Ford CEO says car giant is struggling to fill 5,000 mechanic posts despite offering $120K salary

[fujiyamasan]

31. Yes a lot of the private trade schools were shady diploma mills like ITT

Over twenty five years ago (wow now I’m really feeling old), when I was in high school, we had vocational electives available like auto mechanics, drafting/CAD, and electronics which could teach some useful skills at the time. Was it career prep ready? Maybe not in itself, but it exposed students to some basic skills and familiarity they could use for a resume to get a real apprenticeship down the line. Often they could get on the job training by companies, like…Ford

I’m not sure if these courses are readily available or funded as well now, with the push to make everyone “college ready”. These training programs are also much more complex and require a higher level of technical skills than in the past.

This is where corporations should step in and fill the gap. They can create specialized training programs through partnerships with community colleges, which are often strained for funding anyways. I know this is already the case with some CCs, so I think Farley should step up these efforts rather than complaining about the lack of trade schools.

If the corporations aren’t finding the talent they need, they should create avenues to educate promising students, since a lot of the skills are highly specialized anyways. Who does he expect to fund these vocational schools anyways? If they’re government run, those companies would then complain about the quality of the training.

Besides, if the vocational schools are created under this administration it’s just another potential grift by Trump and his cronies.