Hey there everyone and welcome back to the Modern Electrician Podcast!

This week's conversation is all about raising awareness for the current lack of young people choosing the trades as their career field. Here are some statistics from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics:

"For every 3 tradesmen who retire in America, there's only 1 trained person to fill his or her work boots."

"More than 1/3 of tradespeople are over the age of 50 with the average age being 55."

"The Hudson Institute predicts that the supply of skilled laborers in the US will not catch up to demand until 2050."

"By 2030, 79 million skilled tradespeople will retire, while only 41 million new workers will enter the workforce."

The point is, there is a shortage of young Americans who see the skilled trades as a viable career option. So why is that? For such an historically industrious nation, we, in the trades, seem to have lost the attention and interest of the younger population as of late. Some point to the social pressure for all young people graduating high school to go to college. There is definitely a large push for the majority of America's youth to at-least obtain a bachelors degree immediately after high school. That's not a bad thing, but when you consider the exorbitant amount of money one can invest in a college degree these days, it begs the question "Does everyone need a college degree? Or is there another option?"

There is another way... and that way has been there this entire time. It requires hard work, an ability to learn on the fly and a lot of humility and I personally believe that it's an awesome opportunity for so many young people who just aren't sure what they want to do with their lives and in their careers. I, of course, am talking about the trades! 

In this conversation, I sit down with Steve Turner to talk about the crisis we have on our hands and what we can do about it. Steve is the founder of a non-profit program called "Bring Back The Trades" which raises awareness for the lack of skilled workers in each industry and also provides scholarships to people interested in entering a trade-field to help them pay for trade school. Steve is a great guy and a lot of fun to talk to. I hope you all enjoy this conversation and I hope you take something from it. I'd love to hear your comments on the topic!

Enjoy the episode!

You can find Steve and his project Bring Back The Trades online:

www.bringbackthetrades.com

on Instagram @bringbackthetrades

on Facebook at: Bring Back The Trades

on LinkedIn at: Bring Back The Trades