Collins - Skilled trade professionals: a practical career guide

Eric Evitts has been working with teens in the high school setting for twenty-three years. Most of his career has dealt with getting teens, especially at-risk students, to find and follow a career path of interest. He has developed curriculum for Frederick County Public Schools focusing on anti-bullying and career development. He is currently a counselor at South Hagerstown High School.

Danielle Irving-Johnson , MA, EdS, is currently the career services specialist at the American Counseling Association. She exercises her specialty in career counseling by providing career guidance, services, and resources designed to encourage and assist students and professionals in obtaining their educational, employment, and career goals while also promoting the importance of self-care, wellness, work-life balance and burnout prevention. Danielle has also previously served as a mental health counselor and clinical intake assessor in community agency settings assisting diverse populations with various diagnoses.

Joyce Rhine Shull , BS, MS, is an active member of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges Career Affinity Group and the Maryland Career Development Association. She presently serves as an academic adviser in higher education, and teaches Professionalism in the Workplace as an adjunct professor. Her experience also includes two decades of management and career education of vocational courses and seminars for high school students.

Lisa Adams Somerlot is the president of the American College Counseling Association and also serves as director of counseling at the University of West Georgia. She has a PhD in counselor education from Auburn University and is a licensed professional counselor in Georgia and is a nationally approved clinical supervisor. She is certified in Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Strong Interest Inventory, and in Strengths Quest administration.

PRACTICAL CAREER GUIDES
Series Editor: Kezia Endsley

Dental Assistants and Hygienists , by Kezia Endsley
Education Professionals , by Kezia Endsley
Health and Fitness Professionals , by Kezia Endsley
Medical Office Professionals , by Marcia Santore
Skilled Trade Professionals , by Corbin Collins

Published by Rowman & Littlefield
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
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Copyright 2019 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Collins, Corbin, author.

Title: Skilled trade professionals : a practical career guide / Corbin Collins.

Description: Lanham, MD : Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., [2019] | Series: Practical career guides | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018058282 (print) | LCCN 2019011488 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538111802 (electronic) | ISBN 9781538111796 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Vocational guidance. | Job hunting. | Commerce.

Classification: LCC HF5381 (ebook) | LCC HF5381 .C684295 2019 (print) | DDC 650.14dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018058282

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

W elcome to the skilled trades! Youve come to the right book to find out more about these popular and fulfilling careers.

Lots of different kinds of jobs are available in the skilled tradeshundreds of them, in fact. The employment website

Theres not nearly enough room in this book to cover all the kinds of jobs that fall under the category of skilled trades, so instead the focus here is on five of the more popular and widely available types of jobs:

Electrician

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technician

Plumber

Construction worker

Automotive service technician/mechanic

These jobs are widely available pretty much all over the country. They pay pretty well, too, considering they dont require a four-year college degree. And there are currently shortages of workers for these jobs, which means that right now there are more open positions available for these jobs than there are people applying for them. Thats good news for anyone looking to enter one of these professions. The foreseeable future looks bright for these jobs as well, as youll see.

How does the job market look for young people seeking to enter the skilled trades? Very good. Demand for workers in the skilled trades is high and likely to only increase in the foreseeable future. According to Forbes magazine, employers are finding it even harder to fill positions in the skilled trades than in the famously in-demand fields of nursing and web development.

There are a couple of reasons why the demand for skilled trade professionals is likely to grow in the future. First, over the past few decades the emphasis in American education has been on preparing students to attend college or university in order to gain access to higher-paying jobs, rather than on steering students toward vocational schools (sometimes called technical schools or career colleges), where they learn the skills necessary for many jobs in the skilled trades. This emphasis on college academics over the years has led to fewer young people entering the skilled trades.

Second, the average age of workers currently in the skilled trades is older than it is for the working population as a whole. People in these professions also retire earlier than the average worker because jobs in the skilled trades tend to be very demanding in terms of the physical work required. Workers in the skilled trades often leave their careers earlier at a younger age because they cant keep up physically, which means that more workers leave the job market every year than is typical in most other fields. Combined, these factors have created a very strong demand for new workers in the skilled trades, and that doesnt seem likely to change anytime soon.

The current shortage of skilled trade professionals in the job market today combined with the likelihood that the demand will only increase means wages in the skilled trades are set to go up as well. After all, economics tells us that low supply and high demand in a job market puts upward pressure on wages because companies must pay more in order to find good workers, which are relatively scarce. Because of this, now is a very good time to consider beginning a career in the skilled trades.

The best part of the job: Instant gratification, being able to stand back at the end of the day/end of the project and see the progress you made.Tom Moser, owner/operator of Mosers Painting