US seniors face student loan debt | Page 2 | The Compost Bin | Forums

I have a long list of regrets when it comes to what college I attended, my chosen field of studies, lack of focus,  how I financed it, etc, etc. I wish I had taken at least a year off before going, gone to a community college for general coursework, etc.  On my worst days in the ER I think about going back to school to become a welder or a CNC operator.  Then I see the monthly draft for my wife and I's school loans and I have even more regrets.

Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs has some great interviews about the lack of people in skilled trades in the US.

Here's the short interview...

http://www.youtube.c.....s1YhhMHdNY

Here's the longer interview...

An acquaintance of mine's shop builds potato harvesters.  He has an 18 month wait list and turned away or lost more than $2 million in orders last year because he doesn't have enough welders to do the job.  A kid with two semesters in the local CC's welding program would get paid inhouse training, $35/hour +as much overtime as they want, decent health, vision, and dental, and he gave everyone a $2600 Christmas bonus last year.  He can't fill the positions because he has to compete with all the other fabricators for just a few graduates from the surrounding CCs.  

I live in a city of 115,00 whose 3 high schools graduated 744 students in 2013, which represented about 56% of the students that started as freshmen in 2009 (roughly 1328).  The celebrated a "signing day" for 98 students who were going to college.  We have a Big Ten U in town, a decent sized CC, and numerous university extensions and smaller "program colleges" in town or in the surrounding area, so there's no shortage of opportunities.  The district closed their technical school, which had auto body, welding, CAD/CAM, etc.  There are roughly 1230 young kids, not going to school at all-I have to believe at least a dozen of them could be trained to weld or do one of the other 3.6 million unfilled skilled labor jobs (according to Mike Rowe) in this country.  

I think a big problem is that the only metrics our schools really care about is did we graduate more than we did last year and how many are going to college.  I think it pushes too many kids to go to an overpriced four year college who either don't belong, or community college would suffice.  It pushes parents to make poor financial decisions to take on or cosign for debt because they don't want to disappoint their kids, or want them to have what they never had.  

...and I have 5 kids.

I think I need a beer.