For those contractors out there, we can all relate to the fact that there are no more “skilled workers” in our field anymore. Mostly all of the old-timers who took pride in their job have retired, which leaves us with the younger generation of workers who are just trying to get a fat paycheck while doing the least amount of work as possible.
The real problem with the older and more experienced guys retiring is that most of them did not actually teach the young blood in the industry. I mean it’s hard to blame them because these young guys don’t actually care to learn. They would rather record themselves in construction gear and upload pictures to Instagram/Facebook with the hashtag “another day another dollar” … sad but true
In our industry 99 of 100 people in the field laugh at the idea of leadership development, but 100 of 100 fondly remember the mentoring they received from the folks who taught them and shaped them. That is why I believe that is up to us, small contractors, to set up some type of mentoring programs/internships for high school students to learn the basics of our industry before going to college majoring in a degree that is saturated leaving them with no job and at least $80K in debt.
There is a major shortage of skilled labor as well as workers who are willing to take on a leadership role. With these programs, we will get young adults feet wet in our industry because lets be honest. College isn’t for everybody. It is not a bad thing to be a mason, electrician, plumber etc.. There is a lot of money to be made if you a truly passionate. The problem is that millennials are just misconstrued by the media, which is up to us to help guide them and show them you can live a very good life working in our industry.