As high school graduation season is looming just around the
corner, of course not every graduating senior is necessarily anticipating
heading off to college in the fall. While the vast majority may have their
eyes on continuing their formal education at a school of higher education (upwards
of 80% of 11th graders have said they plan to go to a 2-year or 4-year college after graduation, according to local survey data), college is
admittedly not for everyone. Trade and vocational schools offer great
alternatives to college for some young people.
This has become a considerable focus of a rather famous TV
personality – Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs”, “The Most”, and “Deadliest Catch”
fame has become an outspoken advocate for getting kids interested in skilled trade jobs. He has even testified before Congress about the dangers of declining interest in this type of work. The notion of depicting hard work as noble and fun is central to his
personal mission. On Labor Day of 2008, Mike launched a website called www.mikeroweWORKS.com where skilled labor and hard work are celebrated in the hope
of calling attention to the steady decline in the trades and bolster
enrollments in trade schools and technical colleges. Later that same year, he
started the mikeroweWORKS Foundation which provides tool stipends and
scholarships to those looking to learn a skill or master a trade. His financial aid page even has financial aid specific to New York State colleges and trade schools .
Locally we have seen an increase in the last decade when it
comes to some of the skilled trades Mike Rowe promotes as options to more
traditional college pursuits. Below is data from the 2000 Census and the 2011 Three
Year Estimates of the American Communities Survey showing changes in several
construction and trade jobs between those years. Note that both Herkimer County (38%) and Oneida County (25%)
have seen greater growth in demand for these skilled workers than the state (17%) has
as a whole.
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