OPINION: We’re undervaluing the trades. And it’s hurting our communities.
As we Texans grapple with the fallout of the winter storm causing nearly 3 million customers to lose power, the term “essential worker” has popped up again. Last week, a new question circulated family text chains and neighborhood message boards: Do you know any available plumbers?
Houston is no stranger to devastating events. Yet, it’s often only during and after these events that we truly appreciate the people in charge of our everyday necessities. With more than 750,000 insurance claims estimated to come from last month’s storm, the region is calling on a different kind of first responder — one who can fix burst pipes, collapsed ceilings and swells of other residential damage.
This event, like so many in Houston’s past, reminds us once again how essential skilled tradespeople are — and how many more of them we need. In 2017, when Hurricane Harvey stretched the already precarious skilled labor shortage, tradespeople from surrounding cities were called upon to rebuild Houston. This past year, the pandemic put a similar strain on the healthcare industry, causing nurses and other professionals to travel across state lines to fill critical needs.
Yet, while we have found a new, sincere appreciation for the daily sacrifices these healthcare professionals made and continue to make, there remains work to be done to acknowledge the crucial role roofers, plumbers and other skilled tradespeople have in ensuring our homes meet our basic needs.
One way to accomplish this? Promote a career in the trades just as we promote a career in healthcare.
All of us today, individuals and companies alike, need tradespeople. So, it’s no wonder that we are feeling the shortage so personally during this time. According to a recent PBS NewsHour segment, employers are struggling to find and hire enough skilled workers. This reality, coupled with more than 860,000 people filing for unemployment across the country early last month, forces us to ask some important questions:
How can we — as educators, parents, and community leaders — better prepare young people for the workforce? When we help students plan for life after high school, do we acknowledge all of the viable opportunities that provide not just a paycheck but a stable career, including those in industries that have been historically stigmatized? Are we aptly preparing youth to consider the financial returns, both positive and negative, that await them upon completion of a degree, credential, or program? More bluntly, are we presenting a career in the trades as a desirable choice for young people?
So, while plumbers, electricians and roofers are still top of mind, let’s not once again forget just how essential trade careers are, and how worthy they are of pursuit. If we can help and encourage more young people to find employment through a career in the trades, we are not only setting them up for future economic success, we are also better equipping our community to prepare for and bounce back from the next disaster.
BridgeYear is on a mission to connect underserved youth to careers and educational pathways that provide economic stability and independence. Our program exposes youth to high-growth, high-demand career pathways that require less than a 4-year degree so all students can obtain affordable, successful employment.