(04-11-2024, 08:47 AM)homebiscuit Wrote: Are VoTech or VoAg classes even offered in schools anymore? 

Mike Rowe: Trade workers freer without $300K ‘millstone’ around neck

I don't know if they are offered but I know those in the trades are in demand more than most college graduates due to the current tradesmen and women reaching retirement age with so few to replace them. 

Mike Rowe partnered with This Old House about 10 years ago to get more young folks and those in high school interested in the trades. TOH had three apprentices in their 20s on the job site/TV show for a season and they all graduated but one of the guys passed away soon after from a health issue IIRC. Otherwise it was a success for that year. I remember Rowe and the TOH guys were really hammering home (no pun intended) the fact that there was so much work and so few workers, and that was 10 years ago. They also talked about how you're not going into debt learning a trade like you do going to college.

I don't know why college is pushed so much when it's not the only way to have success in life. I know many folks in the trades that have been extremely successful, make plenty of money and own companies that apprentice and/or employ kids coming out of high school. 

My nephew was here for a month last summer and got to learn about and work in HVAC thanks to friends who own the HVAC company.  He said he's not sure that would be his future career but he liked the experience and the money he made which was much better than fast food money.

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