Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
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Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
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Re: Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
#2We'll be short 1M electricians by 2020. Bringing vocational training back into high schools will help us ditch fossil fuels, bridge the skilled workforce gap, and empower more young people to succeed.
Re: Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
#3New York State has this program called BOCES, which are cooperative job training high schools that students can optionally go to part time in their Junior / Senior year of high school. So you can go and learn welding, mechanics, electrical, construction, it networking, cooking, etc. The schools usually are targeting students who aren't college bound. But it is a great program which I know a lot of people who were able to get solid careers going right out of high school.
Re: Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
#4Good idea - but practically, we'd have to raise the minimum wage to make these jobs attractive to young people, and a national infrastructure program would also be needed to provide the financing. Otherwise we'll just continue to slide towards a system of wealthy enclaves surrounded by miles of slums, and slum dwellers can't afford to pay for construction upgrades. Granted, wealthy enclave dwellers will be providing some jobs, but they'll probably be hiring contractors whose workforce consists of cheap immigrant labor, not recent graduates of American high schools.
There are historical examples where electrification was accelerated, e.g. FDR New Deal programs like Rural Electrification and the WPA, but that would entail a complete restructuring of federal government priorities, increased taxes on the wealthy, redirection of military-industrial budgets to domestic infrastructure, etc. Seems unlikely in the current political climate, where oligarchs run both parties like sock puppets.
Re: Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
#5Good idea - but practically, we'd have to raise the minimum wage to make these jobs attractive to young people, and a national infrastructure program would also be needed to provide the financing. Otherwise we'll just continue to slide towards a system of wealthy enclaves surrounded by miles of slums, and slum dwellers can't afford to pay for construction upgrades. Granted, wealthy enclave dwellers will be providing…
Electricians and HVAC don't make minimum wage. I know HVAC workers making $100k a year in a LCOL area, which is more than many people with degrees or master's degrees make. Many of these areas require certifications as well, so you can't just have any person do it (if you are doing it legally).
Re: Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
#6I work in renewable energy, and have started to get my hands on electrical work here and there—this is a serious space of opportunity for people starting their careers.
Not every job needs to be (nor can be) a desk job, and with the advent of AI tools, you'll still have many hands-one roles in the field. Much of the difficulty of getting solar and home battery storage (like Powerwall) is because there is such a shortage of electricians.
Re: Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
#7Good idea - but practically, we'd have to raise the minimum wage to make these jobs attractive to young people, and a national infrastructure program would also be needed to provide the financing. Otherwise we'll just continue to slide towards a system of wealthy enclaves surrounded by miles of slums, and slum dwellers can't afford to pay for construction upgrades. Granted, wealthy enclave dwellers will be providing…
Electricians and HVAC don't make minimum wage. I know HVAC workers making $100k a year in a LCOL area, which is more than many people with degrees or master's degrees make. Many of these areas require certifications as well, so you can't just have any person do it (if you are doing it legally).
Plumber in the midwest I use for some properties just let me know their new rate is $160/hour. My electrician is booked months out. I had to trench 24-30" deep and lay 4" schedule 40 non metallic conduit (PVC) ~120 feet myself to upgrade the service entrance at a new property.
Re: Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
#8Good idea - but practically, we'd have to raise the minimum wage to make these jobs attractive to young people, and a national infrastructure program would also be needed to provide the financing. Otherwise we'll just continue to slide towards a system of wealthy enclaves surrounded by miles of slums, and slum dwellers can't afford to pay for construction upgrades. Granted, wealthy enclave dwellers will be providing…
Electricians and HVAC don't make minimum wage. I know HVAC workers making $100k a year in a LCOL area, which is more than many people with degrees or master's degrees make. Many of these areas require certifications as well, so you can't just have any person do it (if you are doing it legally).
It is a question of the pay to qualify of life at work ratio and the volatility of it.
Quality of life at work means things like having to travel, volatility of schedules, health risks from the work, quality of coworkers, etc.
Volatility is are you getting paid a salary every 2 weeks, or are you exposed to more fluctuations in landing jobs, and dealing with customers who do not pay.
Maybe the situation has finally turned a corner where an office/white collar job is no longer a no brainer.
Re: Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
#9I work in renewable energy, and have started to get my hands on electrical work here and there—this is a serious space of opportunity for people starting their careers. Not every job needs to be (nor can be) a desk job, and with the advent of AI tools, you'll still have many hands-one roles in the field. Much of the difficulty of getting solar and home battery storage (like Powerwall) is because there is such a short…
“Shop Class as Soulcraft” has a line that stuck in my memory: “You can’t hammer nails over the Internet.”
Also, before the pedants go finding nail hammering robots, it’s a simplification to make the point that there will always be room for the trades in the real world.
Re: Shop Class 2.0: Rethinking High School to Accelerate Electrification
#10We'll be short 1M electricians by 2020. Bringing vocational training back into high schools will help us ditch fossil fuels, bridge the skilled workforce gap, and empower more young people to succeed.
1 million electricians strikes me as a lot of electricians. Also it already is 2020. Typo perhaps? Source?