[Azure]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

We do have some, but it isn't enough.

At almost every career fair at a Calgary school, there is someone there from "Careers: the Next Generation" / RAP program (registered apprenticeship program). I know they also present in CALM classes as well. They also help high schoolers find trade work experience practicums and get them set up with Journeymen in the field. CBE and CCSD have it on their websites as well.

While I agree with the premise that they are woefully under represented in schools, it does exist as an option. I know Careers TNG is a one or two person show and they are stretched very thin.

I am talking about more than that though. The companies themselves should be actively recruiting in high schools, and students should be able to focus on a trades degree as early as grade 10 or even younger. If they want to switch later on it should be no problem doing so.

Here is an article that does a good job explaining it.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business...orkers/381550/

The U.S. has its own tradition of apprenticeship going back many years. But like most kinds of vocational education, it fell out of fashion in recent decades—a victim of our obsession with college and concern to avoid anything that resembles tracking. Today in America, fewer than 5 percent of young people train as apprentices, the overwhelming majority in the construction trades. In Germany, the number is closer to 60 percent—in fields as diverse as advanced manufacturing, IT, banking, and hospitality. And in Europe, what’s often called “dual training” is a highly respected career path.

The final obstacle is arguably the biggest: American attitudes toward practical skills and what Germans still unabashedly call “blue-collar” work. Attitudes are changing in Germany too. Globalization has brought the bachelor’s degree, unknown until recently, and with it, a new, broader interest in attending college. But there’s little sign that the growth in BAs is undermining apprenticeships. And in both settings, university and dual training, it’s agreed that the purpose of education is to prepare people for jobs. In America, we’re not sure. We’re committed to the idea of education that prepares people for life and suspicious of anything that smacks of training.

Our entire education system is a royal mess. And as a result our society is as well.

Cliff, this is also why people have a problem with the establishment. Because while they have 'jobs' (unemployment is pretty low) the jobs aren't exactly helping them advance in society and as a result they have a problem with a society that treats them that way. If we spent more time getting people into jobs and a career where they actively feel worthwhile, the view towards the establishment and corporate culture would change a lot.