Grumpy Voter's comment on my last post deserves a response in a separate post.
I'd like to let you know about a program called the,
"Energy Systems Engineering Technician and Technologist" program at our local community college in Kingston, Ontario: St. Lawrence College.
Students in this program are trained in areas like energy audits, building insulation, renewable energy equipment, environmental impacts and life-cycle analysis. They just graduated their first class this past year and every student got a job in the energy field (talk about green jobs!). What's also nice is that these students are particularly energetic and inspired. Similar programs are being created in other post-secondary institutions.
It's not coincidental that Kingston, a city of 100,000 people, is blessed with five local businesses that install renewable energy equipment (solar PV panels, solar hot water systems, wind turbines, wood stoves etc.).
Reinforcements are coming!
Friday, September 12, 2008
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3 comments:
Here's the problem. (and bear with me because this will make sense I work for one of those companies that people call every day to have renovations done and we tell them, no skilled trades people - six month to a year waiting list)I am 40 and once upon a time in Canada the high schools across the country had the following:
a)Industrial Arts
b)Automotive Mechanics
c)Carpentry
d)Metal fabrication
In short, the schools over the past twenty years phased out blue collar trade classes which gave young people a leg up and their first exposure to a good solid trade job. This was done as provincial education budgets were slashed right across the country and programs like industrial arts and trade not to mention music and fine arts and physical education were all scaled back or dropped. During this period, young people have been spoon fed pure bullshit about the only hope for a good life is a university education, and here's the thing: my kid is 18 and he works for us. He did the math and realized that he can become a plumber and by the time he is 21, he will be earning up to $80,000/year or more versus coming out of university with $40,000 in student loans and fighting for a pee-on job that pays $40k/year. Where I am going with this is the reason for the shortage is because of those cuts. Cripes, my company has just hired 25 foreign workers because we can't find anyone IN THE COUNTRY who will come and work for us. So my point is pretty basic, there's going to be a skilled worker shortage for a long time so while it's great to say we will retrofit those homes, I would be far more supportive if there were emphasis on getting young people into the trades because old farts like me are getting old and are tired and worn out.
So let me get this right grumpy voter, your against Liberal policies that will create new and more "green jobs" because there is a shortage of skilled tradesmen. Tradesmen/Journeymen/Apprentices, that would do these retro fits and green infrastructure improvements, to transportation/waste/maintenance/ disposal/mass distribution/ect. Then you justify that unhappy situation of a high demand for good paying jobs, by stating the fact your company had to hire 25 foriegn workers (who incidently would probably love to immigrate to Canada), then you blame that on a failed education system? Yet for the last couple of years here in Canada, we have seen good qualified tradesmen lose their good paying jobs by the hundreds of thousands. Forestry, Automotive, Manufactoring, all of these good Canadain brothers and sisters now have to either go get re-educated or go work at a low paying remedial job in the retail sector (no offence to the retail, I did that for a while when I was young), or do as many others do fall back on a skilled labour type job in the building and construction industry. I would think good Canadian logic would deduse to try and fill the void of tradesmen/women with these displaced workers. As for the immigrant workers or imported tradespeople, that is exactly how this great nation was built to begin with. I don't want to seem unreasonable in my arguement Grumpy Voter, however I feel strongly that Stephane Dion will certainly take Canada in the proper direction, which alaigns us with the rest of the democratic states of the world.
Hi grumpy,
Yes, what you say is consistent with what I've heard. I'm about the same age as you and I also remember those classes at my high school (it was called a Collegiate AND Vocational School). I'm not an expert but I also seem to remember reading that demographics (retiring baby boomers) and something to do with the apprentice system also had some contribution to the problem. Perhaps you know more details?
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