Editor’s Note: The program at the College of St. Joseph the Worker is six years long and the school is not part of Franciscan University. The article has been updated to reflect this.
CV NEWS FEED // In a recent interview with FOX News, TV host and skilled trades advocate Mike Rowe called Generation Z “the next toolbelt generation,” emphasizing that many young people are choosing blue collar careers over bankruptcy from student loans.
This characterization was originated from a Wall Street Journal article published April 1.
The National Student Clearing House noted an increase in enrollment into trade schools has risen from 16%, the highest it has been since 2018, as cited in the Journal article. There was also a 23% increase in students seeking construction jobs after high school.
Mike Rowe, the former host of “Dirty Jobs” and “How America Works,” stated that while he is not doing a victory lap, the numbers are very promising for the future of the trade industry in America.
It is most likely, Rowe speculated, that the rise in numbers is a consequence of the growing economic crisis in America.
“They’re seeing $94,000 a year at Tufts. They’re seeing all of the craziness… Brown and Dartmouth and Harvard. They’re seeing a $52 billion endowment at Harvard. They’re seeing all the craziness that’s constantly in the headlines,” Rowe said.
“And they’re just saying, ‘Look, why do I want to start a career in a major I haven’t even declared yet and go that far into debt to pursue a job that probably doesn’t even exist, when we got 10,000 other jobs over here… that don’t require a four-year degree?’” he added.
To many, the massive amounts of debt that can be incurred, and the amount of time and energy that go into a college education are less than incentivizing in an economy where it can cost up to $12 for a carton of eggs.
Rowe also noted that while people were concerned about technology replacing the blue collar worker, with the dawn of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, it seems more likely that it will replace the white collar worker instead.
“Look, plumbers are not going to be outsourced.” Rowe stated:
Electricians, steam fitters, pipe fitters, the people my foundation tries to assist — they have a level of job security that the article in the Journal is referencing, and it’s a big deal, because those jobs have always been here for the last 20 years, as long as I’ve been doing this, they’ve been open, and it’s starting to tip where we’re literally turning a tanker around with regard to perceptions.
>> AFFORDABLE CATHOLIC TRADE SCHOOLS FLOURISH <<
The revitalization of the trades was featured in a recent episode of the LOOPcast. Tom McClusky, Tom Pogasic, and Joshua Mercer discussed the stigmas behind going to college and the resurgence of the trades, especially in the Catholic world.
“It seems like the trades offer what colleges used to promise with a high-paying job right after you get out of college,” Pogasic stated.
The new College of St. Joseph the Worker, located in Steubenville, OH, is offering young men the opportunity to become self-made men within a Catholic community. There is dignity in working with your hands, and this new program upholds and promotes that dignity.
“It offers opportunities for men to learn the trades and also learn great wisdom of the Church, the liberal arts, in a way that you can graduate in six years and not have a debt the size of a mortgage of a house – without having a house!” Mercer stated.
>> EXCLUSIVE CV INTERVIEW WITH CATHOLIC TRADE SCHOOL FOUNDER <<
