Vocational Trades And Students

Ending our discussion yesterday, I raised the question, since ample opportunities are available for resident youth and adults to enter the trades field, why are so few workers in them? How many resident workers are currently employed in the construction industry as skilled tradesmen?

Count the number of resident-operated auto repair shops? How many resident barbers are licensed to cut hair? How many dress shops and beauty shops are operated by residents? The last time you needed a plumber or electrician, why didn’t you hire a resident tradesman? If you want your house painted, is there a paint company operated by a resident owner? Can you find a resident tradesman who can set tile in your house or build a patio? How many local grocery stores are operated by residents? Count the number of qualified resident electricians? Try to find a resident carpenter to repair woodwork around your house?

The demand for commercial boat operators remains unfulfilled. Why aren’t there more resident U.S. Coast Guard licensed captains? Why do I and other boat owners have to hire captains from the mainland, yet the pay is very high? Where are small engine repairmen and diesel mechanics so sorely needed to repair boats, trucks, lawn mowers, and other engines?

Where are they are all these needed tradesmen? In the government’s mesmeric embrace to languish there until retirement @e! The government’s magnetism is like the Sirens song in Homer’s Iliad luring employees to irresistible distractions. Being a tradesman is so mundane compared to government employment charisma. Why have we allowed this to escalate so far?

Consider this point the next time you require a plumber, electrician, painter, tile setter, carpenter, or any other trade skill for new work or repairs at your business or house. The company comes and gives you an estimation. Ninety-nine percentage of the time it will be a non-resident operated company. Wow, the price is high but the work must be done, so you award the contract. Then you begin to wonder how can the price be so high when the workers are earning only $3.05 an hour. Easy to explain.

After paying minimum wages, purchasing material at a discount, and after miscellaneous expenses, the owner/operator walks away with a hefty profit equivalent to what a resident operated company would have owned. Because there are no resident companies, we give the money to non-resident operated companies. This happens in all the trades every day.

When I lived in Hawaii, I was a general contractor specializing in home improvement work. Having little practical tradesman skill myself, f hired skilled workers. After receiving contracts, they did the work and I supervised them. From experience I know how profitable and satisfying the work can be. All of us worked with pride to satisfy the customer and for it received good money.

The same conditions exist here if only our attitude would change. Manual labor is good clean work and necessary- A skilled tradesman takes pride in his workmanship. It strikes me strange that we condone the work of many resident farmers, but not the work of a resident tradesman instead leaving that to non-
resident workers.

Like many of our other problems, we know the answers to solving them, but we often lack the will to correct them. I hope we will strive hard to encourage residents to enter the various trades. That is the hardest part. Once there is an actual willingness to become tradesmen, training is easy to execute.

The PSS is ready, willing, and able to provide direct vocational and technical education programs. Are we ready to accept resident tradesman instead of non-resident tradesmen?