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2011-12-14 Economy

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Posted by 2011-12-14 11:11|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ] Top

#1 all that funding and advanced educational skills by the National Teachers Association and the Department of Education, especially the doubling in real inflation adjusted dollars, of education funding since the advent of the Great Society. Net effect, we need to import engineers and chemists because hard science, actual education not social studies, has been abandoned as too hard for some students so we undereducate all.

Posted by NoMoreBS 2011-12-14 13:41|| 2011-12-14 13:41|| Front Page Top

#2 How much of the mismatch is due to people with skills unable to move because they can't sell homes with underwater mortgages? I have the impression that historically American workers have been more willing to move for jobs than, eg. Europeans...

Posted by trailing wife 2011-12-14 13:57|| 2011-12-14 13:57|| Front Page Top

#3 Drew Grennblatt is a moron. Find a quality guy willing to learn "with the dive and ability", and teach him at an apprentice wage with promises of higher wages once his skillset improves.

He expects to find an experienced sheet metal worker out of the blue? Dumbass. Plenty of good people are looking, find a couple of them, hire them and develop your own. Don't get stuck on age - if there is a 35 or 40 year old guy wanting to change careers, give him a hard look and a tryout. Had he done that 3 years ago, he would not be waiting now.

Posted by OldSpook 2011-12-14 13:57|| 2011-12-14 13:57|| Front Page Top

#4 He expects to find an experienced sheet metal worker out of the blue? Dumbass. Plenty of good people are looking, find a couple of them, hire them and develop your own.
I totally agree. Since WHEN has it been the job of the government to provide basic training of the kind needed for potential workers referred to in the article?

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-12-14 14:03|| 2011-12-14 14:03|| Front Page Top

#5 He expects to find an experienced sheet metal worker out of the blue? Dumbass. Plenty of good people are looking, find a couple of them, hire them and develop your own.

Don't you need somebody experienced to train people?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-12-14 14:15|| 2011-12-14 14:15|| Front Page Top

#6 Greenblatt's in Baltimore. Lots of steel/iron workers used to be available in their city. But the quality of the workforce in Baltimore ain't what it used to be.

Posted by lotp 2011-12-14 14:40|| 2011-12-14 14:40|| Front Page Top

#7 Big ongoing problem with training in a lot of our domestic 'heavy' industries (especially with machinists, welders and so on). Seems the 'conventional wisdom' over the last two decades has been to 'rob' your competitor's skilled workers so you wouldn't have to spend the time, $$ and effort to train new hires. We heard this reasoning a lot on apprenticeship standards committees when we queried a particular company as to why they hadn't trained any apprentices for years.

When times were good (and these workers still fairly young), this method worked for many companies. Unfortunately, these workers aged and are now retiring in droves.

It's hard to break the mindset that you'll always find someone who knows the trade. It's harder still to start a training regimen when you only have a dim memory of how that works.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2011-12-14 15:11|| 2011-12-14 15:11|| Front Page Top

#8 It's hard to break the mindset that you'll always find someone who knows the trade. Life is hard, and it's harder when you're dumb. That applies to managers & owners of businesses as well.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-12-14 18:19|| 2011-12-14 18:19|| Front Page Top

#9 MR, they need to look at our Military's training methods. They can train a good high school grad (even some college grads) to operate and maintain some of the most sophisticated equipment in the world.

Too many high school students are pushed into academics and college where they are not suited. It's time to recognize that not all want or are suited to white collar work (via college). Doesn't mean they aren't from the "right half" of the bell curve, just that they aren't interested in a desk job.

Posted by tipover 2011-12-14 18:19|| 2011-12-14 18:19|| Front Page Top

#10 Mike "Dirty Jobs" Rowe has been pushing the truth that, contrary to current 'self esteem building' trends, not everyone is suited for college.

Vocational schools and shop classes in high school provide career training and real skills at building and maintaining things we need as a society. Those skills are underavailable in the employment market and are paying pretty damn well, which, if you've had an electrician or plumber out, you well know

Posted by Frank G 2011-12-14 18:23|| 2011-12-14 18:23|| Front Page Top

#11 80K with OT, health, and benefits. So what's the base rate, 50K? And he's missing out on 5M$ revenue? Dope. Keep raising the offer along with moving expenses until they flock in. It's called a "market". Or maybe no one likes to work for the guy?

Posted by KBK 2011-12-14 19:53|| 2011-12-14 19:53|| Front Page Top

#12 Agree with Military Training. Many of our company's best workers and managers have come out of the military and/or from farming families. Both environments foster 'can-do' attitudes and the will to succeed as an individual plus working together as a group to achieve a tangible and valuable goal, something our public educational systems generally don't teach.

Our company pays our skilled trades persons between $60K and $95K (plus excellent benefits, pension plans and profit sharing) depending on achievement. Money's better than most college graduates make in their chosen field (plus you don't have all those student loans for your Art and 'Wine Tasting' classes to pay back). Parents and School Guidance Counselors might want to listen when we attempt to explain the benefits of a technical career (which we do often at school and other public/private functions), but they usually don't.

As for technical educational classes in high school, unfortunately few of our children are directed there by either parents or school professionals (unless the child is deemed 'unfit for college'). Plus funding and facilities for these programs is usually woeful (unless you're in a rural area). Not saying there aren't some excellent and well-attended technical course curriculums in many of our high schools, just that the really good ones are the exception rather than the norm.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2011-12-14 21:04|| 2011-12-14 21:04|| Front Page Top

#13 Our companies have simply loved to eliminate everyone in order to keep bonuses flowing to management. It's been great fun for them and very profitable. Now they expect to get someone similar without having developed them.

I have a cousin who was trained by Boeing to be a skilled machinist. They let him go in costcutting and he became a truck driver. And now businesses complain because they can't find qualified help. I have watched this repeated over and over and over again in my lifetime.

Get Wall Street out of American business. Employees are not disposable pieces of trash.

Posted by Glath Schwarzeneggar2126 2011-12-14 21:09|| 2011-12-14 21:09|| Front Page Top

#14 Keep raising the offer along with moving expenses until they flock in. It's called a "market". Or maybe no one likes to work for the guy?
If all you pay is peanuts, all you'll get are monkeys.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-12-14 21:16|| 2011-12-14 21:16|| Front Page Top

#15 Reminds me of radio add I heard other day. Company looking for Sheet Metal operator or some such thing(don't remember exactly) was looking for positions. And offering to pay for the classes to learn it while giving you the job at the same time. America's decline isn't because we aren't willing, it's because we've been taught that those essential jobs are "demeaning" and "low-class". We're taught "You could become a lawyer, or doctor, or Astronaut". They teach us to accept nothing BUT the top.

It's like musical chairs, except everyone wants the nice one and there's 2dozen perfectly good ones with some scratches on it they refuse to use.

Posted by Charles 2011-12-14 21:58|| 2011-12-14 21:58|| Front Page Top

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