Mike Rowe: Alternative Education

[daveman]

Alternative Education

Mike Rowe ("Dirty Jobs") talks about education in the skilled trades.

 

[daveman]

Buy the Poster « Profoundly Disconnected

MIKE EXPLAINS FURTHER
In the long history of bad advice, you’d have look pretty hard to find something dumber than Work Smart Not Hard. It first appeared years ago as part of a recruitment campaign for college. It was bad advice then, but today, it’s just plain dangerous. Google Work Smart Not Hard and you’ll see just how far this idiotic cliche has wormed it’s way into our collective conscious over the last forty years. It’s repeated daily by millions of people like some timeless chestnut of conventional wisdom. Is it possible we actually believe such nonsense? You bet it is.
Consider the reality of today’s job market. We have a massive skills gap. Even with record unemployment, millions of skilled jobs are unfilled because no one is trained or willing to do them. Meanwhile unemployment among college graduates is at an all-time high, and the majority of those graduates with jobs are not even working in their field of study. Plus, they owe a trillion dollars in student loans. A trillion! And still, we push a four-year college degree as the best way for the most people to find a successful career?
The evidence suggests we’ve taken some very bad advice, and tried to separate hard work from success. Consequently, we’ve become profoundly disconnected from a critical part of our workforce. The skilled part. The part that keeps the lights on. That’s just crazy. In a sane world, there should be posters hanging in high schools that reflect the reality the situation we’re in. Wouldn’t it make more sense to promote Work Smart AND Hard.
So…with a little creative license (and no respect for the original,) I’m pleased to present a new platitude with a different attitude. I think the image speaks for itself, but if you want to see how we made it, watch this. And if you’d like to help spread the word, I’ll try to talk you into buying one here.

 

[hortysir]

Mike's the man!

I've always liked this little nugget:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h_pp8CHEQ0]Mike Rowe Speaks To Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee [05-11-11] - YouTube[/ame]

 

[TheOldSchool]

Trades were America's past, and hopefully they'll be a big part of America's future. Nobody knows how to make anything anymore.

I graduated with a "Business Management" degree with hundreds and possibly thousands of others at the same time. I don't know how to make shit and neither do they.

^ That's a problem.

 

[daveman]

Trades were America's past, and hopefully they'll be a big part of America's future. Nobody knows how to make anything anymore.

I graduated with a "Business Management" degree with hundreds and possibly thousands of others at the same time. I don't know how to make shit and neither do they.

^ That's a problem.

And I bet your plumber makes as much as you do.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Trades were America's past, and hopefully they'll be a big part of America's future. Nobody knows how to make anything anymore.

I graduated with a "Business Management" degree with hundreds and possibly thousands of others at the same time. I don't know how to make shit and neither do they.

^ That's a problem.

And I bet your plumber makes as much as you do.

Nah. I'm doing something that had nothing to do with my major and am making plenty. My plumber's pretty awesome though. He might be illegal

But whatever I'm not asking.

 

[JakeStarkey]

I am making more in retirement than the plumber and the HVAC guy put together four times and then some annually. However essential as college or post HS training in trades and professions, the ability to work hard and not expect preference remain essential.

If you are not willing to give value added to whatever you do, then you don't deserve what you get.

 

[DGS49]

I am often reminded of the time when I had to sit through an Amway presentation.

This was a company that makes and sells, basically, soap. But the presentation was about how I could get rich - not by selling soap, but by getting other people to...get other people to...get other people to...

But the presenter never actually got to the point where SOMEBODY at the end of this long daisy chain of "managers" would have to SELL SOME FUCKING SOAP(!) to make this whole MLM thing operate. But you would never know that to hear this three-hour-long presentation.

Our education system (and our culture) emphasizes the bizarre dream that EVERYONE will be able to make a handsome living, doing exactly what will make them happy. This is why we have millions of people studying and graduating in the fields of marketing, communications, ethnic studies, and on and on and on.

But in order for our economy to thrive SOMEBODY HAS TO MAKE SOMETHING(!) We ALL can't do peripheral things, which includes unfortunately, accountants, programmers, purchasing agents, lawyers, salesmen, and "managers." None of these people produce anything. We are all "overhead."

Consider: Our greatest American company right now - WalMart - is a fucking RETAILER! They don't produce a God-damned thing!

Woe is us.