The following blog post highlights Jack Hope’s recent appearance on Pete the Planner’s radio show.
Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Jack Hope and I own Hope Plumbing in Indianapolis, Indiana. I want to speak briefly about education, the economy, and skilled tradesperson. While I acknowledge that my education has helped to make me who I am, I would like to challenge the notion that everyone should go to college.
With the help of two loving parents, I graduated from a private high school in Indianapolis and went on to pursue an undergraduate degree from Indiana University, which was also paid for by my parents. From there, I earned my Masters’s degree, also from IU, in Philosophy with a Special Concentration in Bioethics. During this time, I became the Philosophy Department’s teaching assistant, which allowed me to design and teach my courses. As a result, in addition to receiving a small stipend, my tuition was also paid for.
I have subsequently gone on to instruct philosophy and ethics courses at two prominent educational institutions, and now, I currently own a successful plumbing business in Indianapolis.
I want you to ask yourself a set of questions. How many college-educated people do you know that work in a job that requires substantially less education? How many college-educated people do you know that can’t find jobs at all? How many people do you know who do not work in a field from which their degree came? How many college-educated people do you know that can’t afford their student loan payments? If you are at all like me, you know plenty.
As noted in a recent Business Insider article, “the pool of college graduates is growing more than twice as fast as the pool of jobs requiring a college degree.”
Now, ask yourself another set of questions.
How many skilled tradespeople do you know that work in a job that requires substantially less education?
How many skilled tradespeople do you know that can’t find jobs at all?
How many skilled tradespeople do you know who do not work in a field from which their degree came?
How many skilled tradespeople do you know that cannot afford their student loans?
If you are at all like me, you do not know any. But for many of you, sadly, that may be because you just do not know any tradespeople.
If you don’t know a skilled tradesperson or what it means to be one, I will tell you. A skilled tradesperson is simply a person who works in a skilled trade. Licensed plumbers, electricians, mechanics, insulators, and drywall installers are all great examples of skilled tradespeople. A skilled tradesperson typically spends time, following high school, in an apprenticeship program and when it is complete, earns a license in his or her trade.
People need jobs. People need jobs that allow them to pay the bills, have a little fun, and save some money for later. This can be hard to do if you have $8,000 in student loan payments each year and a job that pays $38,000 per year.
So, what do we do? We need to again start telling people that it is okay (and even admirable) to get their hands dirty. Manual labor is not evil.
Have you ever considered that most people in the United States can no longer fix anything?
How many people do you know that can repair their toilet, change the oil in their car, or even simply change a tire?
What happened to teach young people how to fix stuff?
We have long been a nation that prides itself on hard work. Put down the iPad and help your kids take something apart. If we want people to find jobs, let us figure out how to get people the skills needed for the jobs that exist today, and 5 or 10 years down the road.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, plumbing is one of the fastest-growing jobs in this country. The plumbing field is expected to grow 26% from 2010-2020 – this growth is expected across the country. That means that the reported 419,900 jobs back in 2010 will multiply into more than 500,000 jobs by 2020.
“The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”
– John W. Gardner
Every time I talk to someone about plumbing, they comment on how gross it must be and every time I reply, “that is why they pay us the big bucks.” People, of course, think I am kidding, but the average starting salary for a licensed plumber in our shop is $55,000 per year with full health benefits, life insurance, a paid cell phone, a take-home vehicle, and matched retirement savings. The more experienced plumbers and technicians will earn more than $75,000. While that may not be big bucks for some of your big shots, a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers finds that just three liberal arts majors had average starting salaries that topped $40,000 in 2012. The average cost of tuition for a college degree from a private college is about $127,000 and the average cost of tuition for a degree from a public college is about $37,800. On the other hand, the average cost of a (4) year apprenticeship program for a plumber in Indiana is $5,800 and an employer will often cover those costs for a good employee. We require all of our technicians to attend the apprenticeship program and those costs are covered in full.
What Hope Plumbing needs, and what the economy needs, is large amounts of skilled tradespeople that are ready to go to work. Please don’t get me wrong, I think that a Liberal Arts degree can be fantastic for the right person, but I challenge the notion that everyone needs a bachelor’s degree. One of the largest problems that Hope Plumbing has (as well as most other skilled trades businesses) has, boils down to finding qualified tradespeople.
“‘Right now, American manufacturing is struggling to fill 200,000 vacant positions. There are 450,000 openings in trades, transportation, and utilities. The Skills Gap is real, and it’s getting wider. In Alabama, a third of all skilled tradesmen are over 55. They’re retiring fast, and no one is there to replace them.”
– Mike Rowe
Here is Mike Rowe speaking to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on the need for a change in the mindset of government to promote more skilled trades as the desired professions to save our economy, rather than continuing the current trend of being exclusive to support jobs that require a four-year degree or more.
Watch the video of Mike Rowe here
Find me a person who is willing to work hard, get their hands dirty, and learn something new and I will find them a job. Find me a person with little to no experience, massive amounts of personality, and a Liberal Arts degree and I will have an engaging conversation with them about the “original position” most recently espoused by John Rawls in Justice as Fairness and the irony of mentioning it here.
Stop being lazy, get over yourself, back away from the computer screen, pick up a hammer, and learn how to build something.
Jack Hope
