fascinating thing that I had ever seen. I noticed that the local men who were toolmakers and machinists seemed to never have a lack of spending money, and seemed to have a strong place in the middle class. I was hooked. I completed the apprenticeship and the four (4) years of classes associated with the craft and was happily employed. My parents seemed proud of me, but perhaps it was moreso because I stayed out of serious trouble and seemed to be a productive citizen.

And, then came the day when my old boss said to me "hey; is this all you are ever going to do with your life?" "You need to become an engineer, so start working with me." And that is what I did; became a management type and a chief engineer.

So, I have not come full circle; rather I am drawing a new one. At the end of this year I will have a BSME. But; did I miss anything because of my choices? Not at all, in my opinion. Did my choice to become a craftsman before I became a professional man enhance my abilities? Absolutely.

So; where do we start? Industry must drive the school systems to conduct appropriate courses. Industry must support these courses and monitor and guide their curriculum. Industry is relying on a public education system; that if it prepares students for anything, it prepares them for further academia or failure rather than preparing them to be a skilled worker. Industry must get involved, if it wants to save itself from the ravages of a dumbed-down workforce and dysfunctional education system.

Best Regards,

Ing. Robert Forbus

it will be like that in all industries, skilled, intelligent hard working people get burdened with the responsibility of figuring things out for everyone. Except when people aren't paid what their skills/experience/performance are worth and inflation is outpacing wage increases most people aren't going to go down that path. Many engineers are engineers simply because that is what they enjoy, but those people don't adequately fill the pipeline.

I personally don't like the idea of identifying engineers in grade school, that is reminiscent of a socialist society. People need to become engineers because they choose to, not because they have the skills and are forced into it because that is what is good for society. If we as a society decide that we can assign careers to people when they are still children we are moving towards a world I would want no part of. "Who is John Galt?"

I personally am not a fan of the public schools, their agenda has deviated from teaching and educating to testing and assessing so that they can continue to get funding. This is across the board, my wife is a kindergarten teacher and spends more and more time every year assessing her students and the result is less time for instruction. I have not yet had children but homeschooling is looking more and more attractive every day.

I don't think it is so much a matter of identifying children with the talent to become engineers, but more a matter of exposing them to the myriad of interesting engineering careers that are out there. Most school teachers, especially at the elementary level have no idea what goes on in industry. If children are never exposed then they have no way of becoming interested. No interest=no engineers. My interest in my career came as a direct result of being exposed to things that I saw as being fun or fascinating. The things that interest me today are the same except much more high tech and way more expensive.

Many, but not all manufacturing executives, shot themselves in the foot years ago (and I'll go back to the seventies) when machinists, modelmakers, tool and die makers and machine operators were treated as second class citizens. Pay scales were low on a relative basis (I remember when a mason could make $8/hr. and a 1st class machinist or tool and die maker earned $3.50/hr.). The mason worked to fractions of a foot, the machinist worked to ten thousandths of an inch. These skilled workers needed a good amount of overtime just to make a living. Their children saw what was happening and today, as adults, they want no part of it. On Long Island (New York), where manufacturing was a good size portion of the island's economy, the cost of living outstripped the average earner's wages causing a significant disparity. Large manufacturers went to cheaper labor pastures leaving behind a lot of disillusioned workers. Today, put an ad in the local paper for a toolmaker and see what you get. Nada. Progressive companies have realized this and made life so appealing to the skilled employees they have, no one is even looking. So what's the solution? I don't have an answer. I think the way things are is more of a mindset. The Europeans valued their craftsmen and I don't think they are facing this problem quite as acutely as we are. Let's face it: who wants to be a second class citizen?