Many young people enter the job market wanting to ‘make a difference.’ This has probably been the case since the dawn of time: people want to do “good work.” But good work does not always mean a “good job,” of course, and in fact there are many employers who sell underpaying and in some case “sweatshop” jobs to young idealists who believe they are making a difference. In a wild open market, these employers are able to win contracts thanks to their lowered costs.

A report released in February examines the green economy, just as the US government has earmarked some stimulus money for so-called green jobs that include, for example, home updates that save energy, along with jobs in the solar and wind farm industries. The report’s author, Good Jobs First Research Director Philip Mattera, said, “Many proponents of green development assume that the result will be good jobs. We tested that assumption and found it is not always valid.”

While many companies in the green sector treat employees with respect and pay them fairly, there were examples in different sectors of the green economy that showed less fairness to workers. Mattera cites the example of “Two wind energy manufacturing plants where workers initiated union organizing drives in response to issues such as poor safety conditions and then faced union-busting campaigns by management.” He also noted that there are U.S. wind and solar manufacturing firms that weaken the job security of their workers by opening parallel plants in overseas low-wage havens like China, as well as Mexico.

A report by Labor Notes (http://labornotes.org/) offers similar cautions. Tiffany van Eyck says that community-labor partnerships in Newark, Los Angeles, and Seattle are rising to the occasion to make sure that green jobs in the stimulus package end up in the right hands, that unions are recognized and workers are compensated fairly. These community-labor partnerships are “creating a blueprint to help building trades unions dig into the green economy, while bringing new workers, many of them women and people of color, into the unions.”

An alliance in Puget Sound, Washington has been able to win a bill that stipulates “prevailing wage criteria.” This essentially means that stimulus money must go to projects that pay fair wages.

Previously, unions were critical of training models used in some federally subsidized weatherization projects. These favoured entry-level candidates who only took dumbed-down classes on specific tasks. As Union spokesman Bill Hayden put it, “when that work is done, there’s no other work for them.”

While they do acquire a little experience and do receive training,  only a few ever make it into a union or are able to develop their careers. “We don’t want to see more green sweatshops,” Hayden says.

The concern across the country is that people are able to get into a union pipeline, so they can truly make a decent living at green jobs.

And in the end, argue the unions, it is the consumer and the taxpayer who benefit from seeing their money spent best, on people qualified to do good work (people with “good jobs”).

As Good Jobs First Executive Director Greg LeRoy says, “Many states and localities already apply job quality standards to companies receiving job subsidies or public contracts by federal as well as state and local agencies.” The Good Jobs First report, says LeRoy, “only wants to ensure this.”

To learn more, see:
goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/gjfgreenjobsrpt.pdf
labornotes.org/node/2318

The construction trades program at Fort Scott Community College got a little extra help last week.

The program had recently received a selection of Kobalt tools, part of the new Tough Tools for Cool Schools program. The program is a partnership between Lowe’s, Kobalt Tools and the Skills USA organization. The FSCC program is part of the more than 500 Skills USA building trades and renovation programs in post-secondary institutions across the United States. These programs have received a total of $300,000 worth of tools for use in classrooms.

“Lowe’s is proud to work with Kobalt Tools and Skills USA to continue to prepare America’s future skilled work force and help students excel in their chosen career paths,” said Lowe’s President and Chairman of Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation, Larry Stone. “With Kobalt tools in their toolbox, and the education and knowledge from Skills USA and their schools, we believe students will be ready to succeed when they enter the work force.”

Lowes donated the tools. Along with Kobalt Tools and Skills USA, Lowes is helping the next generation of skilled trade professionals across the nation.

“We’re honored,” said Chris Sterrett, the director of the construction trades program at FSCC. “It felt good to have the recognition. We’re having an impact on students’ lives. Lowe’s is one of many corporate partners to step up and participate in what we’re doing,” he added. “We’ve had a good response from business and industry.”

Skills USA Executive Director Timothy Lawrence said the tool donations will help many young people who plan to enter the construction industry in the future.

“The donation of Kobalt tools to Skills USA’s building trades labs nationwide will help prepare the next generation of workers and leaders for the challenging and competitive construction workforce of the 21st century,” he said. “The youth who will benefit from this generous donation will build and maintain our homes, schools and commercial structures in the future. Through the Tough Tools for Cool Schools program, Skills USA, Lowe’s and our technical training schools are building something together that will truly make a lasting impact.”

The national Tough Tools for Cool Schools program began in March.

Two ‘women in the skilled trades’ events highlighted the week.

In St. Catherines Ontario (Canada), Marissa McTasney was one of the featured speakers at the Niagara Region’s first skilled trades inspiration session. She had worked in construction until two years ago, when she started her own clothing line, a line of women’s workwear.

“(Women in trades) are setting their hours, their rates. They get to dictate what they’re paid,” she told the small crowd.

“Knowing that you can make a decent income is an attraction. Besides that, it stems from a need, like a single female homeowner who suddenly has a plumbing leak and they want to repair it,” YWCA job developer Graves chimed in.

“There are just so many opportunites,” says McTasney. Her line of womens’ workwear can be found at major retailers including Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Zellers.

Meanwhile in Portland, Oregon, ths year’s Women in Trades Career Fair offered young women hands-on experience and straight-out encouragement. Women as young as 14 took a look at opportunities for women in the skilled trades. “I felt like this was a real opportunity to do something different,” said Mindy Luis. “I’m definitely going to look into trade school as an option, when I graduate from high school.”

“I talked to a firefighter who found out about the trades when she came here 17 years ago,” said Connie Ashbrook, executive director of Oregon Tradeswomen. “She came to one of the first fairs and then became a carpenter.”

It’s popular to speak of “these dire times” (or whatever) and fall in line with all the news of economic worries. There are many positive stories, in the skilled trades no less which have proven just as vulnerable as professional employment with financial insitutions. Maybe you just have to read between the lines.

We heard of a program in Canada instituted by Beverley Oda, Minister of International Cooperation. The government of Canada launched a new Skills for Employment initiative that will help developing countries build a skilled workforce necessary for economic growth. The initiative will strengthen local training institutions in partnership with Canadian community colleges and enable students to acquire the quality vocational and technical skills needed for productive employment.<Read more>

Hundreds show up to News 10NBC career fair  says the report from MSNBC . But one staffing agency scouting out potential candidates for new hires was disappointed. They “had a need for skilled trades people but they weren’t seeing them at this career fair.”<See the original article>

There’s an employment problem across Canada’s north. I said “employment problem”: not enough people to employ in skilled trades across a spectrum of high paying industries including mining, forestry and the oil industry. <Read this editorial from Timmins>.

The average wage for oil patch workers is over $75,000 per year (source: www.1-oil-job.com/). The median wage in forestry is $46, 316and for a mining engineer, it’s $87,000 (source: salary.com). Search tradeschoolworld.com for more skilled trades wage information.

In spite of the supposedly weakened economy, a number of skilled trades in Canada are doing just fine, thanks.

More here

An article in the Calgary Herald discusses the upcoming WorldSkills Competition and the contribution of its chairman, Guy Mallabone. Mallabone says, “There are a lot of young people out there who like to work with their hands or in the arts.” The event, with a budget of $55 million (Canadian) is hosted in part by SAIT Polytechnic, of which Mallabone is vice-president of external relations.

Mallabone is passionate about the skilled trades and about the need to change some societal perceptions so that young people in the skilled trades do not “feel like they’re second class.”

Mallabone tells a personal story: “In my daughter’s Grade 9 class, the school pulled together the parents and the principal spoke to us. She spoke about considering a career after high school and to carefully choose your courses. And she said, ‘As you prepare for your university journey’ and I stood up and said, ‘Do you mean post-secondary journey?’ and she was embarrassed and said, ‘of course,’ but the word being used was university. Our society can’t sustain that elitist outlook.”

You can read more about Mallabone and WorldSkills Calgary.

Nice blog entry.

Honestly I mean that!

So this is the time of year when high school seniors and their parents are filling out applications for colleges and universities. So my question to everyone of them is, how are you going to afford it? Seriously? I know that I was once a young kid applying for university because I thought – as everyone told me – that university was the place to go. University was your ticket to an easier, better life. Well, it has been – but it was not a cheap ticket and it was probably not the only way to get there.

Granted, I chose Arts and that’s always a hard sell. But even if you choose one of the more ‘practical’ tracks such as engineering or computer science, these still don’t teach you much if any in the way of hands-on knowledge. Universities continue to focus on theory and continue to say things like “we teach people to think.” Fortunately, I eventually wound up at a university that had some co-op courses but even after that I had to work – and I’ll admit, worry – my a** off to acquire marketable skills in things like web code (html, php, etc.), search marketing and otehr more practical skills.

In these days, it’s an increasingly viable choice to choose trade school. Why? Not because trades are anything new, certainly. Precisely the opposite. Many, many people are choosing sexier careers in new fields like technology and computer related fields but trades are tried and true. Are we going to stop using plumbing any time soon? Stop needing new houses or fixes to old ones?

Trade schools still cost money but the money is a much shorter term, smaller commitment – and they are simply not as big a risk. Because fewer people are going into them, the demand and shortage of workers is well documented.

If you are one of those people who has skills that could lead to university or trade school and you are not sure which career track to pick, I know which one I’d pick. And I’m not sure which one I’d pick if I had the choice to do over again, either. Paying off those wicked ‘higher education” loans and taking so freaking long to break into a career that actually works for me and in which I can actually make a good living took too long and was too much of an uphill climb compared to people I know who jumped into their own business three years out of high school.

Got a choice? Choose a trade, I would say. It may be ‘practical’ in more ways than one.

November 3rd to 7th is a week set aside to honour skilled trades, with special events in cities and towns across Canada.

The launch will be held November 3rd in Ottawa at Les Jardins de la Cité, Pavillon H, La Cité Collégiale, in Ottawa. Students from the Ottawa area are invited to join Annie Beauregard, a Team Canada 2007 World Skills bronze medalist, Stacy DuBois of Team Canada 2009, along with representatives from the Canadian Hospitality and Service Industry.

Events from across the country will include “Skills at the Park” in Queens Park, Toronto, which will honour seven Ontario entrants in World Skills 2009.

November 3-7, events will be held at colleges and trade schools across Ontario. These will include two events in Burlington, Ontario, where The Centre for Skills Development & Training is holding two open house events. There is an open invitation to all interested parties (especially trade school students, other youth and their parents) to drop by the centre November 6th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm to find out more about the skilled trades. On Friday November 7, from 12:30-2:30 p. m., teams will battle in a friendly trades competition.

November 3rd, in Edmonton, Alberta, a Cardboard Road race will be held at NAIT. On November 4th, members of the Alberta World Skills team will be introduced in the Alberta Legislature.

November 6th in Newfoundland, a skilled trades luncheon will be held at the College of the North Atlantic’s “College Day”.

November 3rd in PEI, at the UPEI Field House, there will be a hands-on event called Career Options PEI.

November 3rd in Manitoba, there will be a Model Wind Turbine Competition at Red River College in Winnipeg.

These are just a few of the events and times. Check your local news for more events or see skillscanada.com.

How many times have you heard those words? Ever? Stand up and shout it, though. There are more people who are writing “revolutionary” pieces telling people that you don’t have to go to college or university to be a citizen in the US…..

This was originally printed in the Christian Science Monitor: read the article.