Thousands gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, for an event focused on promoting students in skilled trades and that brings together these young tradesmen with industry leaders.
Each state’s top student tradesmen in over 100 different categories of skilled trades gather together at the annual National Leadership and Skills Conference put on by SkillsUSA, executive director for Skilled Careers Coalition Mark Hedstrom told The Center Square.
Skilled Careers Coalition is an organization dedicated to connecting America’s young students with skilled careers in an effort to help “close the skilled labor gap,” according to its website.
SkillsUSA’s executive director Chelle Travis described to The Center Square her organization and Skilled Career Coalition’s relationship as follows: “SkillsUSA, the nation’s leading workforce development organization for students, is a key partner of the Skilled Careers Coalition, collaboratively working to reimagine skilled careers and empower the next generation of America’s workforce.”
As The Center Square reported last year, Gen Z’s interest in skilled trades is on the rise, making SkilledUSA’s and SCC’s missions relevant to youth today.
This year at the National Leadership Skills Conference (NLSC), over 6,000 students competed against other youth in their trade categories to earn bronze, silver or gold, according to a press release. The event was attended by almost 20,000 people.
Included in the crowds at NLSC are industry leaders like John Deere and Yamaha, policymakers, and SkillsUSA partners, such as the Skilled Careers Coalition (SCC), SCC’s executive director Mark Hedstrom told The Center Square.
Hedstrom said that SCC’s goal at the National Skilled Leadership Conference is to “destigmatize skilled trades” and to “break down the challenges we see in that recruitment-placement ecosystem.”
“That continues to be our mandate and our mission,” Hedstrom said.
Skilled trades are “talented skilled careers” fulfilled by “talented skilled workers,” Hedstrom said.
Often, for students the focus for a future career choice “is on a four year degree or the military,” both of which can bring challenges, Hedstrom said. Particularly, the traditional college track takes years to reach one’s eventual career and can put young people in crippling debt, Hedstrom said.
What SCC aims to do is raise awareness for the third option: a skilled career, Hedstrom said.
“A lot of the stigma around skilled trades has always been they’re dirty, dark, dangerous jobs,” Hedstrom said. “They’re jobs that are low paying, they’re less educated.”
Hedstrom said that on the contrary, skilled careers are high-paying and highly educated.
Carpenter said television host Ty Pennington is an SCC partner and mentor. Pennington told The Center Square that “the trades are facing a serious gap, and we need a lot of workers.”
“We need to rely on the next generation to keep things running,” Pennington said. “Today’s toolbelt generation is just what we need.”
Like Hedstrom, Pennington noted to The Center Square some of the benefits of a skilled career, such as becoming an expert in one’s field, being on the fast track to owning a business, and avoiding college debt.
“So many young people are graduating from college with tons of debt and are unable to find a job in their chosen career,” Pennington said. “When it comes to the skilled trades, you will always be needed. That’s the beauty of the skilled trades.”
Pennington additionally told The Center Square that skilled trades cannot be replaced by AI. “Unlike other careers, technology, AI and robots can’t replace what human hands are able to create, as well as troubleshooting when something goes wrong.”
“The human touch and the experience that comes from making mistakes and learning from those mistakes cannot be replaced,” Pennington said.
SkillsUSA executive director Chelle Travis has similar sentiments to those of Hedstrom and Pennington.
“We’re seeing a real change in interest in youth and young adults, and a growing trend in interest in the skilled trades,” Travis told The Center Square.
Factors Travis identified for the change in sentiment toward skilled trades include high college tuition and the debt that follows, lack of job opportunity upon college graduation, as well as an improved perception of technical skills and good pay in the field.
“We have to normalize pursuing a skilled trade as a first choice not a last resort,” Travis told The Center Square when asked how young people could be encouraged to pursue skilled careers.
