How's that Masters Degree in art history working for your kids? This has been coming for a long time, and now - with guys like Farley and Mike Rowe and others pressing the need for more trade schools - maybe today's kids'll figure out they can live better than their friends by learning a real, in-demand trade.
Ford has been unable to fill some 5,000 openings for mechanics despite offering a salary of $120,000 a year - prompting the company’s chief executive to warn of a dire shortage of skilled tradespeople in the US.
“We are in trouble in our country. We are not talking about this enough,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said on an episode of the “Office Hours: Business Edition” podcast published earlier this week. “We have over a million openings in critical jobs, emergency services, trucking, factory workers, plumbers, electricians and tradesmen.” The $120,000 pay is nearly twice the average annual American salary, according to the Social Security Administration.
It takes about five years to learn the skills needed to pull a diesel engine out of a Ford Super Duty truck — and the country isn’t training enough people to do it. “We do not have trade schools,” he fumed.
Earlier this year, Ford rolled out a $4 million initiative to fund scholarship for auto technicians. “We are not investing in educating a next generation of people like my grandfather who had nothing, who built a middle class life and a future for his family,” Farley said.
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Combo Kit with 2 Batteries and Charger - price is holding at only $ 149.00.
The two batteries alone almost cost that much!
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I feel sorry for those gender studies majors having to try to figure out how to plug a male and a female wire connector together, especially a 400 volt Tesla battery.
ReplyDeleteIn 04 and 05 I sent my sons to different Trade Schools as they wanted different trades. My oldest is a GM Master Mechanic and his base salary is $140k with bonuses. He earns well over that as weekly work makes him much more.
ReplyDeleteMike Rowe has been sounding the alarm for 10-15 years. And the Ford exec just NOW realizes this!?!??! And is just now putting money up to fund scholarships!?!?!? I bet all that DEI stuff got in the way of common sense........
ReplyDelete5 years experience needed to pull a diesel out of a pickup,trucks are then too complicated.Me and some friends(shade tree mechanics)swapped out a Cummings in a 90's Dodge pickup over the course of a week,was just hours daily after work with a few tools and beers,new one (OK used) ran great when finished as did the whole truck.
ReplyDeleteNot that many mechanics available these days...
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