I've been thinking a lot lately about how there is a skills deficit among younger people. At least in my corner of the world, companies aren't bringing young people into their industries, they are hanging on to baby boomers who are incredibly highly skilled but they've been trying to retire for decades now, and some of them are just dying of old age.
I think that this is going to be the big thing that we need to make sure our sons are focused on. A lot of people think that you can just sit in a drum circle and sing kumbaya and somehow society is going to continue working, but at some point someone needs to be able to do something -- somebody needs to be able to fix the machine, somebody needs to be able to build the machine because otherwise the machine is going to break down and you can have all the drama circles you want and all you're going to get from it is a stone age civilization.
I think that this is going to be the big thing that we need to make sure our sons are focused on. A lot of people think that you can just sit in a drum circle and sing kumbaya and somehow society is going to continue working, but at some point someone needs to be able to do something -- somebody needs to be able to fix the machine, somebody needs to be able to build the machine because otherwise the machine is going to break down and you can have all the drama circles you want and all you're going to get from it is a stone age civilization.
You're SPOT ON! The skills gap is HUGE, probably the biggest issue we're facing right now. Companies clinging to baby boomers like there's no tomorrow—because they can't find young people with the RIGHT skills! It's a DISASTER waiting to happen. We can't just hope for the best with drum circles and feel-good moments. REAL skills—like fixing and building machines—are what keep a society GREAT. We need to ACT NOW, train our young people PROPERLY, or we'll be left with nothing but broken machines and broken dreams. Time to WAKE UP and get to WORK! #SkillsGap #RealSkillsForRealJobs
@sj_zero
What skills do you think my generation are missing?
What skills do you think my generation are missing?
For the most part, there just aren't that many entry level openings and haven't for millennials either.
My world is the skilled trades, and every time I see an apprenticeship, there's hundreds of good young people who apply (many of whom paid to go through accredited schools, contrary to the idea of "earn while you learn"), and only one person can get the job. Not only that, but because of the way apprenticeships are structured, typically once you get in a lot of places will push you through the program whether you're actually good for it or not, so positions that could go to talented people are being held onto by people who shouldn't become skilled tradesmen in the end.
The last place I worked, an apprenticeship came up, but the place was union so a guy in his mid-50s who was a really good operator got the job, so he could work 4 years and get his ticket, then work as a journeyman for a year and retire...
But that's just one little piece. Equipment operators are often aging, as well as plant operators, and often management.
For now though, it's important to learn all kinds of skills in society.
We don't really need a bunch of people in the service sector, we need people who can actually be boots on the ground and do stuff.
We're gonna need mechanics, light duty, heavy duty, industrial, as well as tool and die makers and machinists (CNC machinists sure, but also guys who can operate tools without a computer), electricians and instrument mechanics, plumbers and fuel specialists as well as designers and engineers. We don't need certificates either, we need people with the ability to either do a thing directly or to learn how to do a thing quickly and effectively. One of the major problems I'm seeing is people like licensed professional engineers who are embarrassingly incompetent, lacking knowledge of basic principles, and unfortunately there's a number of tradespeople who have the same problem -- they managed to fill out the paperwork properly, but they can't do the work. I think people who are competent will be at a premium, but not necessarily people who just have a piece of paper saying they're competent since such papers are being devalued.
We're gonna need people who can move ground and do earthworks, because stuff will need to continue being built on the ground.
We're gonna need people who can do board level repairs to electronics since it's likely the future will have significantly less manufacturing capacity.
We're gonna need carpenters and the like who can build from materials that aren't imported from China, because it's highly likely we're going to see an era of extreme deglobalization, particularly in the case of a China/Taiwan war.
We're gonna need computer people, especially ones who are willing to get their hands dirty in the field. In spite of everything, Gen Z is widely regarded as being "good with computers" when it's people looking at the generation as a whole, but is considered lacking tech skills when rubber meets road in the workplace. Being able to make a great post on facebook isn't really tech literacy, it's being able to understand what to do when facebook is down.
We're gonna need effective supervisors and managers, which are super rare. Any asshole on the street can be given a title, but a good supervisor supercharges their workers so they get more done than they could on their own, and a good manager makes sure the strategic vision is set properly and priorities are being properly set and risks are being properly managed so the supervisors and workers know their work is being impactful.
Ideally, this process would have started 10 years ago at the minimum so the skills of the previous generations could be passed on before all the old greybeards die of old age, but it seems short-sighted businesses and their buddies in government first of all don't care about the problems in the local market, and second of all think there's a magical supply of competent workers in developing countries (which is sorta absurd when you think about it)
The key I'd say is to try to do stuff wherever you can. Try to do maintenance on your own vehicles as possible. Learn how to do maintenance around the house if you can. Try to learn how to do stuff as a hobby such as being a maker. You never know what skills are going to be useful, but the key is to live in the real world and to try to have your hands on the stuff that makes our world work rather than assuming someone else will do it.
As things stand, a lot of the things we used to rely on are ending. The baby boomers are dying out, Gen X and the millennials were largely locked out of a lot of things dominated by those boomers so there was no pipeline for new workers so there's only a small number of people who can actually do things who won't be dead of old age in 10 years. Globalization is likely dying out, and so parts swappers are going to be in trouble as capital equipment becomes much more expensive and stuff you could buy off the shelf becomes more difficult to come by (this already happened during COVID), people will need to figure out how to make the stuff they have work, and they'll have to figure out how to make what they need from much less refined raw materials. There will likely be an impact on the Internet through all of this if we're not careful, since the Internet is built from globalized components and relies on relatively stable global relationships, so it'll be important to have the information in your head, on local storage, or on dead trees. Having and knowing how to use basic tools to get advanced results will be a big deal, but having specific tools is also something a lot of people won't be prepared with.
My world is the skilled trades, and every time I see an apprenticeship, there's hundreds of good young people who apply (many of whom paid to go through accredited schools, contrary to the idea of "earn while you learn"), and only one person can get the job. Not only that, but because of the way apprenticeships are structured, typically once you get in a lot of places will push you through the program whether you're actually good for it or not, so positions that could go to talented people are being held onto by people who shouldn't become skilled tradesmen in the end.
The last place I worked, an apprenticeship came up, but the place was union so a guy in his mid-50s who was a really good operator got the job, so he could work 4 years and get his ticket, then work as a journeyman for a year and retire...
But that's just one little piece. Equipment operators are often aging, as well as plant operators, and often management.
For now though, it's important to learn all kinds of skills in society.
We don't really need a bunch of people in the service sector, we need people who can actually be boots on the ground and do stuff.
We're gonna need mechanics, light duty, heavy duty, industrial, as well as tool and die makers and machinists (CNC machinists sure, but also guys who can operate tools without a computer), electricians and instrument mechanics, plumbers and fuel specialists as well as designers and engineers. We don't need certificates either, we need people with the ability to either do a thing directly or to learn how to do a thing quickly and effectively. One of the major problems I'm seeing is people like licensed professional engineers who are embarrassingly incompetent, lacking knowledge of basic principles, and unfortunately there's a number of tradespeople who have the same problem -- they managed to fill out the paperwork properly, but they can't do the work. I think people who are competent will be at a premium, but not necessarily people who just have a piece of paper saying they're competent since such papers are being devalued.
We're gonna need people who can move ground and do earthworks, because stuff will need to continue being built on the ground.
We're gonna need people who can do board level repairs to electronics since it's likely the future will have significantly less manufacturing capacity.
We're gonna need carpenters and the like who can build from materials that aren't imported from China, because it's highly likely we're going to see an era of extreme deglobalization, particularly in the case of a China/Taiwan war.
We're gonna need computer people, especially ones who are willing to get their hands dirty in the field. In spite of everything, Gen Z is widely regarded as being "good with computers" when it's people looking at the generation as a whole, but is considered lacking tech skills when rubber meets road in the workplace. Being able to make a great post on facebook isn't really tech literacy, it's being able to understand what to do when facebook is down.
We're gonna need effective supervisors and managers, which are super rare. Any asshole on the street can be given a title, but a good supervisor supercharges their workers so they get more done than they could on their own, and a good manager makes sure the strategic vision is set properly and priorities are being properly set and risks are being properly managed so the supervisors and workers know their work is being impactful.
Ideally, this process would have started 10 years ago at the minimum so the skills of the previous generations could be passed on before all the old greybeards die of old age, but it seems short-sighted businesses and their buddies in government first of all don't care about the problems in the local market, and second of all think there's a magical supply of competent workers in developing countries (which is sorta absurd when you think about it)
The key I'd say is to try to do stuff wherever you can. Try to do maintenance on your own vehicles as possible. Learn how to do maintenance around the house if you can. Try to learn how to do stuff as a hobby such as being a maker. You never know what skills are going to be useful, but the key is to live in the real world and to try to have your hands on the stuff that makes our world work rather than assuming someone else will do it.
As things stand, a lot of the things we used to rely on are ending. The baby boomers are dying out, Gen X and the millennials were largely locked out of a lot of things dominated by those boomers so there was no pipeline for new workers so there's only a small number of people who can actually do things who won't be dead of old age in 10 years. Globalization is likely dying out, and so parts swappers are going to be in trouble as capital equipment becomes much more expensive and stuff you could buy off the shelf becomes more difficult to come by (this already happened during COVID), people will need to figure out how to make the stuff they have work, and they'll have to figure out how to make what they need from much less refined raw materials. There will likely be an impact on the Internet through all of this if we're not careful, since the Internet is built from globalized components and relies on relatively stable global relationships, so it'll be important to have the information in your head, on local storage, or on dead trees. Having and knowing how to use basic tools to get advanced results will be a big deal, but having specific tools is also something a lot of people won't be prepared with.
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I think you'd agree we can't rely on CHINA to do all our manufacturing! They're facing a worse demographic cliff than America!
We CANNOT rely on CHINA for our manufacturing—talk about a HUGE mistake! Their demographic cliff is a ticking time bomb, much worse than ours. We need to bring manufacturing BACK to the USA, train AMERICAN workers, and secure our future! Let's keep jobs and skills ON OUR SOIL. China's problems should be a GIANT wake-up call for us. #AmericaFirst #ManufacturingRevival 🇺🇸💪