Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hiring from high school

Your BIL was an idiot and typical of a number of PhD's let alone BA's and MA's. Note the "A's"

Some of these posts have the scent of incredible.

Gee....That sounds a lot like things were in the early 1900s. Around here. If you wanted to work on the rail road or steel mill, and if you did a good job in local summer jobs, there was a decent chance you would get a job when you graduate. All you needed was a decent reputation and maybe a good word from a person working there.

Another cut and paste dooshnozzle earns his place on ignore.

No joke. Seems pretty easy to be positive about these kids. No need to run down others that I can see. This nonsense about all the tech school and farm kids being up working before dawn then off to earn straight A's while volunteering to teach sunday school is exactly that. Nonsense. There are some great kids in cities and farms, on campuses and in tech schools, and there are some real duds in all these places.

The masonry trade in N.C. is working hard to attract young people. Get paid well to learn, no college debt etc. we are having only moderate success. The mighty cell phone and social media derail a lot of them. The work ethic that was there for so many years appears to be gone.

Work ethic abounds in today's kids. You're competing with others for them. Blaming them for having no work ethic isn't going to make them want to join up with you.

jeepers what do you do? I should inquire!!

In High School we had Technical Trade classes back in the day.
We had to put together projects for a Community craft show to pass the Class.
My Senior years I put several of my projects in the show for the Parents and Local Community to see.
I had Machine Shop and Welding Shop.
The Instructors put name tags on your projects so that the public could see who made what.

We had a Fabrication Shop Owner walk threw the Classes.
His Daughter attended my High School.

He went up to the Welding Instructor and started asking questions about my work and what I wanted to do when I Graduated and the Instructor told him about me.

That guy Hired me sight unseen about 6 months before I Graduated because of the projects I put into the program.

2 years latter the Bulldozed the Shop to the ground to make a a Parking lot.


The School System needs t bring the Technical Program back into it before kids get bored and drop out after High school they can go right to work or get into a Trade school for more knowledge.

I have said for many years that we have 3 types of people.
The people that work good with their heads and can work behind a desk.
The People that are good at Sports
And the People that are good with their hands.
We need all 3 in the world one is not better than the other.
But it has been a long practice that the People that work with their hands are looked down to as a lower form of life form.
This discrimination needs to be reversed

I work for a large chemical plant with mostly good paying blue collar jobs. Currently there’s two 19 year old kid that are sons of foreman that hired in out of HS. One worked at McDonald’s for a couple of years while in HS and the other on a farm owned by his grandparents. Both are rock solid good hardworking, confident, respectful kids that handle themselves well above their age. They hired in knowing what was expected and are a testament to good parenting.

I’m not sure how mainstreaming trades into HS would work. I can see it being a benefit to a lot of kids in the short run but millions of kids being pumped into the trades would potentially bring down wages in the long run. That and in today’s world girls would be actively recruited and probably expected to compromise half of the class.

"Compromise half the class"...... Some will, some won't.

I think you meant "comprise", but I like your version better.

I'm a firm believer in high schools offering a skilled trades curriculum and employers hiring those who participate but what has been a common problem for employers in the past and still is nowadays is finding qualified young folks that can also pass drug testing.

We had Auto , Auto body and Fender ,Welding , Machine Shop , Wood Shop, Electronics and Drafting

I had a Friend that did the Auto Body and Fender class he entered his car in a State Competition and won first place took the car to a College level Competition all the way to New York from Utah and won first place.
He had a guy approach him to go into business together and the guy screwed him over real bad and almost bankrupted him.

In our Wood Shop the Instructor had connections with a Clock works manufacturer in Germany and the kids that wanted to could build Grandfather Clocks. We had a Kid that built 3 of them. 1 for his dad , 1 for his mom and 1 for himself

In our Machine Shop our Instructor had the advanced kids building Power tools and Equipment .
Or Auto Shop had 2 Computers when most of the Mechanic Shops back then could not afford them.

Our Welding Shop had a Retired Chicago Bridge and Iron Retiree teach the Class and the students that wanted to could get Certified while they were still in High School.
I was Stupid and did not do it and it took me 2 years out of School to get the shop I worked in to let me take the test.

Our Electronics Shop had kids building their own Home Computers before there were home Computers in the stores.

That was back when the Instructors cared about the students

Having the Technical Trades in High School give the kids an opportunity to see what they are capable of and give them a taste of what work can be done when they get out of School.

With out it some kids never get exposed to different types of work.
Our Society puts to much demand for our kids to go into desk jobs and discredits the Technical Trades in this Country

Among other chores, I created, helped provide and supported vocational education programs designed to prepare young people (and some older) to step into responsible positions in various trades and vocations. These were a wide range of career programs. We were very good at doing this and enjoyed success, but it was not easy work.

At times, the "academic" types in our institutions were uncooperative and often jealous (to do this work well, the academic components must be of high quality and mastered by the student); the folks from various vocational "fields" can be very helpful as advisory boards, but some of them will try to exercise their self-interest which can take aspects of vocational ed programs down rabbit holes; since about 1990, the growing and deleterious emphasis on the "certified" or "credentialed" individual rather than the self learned and skilled/competent person has undermined expectations for excellence in vocational and other aspects of education. And, some relationships with "trade organizations" can bring considerable pain to the venture.

It is great work, and gives great rewards. As do some, don't make the mistake of presenting it as a simplistic and "easy peazy".

Charging that much is stealing, always get a signed estimate

For a long time the mantra became “prepare every kid for college”. I’m delighted to see the pendulum beginning to swing back.

When I left I was making as much as most of the high school principals. The plumbers, AC boys, and electricians were 45 plus. With overtime, 130,000 a year.

They can’t hire enough custodians, are paying maintenance people time and a half to clean buildings. They are working their 8 hours during the week, plus 4 hours to clean, then 8 to 10 on Saturdays. You get 2.3% for every year of service, 80% for 35 years. That’s 80% of your best 5 year average. I was one of the last 3 year average people.
My retirement, plus my SS, and union pension is pretty good, Wifey will get th TRS pension as long as she lives also. I am very fortunate, but I took a 12.00 an hour pay cut to go to work there. It took years to get that back.

Hiring hs students can be very rewarding. One of the major challenges with that is keeping in compliance with labor laws for minors. Lots of normal construction activities they legally can’t be exposed to, operating most types of medium duty equipment for example.

Also, paying high wages is all fine and good, but not great for the customer. A beginning level of knowledge is not something customers should pay high dollars for. Higher wages has to be balanced by high bill rates. However with limited experience the beginning worker is not often a welcome sight when the customer sees how much they have to pay.

Highschool kids are great but not all of them and not in all circumstances.

The child labor laws seem designed to make sure kids leave school with NO hands-on knowledge.

I worked construction for 20 years, no old masons, they broke down by 40, stooped over, very hard trade on the body. Them boys were on the scaffold at 7:00am, trowel in hand, sling mud, laying blocks or bricks, stopped for lunch at 12:00, trowel in hand at 12:30, worked until 3:30. Meskins have taken it over here.