Trades Talk – March 2024

“Explore The Trades Skills Lab, Built by Ferguson” Applications Due This Month! Bring the plumbing or HVAC trade to YOUR school! Explore The Trades and Ferguson have partnered to bring the plumbing and HVAC trades back into classrooms across the country. Funding is available for

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5 Key Ways Tech Is Revolutionizing Trade Education

In today’s rapidly evolving world, technology plays a pivotal role in reshaping trade education, making it more accessible, engaging, and effective than ever before. You can also get yourself EPA Certified online whenever you want. How crazy is that? Here’s a concise overview of how

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What I Learned From Shop Class

I want to revisit a blog I wrote six years ago for this website. (Click here to read that article.) A key passage went as follows: “Even though I was a klutz mechanically, the mandatory shop classes taught me to handle tools better than I

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JJM Alkaline Technologies® Partners with Explore The Trades

– By JJM Alkaline Technologies and Explore The Trades Explore The Trades is pleased to partner with JJM Alkaline Technologies®, a leading designer and manufacturer of condensate neutralizers, as an Apprentice Level sponsor in 2024. Through this sponsorship, JJM® will support Explore The Trades’ mission

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How To Sell Yourself

You may not think of yourself this way, but no matter what you do for a living, at various times you will have to be a salesperson. You may or may not ever be charged with selling products or services, but at the very least

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Trades Talk – February 2024

February 2024 “Explore The Trades Skills Lab, Built by Ferguson” Webinar Join Explore The Trades for a Skills Lab webinar on Wednesday, February 28th from 3-4 PM CST. Participants will have the chance to ask questions, learn about the initiative, and hear from current Skills

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Trades Talk – January 2024

January 2024 Happy New Year from Explore The Trades! Thank you to all our generous donors who supported our mission in 2023! You help us make a difference and bridge the technical talent gap to the trades of plumbing, heating, cooling, and electrical. Learn more

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College vs. Trades: Why Not Both?

Some of you may be debating about whether to go to college or embark on a trade career. In fact, it is not an either-or proposition. It’s not unheard of for college students or even graduates to find out they like working with tools better

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College Gets More Thumbs Down

It skipped my attention for a while, but I recently became aware of a Gallup survey published last July that showed only a little more than a third of Americans expressed confidence in the value of a college education. As recently as 2015, 57% of

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