What’s It Take To Be An HVAC Technician?
HVAC jobs entail much responsibility. HVAC is common industry shorthand for Heating-Ventilating-Air Conditioning. Sometimes you’ll see the acronym as HVAC/R, the R standing for Refrigeration. Refrigeration is quite similar to Air Conditioning in technology and training, so for the sake of simplicity I’ll refer to HVAC with the understanding that it also encompasses refrigeration. […]
What’s It Take To Be A Plumber?
Plumbers protect the health of our nation. The plumbing trade is worth exploring by anyone interested in a job that will never become obsolete or be outsourced to another country. A favorite slogan of the plumbing trade is: “Plumbers protect the health of our nation.” In a very real sense that is true. Plumbers […]
How To Recognize A Good Apprenticeship Program
Is it really training or just cheap labor? In choosing an apprenticeship program, you have some basic decisions to make. Do you wish to pursue union employment or nonunion? Are you more intrigued by construction or service work? Most union-run apprenticeship programs are renowned for stressing top-notch craftsmanship. However, some may be hard to […]
Apprenticeship In The Service Trades
Most formal apprenticeship programs neglect service work. In my last article I described traditional apprenticeship programs established by contractors, unions and nonunion companies for the construction trades. Some of the plumbers, electricians and HVAC technicians who fix and maintain those systems in your home may have learned their trade through these apprenticeship programs, but […]
What Is Apprenticeship?
It combines classroom instruction with hands-on work. Apprenticeship dates back to the Middle Ages in Europe as a way for master craftsmen to pass on their knowledge and techniques to younger generations. The craftsman would employ one or more young people at minimal wages in exchange for teaching them the craft. Typically apprentices would […]
Interns Vs. Apprentices
Working for free is unheard of in the trades. You may have thought that the Emancipation Proclamation did away with slave labor in this country, but it persists in many office buildings around the country. That’s where thousands of college students spend their summers or evening hours fetching coffee, shuffling papers and doing other […]
Can you afford college and a home?
Student loan payments quash home ownership Homeownership among young Americans has hit the lowest level on record, according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s probably not a coincidence that this coincides with burgeoning student debt. College graduates with student loans owe an average of $33,000, up by almost a third since 2007. The aggregate […]
Academic vs. vocational education
A well-rounded person needs both. I feel blessed to have graduated (class of 1965) from one of the best public high schools in the country — Lane Technical in Chicago. Then as now, Lane Tech ranked among national leaders in graduation and college admission rates. Lane graduates get accepted into the most prestigious universities […]
You can tattoo yourself out of a job
Every generation freaks out its parents! Back in the Roaring Twenties most older folks couldn’t understand their children’s fascination with a new style of music known as jazz – “the devil’s music,” as it was widely called. Those children grew up to be just as shocked when an even more raucous beat came about […]
Trade workers must be drug free
Legal or not, you’ll have to choose between a career and getting high. We live in a society in which use of marijuana and other illegal drugs is widespread. One recent survey showed that about one out of 11 Americans uses illicit drugs regularly. Another says that 38% have tried marijuana at some point. […]