Daily Caller
“For the life of me, I don’t understand why we have stigmatized career education in this country”
Sen. Marco Rubio delivered a short speech about education on Wednesday, discussing the need to modernize education for a new century and ensure that students receive the skills necessary to succeed in the changing job market.
Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as part of a larger event on coordination between the business community and educational institutions, the likely 2016 presidential contender said that a “fundamental obstacle to economic progress is the skills gap that exists in our nation. The fact of the matter is that millions of our people do not have the skills that they need for the 21st century.”
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Because we’ve stigmatized working for a living.
CurtZHP on January 24, 2013 at 7:24 PM
Because we all know gay studies majors are superior to simple-minded plumbers.
Mark1971 on January 24, 2013 at 7:29 PM
Because we have made Profit = evil. Why succeed if it means you will be publicly hated (forever)?
nobar on January 24, 2013 at 7:34 PM
Because the public schools don’t always fully indoctrinate the next generation into liberalism, political correctness, white guilt, etc., and need academia to finish the brainwashing.
Wethal on January 24, 2013 at 7:39 PM
Many mechanic shops are dying for skilled works but nobody wants to get greasy or bloody a knuckle when you can get food stamps and gubement housing.
CW on January 24, 2013 at 7:39 PM
He’s right about stigma around certain jobs. I own a company that manufactures furniture in a town where unemployment is over 11% and yet I can’t get any young people interested in a job even though it pays over twice the median income for the area. I’ve talked with several other manufacturers and they tell the same story. Young people don’t want to do manual labor. It’s somehow beneath them, no matter how much it pays. Manufacturing will never come back in this country with attitudes like this.
ReaganWasRight on January 24, 2013 at 7:39 PM
When I first saw the link quote, I thought whoever was saying it was bemoaning the fact that “career students” are stigmatized, lol.
In any event, his heart’s in the right place. But extending student loans for online and technical schools would seem to me to expand the education bubble to those areas. Might be better off making tuition payments tax deductible, though I’m not sure.
NorthernCross on January 24, 2013 at 7:47 PM
Their parents should cut their financial umbilical chords to let their working-age kids starve a little. That’ll cure them that bad attitude real fast, and the problem will solve itself.
NorthernCross on January 24, 2013 at 7:50 PM
I don’t disagree with what you’re saying (I’m kinda one of those young persons), but let me ask you something. Suppose I’m one of these young adults and I’m considering the work because A) I want to work; B) I like to work; C) I’m willing to work; D) I want to earn more money than I do now; but E) I don’t have the requisite skills. I’m willing to learn – and I learn quickly – but most of the time I don’t know where to start. I see jobs for, say, machinists, that make 2x what I make now, but I don’t have the experience, skills, certifications (et al), so I don’t apply because I don’t expect a manager is going to hire some total greenhorn.
I’d wager there’s a fair amount of people willing, but they don’t know how to get themselves in the door.
Jeddite on January 24, 2013 at 7:53 PM
It’s easier to organize a bunch of Grievance Studies majors at University to the polls than a disunited gaggle of plumbers, HVAC technicians, airframe mechanics, and the like.
Sekhmet on January 24, 2013 at 8:11 PM
Maybe. I think the entry level jobs paying $9 an hour where you learn the skills are “beneath” a lot of people, not just young people. I also think that in some industries, like construction, unskilled illegal immigrants tend to crowd out the field for the entry level jobs as well.
Timin203 on January 24, 2013 at 8:11 PM
My town manufacturers the majority of the furniture in the U.S., so the local government has set up an entire furniture manufacturing training center in conjunction with the local community college. It covers everything from design and drafting, to cutting, sewing, upholstery, as well as a CNC operation. This resource has been available for almost 10 years and is pretty much state-of-the-art, but doesn’t generate near enough job candidates. Young people just don’t want to work in manufacturing. My company has 30 labor positions and the average age is over 50. The young people that we do get don’t usually last too long. Their work ethic is nothing compared to the older guys.
ReaganWasRight on January 24, 2013 at 8:12 PM
I’m a younger guy, and for the most part I agree that it’s a problem for many my age. But I think the bigger problem is that very few of my peers ever work with their hands. I have friends who don’t know how to change a tire. Grown men. They think I’m some kind of god because I’m a handy person, but they would never in a million years try to fix anything by themselves.
I think that attitude is what drives people away from manufacturing and other work where you work with your hands.
Timin203 on January 24, 2013 at 8:16 PM
Facepalm. How about bringing back shop and trades to high school? Instead of more money to give away, start pulling back govt financing from universities, then you’ll see more people gravitating towards the trades. Bottomline anything worth having is worth scratching and working for. And we the taxpayers will get to keep more of our money.
The more I hear Rubio the more I’m getting to loathe his pseudo conservatism. Maybe it’s because he’s young and proving that he doesn’t know jack except what sounds good yet inexperienced enough to recognize chimerical compassion.
AH_C on January 24, 2013 at 8:16 PM
Start working on those young votes Rubio. I dont care if he lies about student loans or not. You have to lie and appeal to idiots to win.
I do think they have to grandfather the terrible US metric system. As a science major, it’s annoying to deal with two different scales while everyone else just deals with one which makes things much easier
Flapjackmaka on January 24, 2013 at 8:22 PM
Meaning absolutely no personal insult to you…but I’ve heard this line too many times and I think you’re just complaining.
My generation has been left with nothing. We can’t even go high-techie because everything that can be outsourced to some marble-mouthed Asian peasant has been. I applied to every minimum-wage junk job that stuck up a “Now Hiring” sign for years before I finally got even called back. At this point I’m honestly wondering if there isn’t a paroled axe murderer (or someone equally horrid) with the same name as me that keeps coming up in background checks.
Unless the work you’re doing requires an ungodly amount of skill and/or training, I really have a very hard time believing you unless the welfare mentality in your locale is really awful.
The blunt fact is that when every God-blessed employer requires X years of experience for things that a trained monkey could do, and I have seen this repeatedly, there IS no way to get in the door. You’re reduced to the lowest-paying positions in the most unsatisfying jobs in town, praying that someone higher up will die, get fired, or quit.
MelonCollie on January 24, 2013 at 8:22 PM
You might be right, but I live in a city of 40,000 people in the foothills of NC. I’m not far from the places that they show on that program Moonshiners. So, we’ve got a bunch of guys that hunt, fish and drive suped up trucks and cars. Kind of a place where people really do work with their hands. If this were Charlotte, I’d be more likely to believe what you’re saying is the case.
I have a brother that loves to work on cars and was even a mechanic when he was in his twenties, but won’t look for that type of job again because he thinks others look down on those positions. He’d rather not have a job than take one with a stigma attached to it, even though it is how he likes to spend his free time. I think a lot of others feel the same way.
ReaganWasRight on January 24, 2013 at 8:24 PM
Therein lies the dilemma. We’ve hyped and inflated the value of higher education as if every one has a right to college. No. And our litigitious society has forced shop out of the household. I hope someone gives you a chance. You need to get past the front desk and talk to owners or managers. If you have the knack and ambition you can talk yourself into a chance to learn and prove your worth, ie a 90 day probation. Try it.
AH_C on January 24, 2013 at 8:26 PM
This is the problem:
“Besides, conservatives did win occasional victories at the polls, so the republic that our founders left us still seemed capable of self-correction. But even when conservatives won elections, the people who lost those elections taught our children the next day”
I have come to the realization that my real sacrifice for the Republic will be made in the class room. Finishing my degree and becoming a teacher is not what I want to do but… That is where the action is.
If you aren’t in a position to become a teacher think “Change the culture.” It is more effectine than pissing and moaning
Theworldisnotenough on January 24, 2013 at 8:31 PM
Believe what you want, but I’m not exactly over the hill myself. I’m 40. I have no trouble hiring older guys to do the same positions and some of them have went through the same training programs that I mentioned in another post. Upholstering furniture, cutting fabric and sewing all take training and a fair amount of skill, but this area has programs set up to move these people from training directly into work. Most of the guys that work for me make about $50,000 in a town where the median income is about $22,000. The work is piece-work, so you get paid for what you produce. A newly trained person may make less because they are slower or have more defects in their work they have to fix, but in a couple of months they’re usually up to speed.
ReaganWasRight on January 24, 2013 at 8:33 PM
Another reason (excuse) that has shyed me away from vocational work is that I really, really, really, really, really (really) don’t want to join a union. I can represent myself poorly just fine (and do!) – and I work too hard (and am willing to continue doing so) to need somebody to represent my “interests”.
Still though, I’ve been doing office/Dilbert work for ten years since undergrad – the pay isn’t great, and the job satisfaction is non-existent.
~ oh hay, quittin’ time ~
Jeddite on January 24, 2013 at 8:33 PM
The blunt fact is that when every God-blessed employer requires X years of experience for things that a trained monkey could do, and I have seen this repeatedly, there IS no way to get in the door. You’re reduced to the lowest-paying positions in the most unsatisfying jobs in town, praying that someone higher up will die, get fired, or quit.
MelonCollie on January 24, 2013 at 8:22 PM
Blame DOL the EEOC and other agencies that force employers to inflate prerequisites, that and grade inflation from public education. Unintended consequences. The employers are not to blame. I have several college edumacated idiots that I’d like to terminate on my SAP project, for posing as SMEs, but I can’t cause i’d be racist or some nonsuch. Never mind their poor literacy or lack of logic processing
AH_C on January 24, 2013 at 8:37 PM
So what, it’s a federal law or something that you have to add prereqs that make it utterly impossible for nearly anyone under 30 to even APPLY?
Seriously, help me out here. Is the absolute only way to filter out the publik skrewel ‘graduates’ and dimbulbs to add things that literally make people like me drop the job description and weep in frustration because we can’t even bother applying?
MelonCollie on January 24, 2013 at 8:44 PM
Man, if you want to feel dumb, go apply at Boeing.
I applied for a couple of openings this week – totally qualified, but damn if the experience didn’t make me think otherwise. And these are the “step 1″ positions!
Step 1: college degree + 1 years experience
Step 2: college degree + 5 years experience + certifications highly desirable
Step 3: college degree + 10 years experience + every applicable certification imaginable
Oy vey.
Jeddite on January 24, 2013 at 9:13 PM
This is an extreme example of what I’m facing.
It’s ridiculous and it’s why I have very little sympathy for hand-wringing oldsters who keep complaining “We ken’t get any young’uns to apply here, goshdarnit.”
I have literally lost count of the times I’ve been looking at applying for a job and gone “can do that…can do that…an 8th grader could do that…need a little practice on that…a trained monkey could do that…wait – what the ****? How many years experience in WHAT? In an ‘entry level position’? What is this crap?!?”
MelonCollie on January 24, 2013 at 9:20 PM
Sad but true, unintended consequences rule. There are ways around it but more than I can cover here especially when I don’t know what you’re aiming for. One example is getting to the decision makers by networking. To whit, over the course of 30 years I went from aviation technology (glorified term for a&p mechanic) college drop out when I when I did the math for the cost of getting my 4 yr degree as opposed to leveraging my air force experience and contacts to get a job in aviation without it. Long story short, I’m now managing my second massive roll out of a SAP ERP multi-year project. Granted it took initiative to be in the right place at the right time to land here but hang in there and you can get there by letting your reputation speak for you.
AH_C on January 24, 2013 at 9:38 PM