An article in the Calgary Herald discusses the upcoming WorldSkills Competition and the contribution of its chairman, Guy Mallabone. Mallabone says, “There are a lot of young people out there who like to work with their hands or in the arts.” The event, with a budget of $55 million (Canadian) is hosted in part by SAIT Polytechnic, of which Mallabone is vice-president of external relations.

Mallabone is passionate about the skilled trades and about the need to change some societal perceptions so that young people in the skilled trades do not “feel like they’re second class.”

Mallabone tells a personal story: “In my daughter’s Grade 9 class, the school pulled together the parents and the principal spoke to us. She spoke about considering a career after high school and to carefully choose your courses. And she said, ‘As you prepare for your university journey’ and I stood up and said, ‘Do you mean post-secondary journey?’ and she was embarrassed and said, ‘of course,’ but the word being used was university. Our society can’t sustain that elitist outlook.”

You can read more about Mallabone and WorldSkills Calgary.

The ontatio ombudsman reports tha apprenticeship programs in that province have a low completion rate.

read more.

Is it a better guarantee of success if people go to trade school?

A couple recent stories highlight how trade schools offer hope to people, perhaps especially at “times like these.”

The Food Netword reality show “The Chef Jeff Project” recently featured former crack dealer Alonzo Adams. Adams won a scholarship to the International Culinary School, after completing the show. Chef Jeff himself did time, ten years for various drug offences. After his feature, Chef Jeff chronicled Henderson’s attempts to go back to East LA and transform the lives of young adults through his newfound Los Angeles-based catering company. The full story is here. Find out more about cooking and culinary schools.

Meanwhile, a Tallahassee Florida program is providing the opportunity for recently laid off workers to return to school for trades training. Read more here.

Nice blog entry.

Honestly I mean that!

A trade school in Chicago (not represented on Trade School World) is being investigated for misleading students “about job placement and hands-on experience.”

the story is here.

Tough times call for tough people to make tough decisions - such as taking on a second career. Or maybe pursuing the one you always wanted. So says CNN.

So this is the time of year when high school seniors and their parents are filling out applications for colleges and universities. So my question to everyone of them is, how are you going to afford it? Seriously? I know that I was once a young kid applying for university because I thought - as everyone told me - that university was the place to go. University was your ticket to an easier, better life. Well, it has been - but it was not a cheap ticket and it was probably not the only way to get there.

Granted, I chose Arts and that’s always a hard sell. But even if you choose one of the more ‘practical’ tracks such as engineering or computer science, these still don’t teach you much if any in the way of hands-on knowledge. Universities continue to focus on theory and continue to say things like “we teach people to think.” Fortunately, I eventually wound up at a university that had some co-op courses but even after that I had to work - and I’ll admit, worry - my a** off to acquire marketable skills in things like web code (html, php, etc.), search marketing and otehr more practical skills.

In these days, it’s an increasingly viable choice to choose trade school. Why? Not because trades are anything new, certainly. Precisely the opposite. Many, many people are choosing sexier careers in new fields like technology and computer related fields but trades are tried and true. Are we going to stop using plumbing any time soon? Stop needing new houses or fixes to old ones?

Trade schools still cost money but the money is a much shorter term, smaller commitment - and they are simply not as big a risk. Because fewer people are going into them, the demand and shortage of workers is well documented.

If you are one of those people who has skills that could lead to university or trade school and you are not sure which career track to pick, I know which one I’d pick. And I’m not sure which one I’d pick if I had the choice to do over again, either. Paying off those wicked ‘higher education” loans and taking so freaking long to break into a career that actually works for me and in which I can actually make a good living took too long and was too much of an uphill climb compared to people I know who jumped into their own business three years out of high school.

Got a choice? Choose a trade, I would say. It may be ‘practical’ in more ways than one.

The deadline for applications is December 1st.

Find out more.

Well, we at the trade up have to link when Mike Holmes gives our local trade school /community college a passing grade. Read more.

We’re building a library of links to portraits of women in the skilled trades. Here’s the Michigan Citizen’s portrait of Erin.