The evidence is seemingly everywhere.
In a headline from The Columbian two weeks ago: “Labor shortages in construction cause delays, drive up costs in Clark County.”
In multiple efforts by the Biden administration to boost career and technical training.
In the fact that during last week’s ice storm, it was nigh impossible to find a plumber in Clark County to deal with a broken pipe.
Careers in skilled trades offer dependable jobs and good wages, but American education policy for decades has pushed prospective employees off such career paths. The misguided idea has been that a four-year college degree is the only way to secure a successful career.
As Robb Sommerfeld of the National Center for Craftsmanship told news outlet Axios: “We have this stigma with working with your hands like that’s supposed to mean you have less of a brain. That’s absolutely not the case.” Or, as Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez said last year: “How is it that we don’t respect or listen to people until they have a college degree? That’s a shame.”
The result is a shortage of people who are willing and able to repair glitchy automobiles or tweak wonky light fixtures or pound nails into roofing shingles. As Forbes reported last year: “The construction industry alone is facing a deficit of more than 500,000 workers in the U.S. That’s in part because we’re losing thousands of boomers from the skilled trades to retirement, and there aren’t enough people from the younger generations interested in taking over those jobs.”
Educators and lawmakers are recognizing that there is interest in the trades, but students need opportunity to spark their motivation. During a visit to the Career and Technical Education program at Washougal High School this week, Perez spoke of the need to increase funding for such endeavors: “We cannot continue to privilege one form of intelligence over another. These kids have incredible gifts, and we’re squandering them in many cases.”
In May, a new Skilled Trades Center was unveiled at Evergreen High School. A Vancouver Public Schools program in career training includes six pathways ranging from culinary arts to advanced manufacturing. Battle Ground Public Schools holds an “Apprenticeship Signing Day” to honor students entering the skilled trades.
Such fields often do not require a college degree but still demand thorough education through training and apprenticeship programs. And they often provide a secure career path.
Perez, who before running for Congress worked at an auto repair shop she co-owns with her husband, has made promotion of skilled trades a focal point of her time in Washington, D.C. She also has supported right-to-repair legislation, arguing that “the ability to fix things is in our national DNA.”
And in the Legislature, lawmakers are considering House Bill 2236, described as “expanding and strengthening career and technical education core plus programs.” The bill reads, in part: “Career and technical education core plus programs have demonstrated innovation and success in providing meaningful benefits to students and employers.”
Broad efforts are necessary, along with a change in the thinking behind education policy. When adjusted for inflation, the federal government invested $1.3 billion less in career and technical education in 2021 than it had in 1980. Many states saw similar reductions.
The result has been a lack of opportunity for would-be tradespeople — and a lack of plumbers when you really need one.
