We need to rethink how we approach adult education

[Cozmixcartoons]

I really wanted to become a plumber, but it's a bitch to get an apprenticeship. All trades companies want you to have like five years of experience for an entry-level position. And those same employers complain they can't find enough skilled workers. Give me the skills, and I will work myself down to the bone for you. I just want to be able to easily pay my bills.

[capnkirk]

Employers discovered that (seemed like) it was WAY cheaper to just "poach" a fully-trained employee than train your own. That has two benefits - gets you an experienced employee AND weakens your competition.
And if there's a shortage ... well bring in foreign temporary workers (be lobbying the government) which is just "poaching" further abroad.
Also, highly skilled "blue collar" workers were looked down on - "YOU don't want to be a plumber - or a lineman - or an electrician".
Well actually YES, YES you do ... if you want a decent middle-class lifestyle.
But don't look to Ford (or Trudeau, or PP) to fix it - THEY collectively created it.

[gerrymaines]

All part of the corporate greed problem... save money any way they can to support shareholders and execs. There is no long-term vision other than more profits.

[benoithudson]

As a business owner I always wondered why the heck other business owners were against public funding for education. And then turn around and complain about young people these days don’t know how to do X Y And Z.

[dawnpalmby]

High school requires only .5 credit for both civics and careers, as in one semester split between 2 of the most necessary things that affect our lives.

[tommyshanks]

WRONG!!
Just say no to corporate welfare, which is what 'incentives' from the provinces end up becoming.
The only incentive employers deserve:
No temporary foreign workers
No contracting out
No cop outs
No cheat codes

That'll incentivize employers invest in on the job training and hire full-time employees

Instead, we get the corporate welfare parties allowing employers to abuse the labour force.
Remember unpaid internships? Precarity for temps?
'Co-op students'
Piecemeal contract work?

Why would employers invest in on the job training if workers are as disposable as toilet paper?

[CrystalMAD]

Also if you’re on “welfare” or disability there are training programs through them too. Quality is what you’d expect

[BGKyouhen]

Employers are investing less in their workers because workers these days are quick to hop jobs. Why train someone who's going to take those skills and join your competition?

And why are workers so quick to jump jobs? Because it's the only good way to get a raise. Oh look, here we are again with a problem that could be fixed if employers would just pay their staff appropriately.

[thulean.uruk-hai]

Should also tell the employers if they don't want to train their employees they can pay more taxes to fund that public training instead of slapping the other taxpayers with the cost.

It's bad enough they've already shifted so much of their obligations to the workers and the taxpayers. They offered pensions and medical benefits instead of raises, this started decades ago. Then they whined about the cost of pensions and along came 401ks, and then they whined about medical costs so now we split the premium or even pay all of it.

Did we get the pay increase we would have had if those benefits weren't there in the first place? Of course not. So many people are working their asses off but still need welfare programs to survive.

Now they're doing it with training. Time to not only stop, but back it up. All the way up.

[lexslate]

Employers keep getting shittier and more tight-fisted, housing costs continue to rise faster than incomes, and necessities available for sale either get smaller, worse, or more expensive, often all three.

I'm sure this is fine.

[yadidnot]

These programs do exist... at least for skilled trades in ontario... I am living proof of that... I went from being a marine fiberglass repair tech self taught, no high school diploma making 25/hr to a red seal carpenter college degree making 100k+, education cost me 6 months and $0.

[PimzDigital]

I feel like public training programs could have a meaningful impacy on energy transitions as well. A lot of hesitancy from working folks comes from the fear if losing their job to something they dont even know how to learn the skills for (even though like 70% are probably transferrable for certain trades)

[jessewilliams]

I agree, but there are several sides. I know millennials who have worked themselves up in a company they got hired en masse on with no interview and are making decent money after a couple of years. I went to college for engineering and worked internships during (competitive af to get one these days btw, I've only gotten them through connections I made with professors, and I had a 3.9+ gpa throughout college) and we're both making about the same. I also know people I went to school with who were mid-students, and no one will hire them. It seems to be a first work ethic thing to be recognized and then networking thing once recognized by someone.

It would be great if we could just offer anyone who is 18 any training for a specific company, but it's expensive and if they waste it then it's not worth funding to the taxpayer.

Even with a chemical engineering degree I had to do about 8 weeks of training at my company before they were comfortable letting me take jobs, and even then, I had a mentor so I wouldn't fuck it up.

I 100% agree with you about the situations you're talking about but there are more than just those situations, as you know.

[gmsisd]

Or ya know we'll maybe start funding you primary public schools so they have the resources to learn basic construction or mechanical skills in high-school prior to graduation so they have some sort of skills to wok with after becoming 18 🤔🤷‍♂️

[GeneralGrandmas]

Employers need to be help responsible for training again. Businesses need to be held responsible for their practices.

[lastrabbit]

There are trades that will pay you to go through school and then guarantee you a job as soon as you finish. Plus apprenticeships. Name a complicated device, and there is a techie for it. (Technician)

[Josh-wthq]

Idk i took it into my own hands at 16 and have made a career out of it. Nobody "taught" me outside of a couple of days training. It was me watching and learning all of the skills of the professionals around me, that allowed me to learn without paying for anything. Pay attention? If you dont get it, maybe its not for you? Food for thought

[brentwandahsega-couillard]

No we need schools to do what there ment to do give kids skills and training to be functional adults

[monkeyBEiRDdwy]

I dont disagree, but i think there is more going on, and this is a failure of a system that starts at birth. It seems that parents and schools are failing kids long before they become adults by not setting them up for success at an early age.

[zhuljinjager]

Because you could rely on a thing called infrastructure rather than wealth hoarding and legal privledge hunger games