I beleive I am around your age, and I grew up in a redneck-ish small town. Yet my father couldn't fix anything mechanical, nor could either of my brothers. So it's not just the kids of today, but rather more of a class thing. My father was a college professor. My mother, on the other hand, was very crafty. She gardened and preserved and sewed and cooked. She knew home remedies for illnesses. She made slip covers, curtains, and toys. I learned all of those things from her.
I'm so thankful that my daughter, from a very early age, has pursued carpentry, and is now well employed in NYC as a carpenter. She has a fabulous tool collection and can fix most things. While her friends in other, more sedentary fields (mostly "health" or banking related I've noticed), were searching far and wide for entry level jobs after college, she got a great job in a split second in NYC of all places. Your advice is excellent. We sure could use more car mechanics! And far fewer doctors.
Oh I bet that is a very lucrative job in a place like NYC! I don't know anyone that went into trade skills and took it seriously that isn't immensely successful these days. I do know a ton of people that I went to college with that even have masters degrees that seriously struggle to find any sort of meaningful work and almost none of them work in the field that they graduated in. If people are smart, they will pursue real life skills at a community college rather than going to an overpriced indoctrination station that we know as 4-year universities.
My daughter went to an overpriced indoctrination station that teaches life skills, sterling college in vermont. It was quite a great place. she learned how to plow fields with teams of oxen, care for horses and other livestock, grow food, spin wool after shearing the sheep, and the like. Not so much building, but certainly some along with general woodwork. She learned carpentry on the job building greenhouses. I'm very proud of her!
These are fantastic life skills even though I don't think many people are actually going to need to ever spin wool. If nothing else that would be a wonderful conversation topic and would really stand out on a resume. If one came across my desk at it said they know how to yoke oxen and spin wool I would take a step back and say "seriously? that's amazing."
I would be more inclined to call someone in for an interview with these line items rather than their GPA in a degree program.
Me too! And I was in the restaurant business! It's outside of the box that I appreciate. So needed nowadays. We're largely all the same now, useless eaters of a sort.