Why are we seeing a decrease in younger people wanting to learn skilled trades such as HVAC, Welding...

Why are we seeing a decrease in younger people wanting to learn skilled trades such as HVAC, Welding, Automotive Mechanics, and Plumbing?

Cause everyone shits on them as dumb poor rednecks who never went to university .
This is a stem board but most of you couldn't change a car tire. So intelligent.... Engineering and science and shit. Can't fix a simple engine

Plus the pay is shit. The hours are long and the work is hard.
Fell for the welder meme. Mostnive made is 19.79 CDN in a union shop.
25k a year after taxes.
Wow.......
Wish I made 200k in an office writing code

Dunno about your shitholes, but in Germoney any skilled plumber gets 500-800 euro for literally 15 minutes of work. Still, this job is not very entertaining.

You needed to start working for a bigger shoo then. I made 42/hr doing mig and tig welding for a truck company. I had to get out of it though because it was starting to be terrible for my health.
Health comes first, then pay.
My back feels much better after I stopped doing that job.

Otherwise you're spot on. People shit on trades because it's not after going to some prestigious university.

The best part though? The course was $1000 to start the apprenticeship and I never had to take out a student loan. I laugh at the retards who owe $10000+

i make higher than avg pay, but sit at a desk all day long. i would love to be in the trades, but couldn't afford my mortgage.

Hollywood pushing the college meme hard.

Because you've got to go to uni to be successful! Or at least that's what all my old friends told me!

Jokes on them, I walked into a Prada store where my school sweetheart of ages 12-22 works.

She broke up with me for my best mate, because all her friends told her I'm never going to get anywhere in life by not going to uni. I only went in there for a present for my mum, but decided to spend 4 grand, right infront of her eyes, then asked her co worker if I could take her out for lunch. So I took her out for lunch and our waiter comes over to take our order
>My best 'friend' in school now works as a waiter in Ben and jerrys after spending 30 grand on a degree in sociology

I'm 26 years old and a fully qualified gas engineer and have my own business earning 90k a year

She inboxed me that night

'user, I still think about you a lot, ius breaking up was the worst mistake' blah blah blah

And those words stab me like knifes. Women have the ability to break men, like literally break them

All the welders I work with make $34/hour + $70 per diem

Welder here. Don't fall for the Mike Rowe hype train. It's mostly bullshit. In real life, most skilled trades jobs want Leonardo fucking DaVinci for wages that only look good compared to fast food or retail. Now I'm waiting to hear back from a union that actually pays well. But even this route means you have to sacrifice every other aspect of your personal life and health. And most people won't even get this opportunity, because my high spot on the apprentice list has a lot to do with being at the right place at the right time with a very hard to get certification.

If the trades are your only choice, heed my advice. Don't do welding, machining, or carpentry. You'll be better off as an electrician, plumber, or HVAC.

Boy I wish I had done HVAC instead of college

We aren't. It's another shitty globalist meme to justify hiring more foreigners for cheap labor. They did the exact same thing to STEM.

>HVAC
like I want to lament my indoor air circulation problems any more than I already do

Oh yeah, I forgot to add:

Young people are going to trade schools en masse. Not as much as college, obviously, but still enough that there already aren't enough jobs to go around. Nobody wants to train, but nobody wants to pay what an experienced tradesman is worth.

Then (((THEY))) whine to the MSM about how they can't find anyone to fill all these great jobs. Gee, I wonder why someone with 10+ years of experience isn't going to travel across the country for a $15/hr job.

Does welding do long term damage to your sight, even with proper protection? I'm thinking about getting into it, but I worry it can be really bad for your sight once you get older.

because it's haaaaaaard and not as glamorous as designing apps and shit

Well fuck. Wish I was an American.
I really do.

White collar jobs are still pushed as being "successful." Actually breaking a sweat is an abominably to a lot of young folks.

see:
what's the catch?

using a darker shade will protect your eyes more, but you compromise your visibility on the weld. It isn't uncommon for people on the job to start to lose sharpness in vision after 1 year of working. also fumes, radiation, and other hazards depending on the specific type of welding are risks that can have long term health effects.

t. boiler maker

God bless you user

I worked making custom varmored vehicles for governments.
250K a vehicle.
Oldest guy who been welding 20some years got $21 an hour.
Foreman refused to up my wage $1 from 17
I guess I just work for cheap skates and so does everyone else I know.

Sorry mate but that's a bs story. The kind of bs story that got me welding..
Everyone WORKED , at some magic shop making X amount an hour

Join the boilermakers or fitters, it may be slow out west but they still hire for shutdown season.

Labourers start at around 26 an hour. Journeyman rate is upwards of 46 an hour

How do you like the BM? Are you union? I hear they're a dying breed yet government stats say demand for the profession is supposed to increase.

The catch is that high-paying welding gigs are the exception to the rule. Working in the field, like power plants and refineries, usually pays better than production in a shop.

This is typical.

Not a welder (I'm a millwright) but I've heard some people say that the auto darkening helmets could potentially be bad for your eyes because of the .00001s delay it takes to darken (an estimate, I'm not googling the actual delay time).

Because you actually have to work hard and not be a little pussy?
HVAC fag here

Nearly 50k this year and no high school diploma.

In Netherlands (richer European country) you should be happy with 25k euro a year before taxes. After income tax that's more like 15k. Then you will have mortgage cost, electricity / water, health insurance, possibly other insurances, road tax and food that you need to buy. It's normal to pay 600 to mortgage a month, 100 to insurance, the other forced taxes for just existing (like owning a car or having a house) are also around 100, lets put water + electricity + gas also at 100 a month and food at around 200 for a month.

So now here you have your salary to do something with, something like 400 euro.

I want to, Im just not sure where Id go to learn that.

Im 18
Pls halp me Sup Forums

Where can I become a welder? An auto-mechanic? I have seriously gone my entire life without any of these options being mentioned to me, everything is just "college readiness classes"

Omg really? Even after the giant fire, oil price collapse and 1000s of job cuts?
Cool! I'm packing my shit and heading out west tomorrow.
I know you can't actually refer me to anyone or name a company but I trust you!

Went into machining, but figured it'll die due to automation in few decades so i went to (((college))) for CAD, CNC and all that fancy stuff mostly. Hopefully i didn't fuck up

Because to get make money you have to get 'certified'. Getting that 'certification' costs money and time. Money and time they don't have.

I'm a welder wish I got into mechanics. Most people have a car and nerd it fixed at some point. Decent pay. You can start our own garage easy in the USA.

Google automotive tech schools and find one in your area.

There's no shortage of tradesmen

Go to your local union and ask questions.

Seriously.
They pushed that trade shortage so hard. Most old guys refuse to retire and the new blood just keeps stacking up.
Few people can afford to start their own company.
Need tons of certs that the old asshole who won't retire never needed. They cost money too.

>these power plants, refineries, pipelines etc require mandatory maintenance, inspection and work

Still jobs out here retard, also you can fly in / out to these sites.

Just stay there and rot away at 17 an hour fagget

>work 20-25 weeks a year and pull in 100k
>rest of that time off is unemployment

I went to trade school here in Alberta and upon graduation with the oil crash there's jack shit for jobs unless you have connections, I work some dead end job now and like half the guys I work with have engineering degrees or trade tickets, nobody can get a better job

Should've joined the railroad when I had the chance

You forgot the part where every one of these job postings get literally thousands of resumes

>Now I'm waiting to hear back from a union that actually pays well.
All of the UA trade unions pay a "fair and honest wage for a fair and honest day". So, they do provide a live-able income.

If you have contacted a union hall about clearing in as a Journeyman, you may not hear back UNTIL there is a missed call (i.e. no one else in the local wants to take) before they call you. They also may want to run you through a few years of apprenticeship. Union apprenticeships differ from non-union in quite a few ways.
>If the trades are your only choice, heed my advice. Don't do welding, machining, or carpentry. You'll be better off as an electrician, plumber, or HVAC.

I disagree with your list somewhat, so I will supply mine


Plumbers are shit tier. Being a plumber is a lot like making a declaration that you will fail at life, and that you will strive to continue to fail. There is nothing good about being a plumber aside from the pay.

DO: Pipefitter/Electrician.

DO NOT: Carpentry


I am a journeyman Pipefitter. I certified welder. I am a licensed plumber. I choose when I be a "plumber" and when I choose to work with pipe. In the last decade, I have less than 6 weeks of total "plumbing". I am certified to join so many types of metals it is not even funny.

Be a pipefitter.

Do not be just a Plumber or just a welder. The instant you limit your potential jobs by limiting yourself, you will reduce your income. Pipefitters are god-tier lunatics who make gold out of all the round metal things they touch. They make the impossible possible. They weld, they solder, they braze and they certainly fuck bitches. Not like plumbers......Try picking up pussy when your job involves a snake and a shit covered wad of condoms and hair.

technology. Everyone wants to be programmers now. Unfortunately only like 2% of them become actual good programmers

HVAC for life. I travel and meet people from all over.

What is HVAC training like?

how bad is the A/C in your office?

>I've heard some people say that the auto darkening helmets could potentially be bad for your eyes because of the .00001s delay
I won't use "speed glass" lenses. I know others who do, and most of them "blink" they instant they light up on the metal because of the few milliseconds of time.

What is worse is when you are crammed up in some corner somewhere welding on a piece of pipe, and your goofy arms and elbows block the sensors....than you get a pair of eyeballs full of a good blast. I have never gotten arc flashed, but I hear it is brutal.

Welding, no matter the lens will degrade your vision over time. Also, because it is constantly loud, it can affect hearing.

I don't care for the visual quality of the auto-lens. It looks fuzzy compared to good old tinted glass.

They have their benefits for sure, but I personally don't trust them. I like my old flipdown with the full-face lenses.

I learned on the job, had a kid at 17 and went to work. If you're good and motivated nobody gives a fuck that you never graduated.

Office? Yeah..no...I provide a service to those in an office.
Climate control.
Pic related. It's me. On a roof..cold as fuck...

Can you refer me to someone or a company?
Let me guess, my attitude sucks and your company would never hire me in the first place.

Trips of truth.
Btfo trade shills

>pipefitter meme again
The local UA here cranks out hundreds of apprentices and 90% of the members sit rotting away on a list, never getting work. Absolutely zero chance unless you have insider connections, which I don't.

comfy- any suggestions for gloves that cut both chill and wind without ruining your fine tool manipulation or leaving the cuff/wrist exposed?

I'm looking at some magpull flight gloves, but they're just fancied up leather aviation gloves, so probably not great against constant sub-freezing windchill

The fell for the stem meme

Stay strong user. Great story.

Haha bullshit.

I do HVAC. I'm thinking of going into logistics or manufacturing because I'm autistic.

Silk gloves as a liner under the wool flight gloves works for me. Unfortunately I have to remove my gloves in the cold sometimes to turn fine screws and operate multi-meters.

Apprentice Pipefitter/Welder here.

Go with a respectable high-skill trade: Pipefitting, Millwright, Boilermaker.

Avoid low-skilled trades: Plumber, Ironworker, Piledriver, Machine-Operator

Definitely Avoid no-skill work: Factory, Assembly, Retail, Customer Service.

To answer the original question, young people buy into the 4 year uni meme and often don't even know about the trades or think lowly of them.

Occasionally, my contractor will bring business students through on tour of the building and shop. It's funny to think that when they look down on me as I work that I make more as an apprentice pipefitter than what they will likely ever make.

$31/hour + Health Insurance + Pension + Supplementary Pension + other smaller fringe benefits.

Makes for a wage package akin to about $70/hr.

As a second-year apprentice.

>I'm a welder wish I got into mechanics.
You really don't. It sucks. Your hands are perpetually filthy, your arms will look like a dozen angsty teenage girls went at them with rusty razors, you'll cough up a lovely shade of tar every time you blow your nose, and every day you go to work you're at risk of serious injury or loss of life. I can't even count how many times I saw someone get hurt, nearly maimed, or - one time when a truck slipped on a hoist - almost killed. Also, actually fixing a modern car is frustrating, expensive, and extremely time consuming.

>Most people have a car and nerd it fixed at some point.
Most people can't afford to have their cars fixed properly. Auto manufacturers don't make vehicles that can be repaired easily anymore. Your customers will always complain that it's too expensive (and they're right) and your boss will always complain that you're taking too long (and he's also right, because fixing modern cars requires a ridiculous amount of disassembling them first). Oh and I hope you're better with computers than with a wrench, because that's the job these days.

>Decent pay.
Hah. Only if you manage to get in with a dealership and stick around for a decade. Might as well play the lottery.

>You can start our own garage easy in the USA.
With a small fortune, sure. Fixing cars these days requires millions in gear. A scanner alone (they're basically ruggedized laptops) is several thousand dollars. Alignment racks are tens of thousands. Same with hydraulic lifts, tire mounting machines, and wheel balancers. A shiny rolling toolbox can easily have six figures worth of gear inside.

I was a mechanic for four years and I quit because it's a shitty job that does nothing but murder any sort of passion you might have for cars. The only joy you ever find in your day is taking customers vehicles out for a spin and driving like they're fucking stolen.
If you're at all interested in cars, it's much better to keep it as a hobby.

>layers layers layers
>silk
fuuuck- yes, finally a reason to get shoulder-length olive drab opera gloves and have a smart-ass answer for any faggots who want to ask

HVACanon is Love
HVACanon is Life

Look at the boilermaker companies you lazy fuck

Melloy, Jacobs, kbr, lml, alstom, cessco, etc

Don't be retarded. Gain a special skill within the field of pipefitting and you'll always have work. You'd be surprised how few pipefitters can actually weld.

Dont fall for the trade meme.

I learned to weld and nothing changed, now instead of being unemployed and useless I am unemployed and useless + knowledge of machine I cant afford because I am unemployed and all the weld shops still have meme requirements of 3+ years experience like everything else

Learned welding, taught myself blacksmithing, teaching myself glassblowing, made my own simple woodworking tools. Going to build my own little hovel come the first thaw.

I work a skilled trade

Airline pilot

Can make 300k a year

because acedemics are idiot parrots not intellegent people.

how long do you fucking think it would take to transfer your knowledge of a trade to someone.

don't say 4 years, because that means you are a fucknig faliure

all acedemia is parasiting garbage being spewed by parrots that don't understand it nor care.


they care about people learning the course, not learning the facts.

18 dropout loser here with a GED. what do

I worked in commercial HVAC during college. Mainly on chillers, cooling towers and VAV systems because that's what was popular in the area. Installs, PM and troubleshooting.

I enjoyed the experience and the pay was good but keep in mind a lot of the time you'll be sweating your ass off on a roof top during summer or freezing your balls off outside in winter. Also most machine rooms will make you go deaf.

don't make the mistake of working in the system, become a career criminal, then you can actually make good on that urge to kill your boss some day and show him how somebody with brains can do the job

Exactly what this guy says. Used to be ASE master for dealers, didn't make dick unless you were willing to scam warranty or be extra shady and scam customers then you have to work a shitload of hours to even do it then.

I am a network engineer now, have been for nearly 8 years, much better. Make way more money, not dirty or sweaty all the time and work less.

because they are taught that its work for plebs

If you are smart enough be a Power Engineer.

Great pay, easy job.

Kek

Because liberals associate skilled trades witj being conservative and unintelligent.

Remember, go to university or you're an idiot :^)

thanks user my life is fixed

Went to school to learn welding. Did pretty good at it and my instructors gave recommendations for me at several local big companies. They didn't even call me back because of layoffs in 2016. After several months of begging I went to a temp agency that had me as a 'welder' at a HVAC pipe company. I swung hammers and was the only white guy, made less than I did at Walmart. Quit after a month and went back to retail while I continued to work. Late November I get an interview and passed the weld test (3F FCAW) but was told I was still too green and they weren't interested in training if it came up. Back to my old job as warehouse manager for a retail company.

Get into the marijuana business. It's gonna be the new "gold rush" in the USA once its legalized at the federal level.

I could never get into electrician or plumber so I joined hardwood flooring. Max payout is 20 bucks an hour in Washington state. Fuck that.
I'm in school now for Process Operator. 2 years and hopefully I can make out something decent.

>I'm in school now for Process Operator.
Why not the step up and go right to PE?

Seriously, it's my backup backup plan.

because we actively subsidize majoring in bullshit regardless of how economically useful your major actually is

This user gets it. But the pay is good and the customer knows nothing about what you do. So they believe whatever you say as long as you fix it.

Memes aside, me too user. The way things are now it seems fucking impossible to make an honest decent living.

Gotta do what you gotta do to put food on the table.

I fucked off my early 20s partying and working shitty jobs before I finally learned a skill and became a productive member of society.

Learn a skill. Any skill. Don't be the 40 year old nigger at the dead end job because you became complacent and now you're stuck. If there's no room for growth, get the fuck out.

2 year school is better than 4

I went to a trade school to be an electrician (2 yr degree)and when I graduated I got into industrial maintenance for about 3 years. (18/hr non union)

Really got into industrial controls and building automation through that time. Went to work for a controls company about 6 months ago for 77k/yr (non union)

Left for another controls company a month ago and got bumped up to 91k/yr (non union).

I work in data centers that are always clean and new, the amount of manual labor I do is so minimal that I don't consider myself a tradesman anymore.

I laugh at the newly minted EEs that are applying for the same position I currently fill and getting denied for lack of experience.

They think they are going to get the job because they have a worthless degree.

>What is worse is when you are crammed up in some corner somewhere welding on a piece of pipe, and your goofy arms and elbows block the sensors....than you get a pair of eyeballs full of a good blast.

... or you're trusting your vision with some Harbor Freight Chinese-made sensor that creeps up to a .1s delay... or just doesn't work 100% of the time.

>2 year school is better than 4
3rd class PE after 2 years.

Grab a 2nd by writing papers after enough hours.

Such is life in Soviet Amerika.

I only ever pick up women when I wear my work uniform and when I work on my car. They must really be getting tired of the nu-male faggots.

My dad became an electrician and started his own electrical business and he's been making around $400k a year.
I am stuck on whether to start my own business or be an electrician like my dad.

No

Trades are a mem

I joined the Guard and go to school at the top uni in my state for free.

I drive by tradecucks all of the time on my way to higher learning with big booty white girls in yoga pants everywhere.

Shit that never happened: the post

American culture portrays skilled jobs as jobs for idiots and people who are incapable of doing anything else. This leads to people getting degrees in fields in which they will never get a job or make nothing compared to trade skill jobs which can provide a life for your family

...how is anything he said farfetched?

whatever you say hombre. Nothing in my post is far fetched for anyone who knows how to breath out of 2 nostrils

I work in a parts department for a dealership. What tech schools dont tell auto techs is you start out as a lube tech before you go flat rate because they are going to pay based on experience. The current dealer i work for is a nissan dealer and have been there for seven years and only two lube techs out of the many we have hired have become flat rate tech and now are making decent money, but they worked hard for it and are very efficiant techs. Sometimes i think they out smart the techs who have been there twenty plus years.

Right now in my department we are looking for a kid with no experice to be a delivery driver/stocker that is 18-22 that we can start at 10.50 an hour and train to be a full time parts person over the next couple years. In the last year we have hired six kids who are absolutley worthless, lazy, never on time, and have no ambition but want a five dollar raise two weeks into it. This current generatiom graduatimg from high school are just a bunch of gib me dats and dont put the work in.

>fell for the STEM meme
>only make 14.5 CDN per hour working in a lab
>I have friends who studied arts and make more money doing 1/3 of the work and browsing reddit

Just end me famalam

Good luck doing that anymore m8. In this day and age you need "experience" to even get your foot in the fucking door at an entry level job. And even then you need to know someone who can hook you up with an opportunity to even get you a chance to get your foot in the door.

Shit just aint like it used to be and it will continue to become worse with the steady flow of illegal aliens willing to do these jobs for chump change. Dont believe me? They're already taking over many unions in the south.

The new standard will be 15-20 per hour for jobs that used to pay 25-30.

probably didn't network and do internships enough

Any trade where you can actually make good money is going to require college these days. Or at least 4 years of making $12/hr in an apprenticeship, if you can find one and get in it. They also tend to be shitty, miserable work so try to have a plan on how to not still be doing HVAC installations in your fifties.

I went the same route but couldn't find a job now i'm going for an EE degree