Back in late 70's early 80's when looking for work it was I was always over qualified for a job. Just an excuse company's would give you because they did not want to pay you what you where worth.
They where not interested in skilled workers just workers who did the job some what adequate and shut the customer up.
But there where handful of individual like me cross trained in Electronics ,Electrical and Refrigeration skills or similar skill sets and we saw our training as a step up in getting complex jobs done as electronics where crossing more and more into industry but industry ignored this trend for what they needed deciding their maintenance men could handle it instead of hiring individuals like us and trade schools especially for profit schools totally ignored the coming wave of technology as well and just kept turning out run of the mill employees often with little to no skill sets needed to take on the ever increasing challenges of new technology
The result most of us who cross trained opened up our own business and developed a client base who understood and appreciated our skill sets and we worked together with them to give them a ,major advantage over the competition.
While we where helping our customer's push the envelope when it come to acquiring and using the latest in technologies to the best advantages and insuring equipment stayed operating and had good clean power with proper back up the rest of the industry just muddled along.
But then in the late 90's as computers and remote control and the Internet started taking over more and more tasks in industry and business muddled thru it and the events of the digital age of electronics took hold it finally dawned on employers. Hey wait a minute our maintenance staff and electricians can no longer handle what we have in out plants and business. No longer was it good enough just change a card here and there and you only need to know a little bit about wiring as assembly lines and equipment started shutting down and having hiccups and maintenance staff had no answers. Yet industry still failed to embrace the fact we need cross trained individuals who understood both electric and electronics and as more and more electronics came into the work place and more and more problems kept cropping up each year and industry found out its plants where not properly wired and designed to handle this new age of electronically controlled equipment it finally became clear to them we need more than the standard maintenance man and electricians we need full time technicians in our plants but when they went looking there where none to find.
Because industry's kept insisting on doing it the old fashioned way will pull some one out of a trade school and teach them in house. The result machinery and equipment which shut down for no reason and machinery constantly breaking down and not working properly .
Thou some company's did get it and started looking for candidates which where considered over qualified in years past they found the pool which to draw these individuals was extremely low .
Worse yet with the changing generations of youth and there work habits coming into the work place and not even wanting to work it was getting impossible to find employees they needed.
Thats all I ever hear from my customers how they can not find qualified employees not even entry level employees which can be trained.
One industry thou has taken steps to make sure they will have the work force they need and that's the natural gas extraction industry. They have set up vocational programs in local high schools and for profit schools to make sure they will have workers and so have the electric power company's but other industry's have not and as a result can not find qualified candidates and now the new Digital World is upon us and all those problems myself and other techs dealt with when we went from heavy relay to solid state world is now popping up in the new digital world as we go from analog to digital.
Again company's are struggling to keep up and are pulling their hair out but instead of once again making sure they have trained personnel they just muddle along. Then when they get so desperate they have no choice but to call some one like myself or others who have cross trained and can trouble shoot complex issues the answer they are getting is Sorry No we can not help you we are too busy handling our own customers.
So it goes some company embrace and understand high tech and have properly trained employees and others do not and it shows every day .
This is why you can not find quality Telephone ,Alarm , Cable TV , installers and techs any more
Just try to find an well rounded truck or car mechanic/technician or machinists as well yes its pathetic the lack of trained personnel available most learn on the job from some one who was never trained properly in the first place and it shows. If the USA is ever going to be the power house manufacturer it once was it needs to get its head out of its ass embrace education and technology and get moving . Thats why I wholly embrace the STEM Movement Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics.
It is pathetic how far down we rank in the industrialized world compared to other country's when it comes to education and is shows every day when you have fast food workers asking for $15 ann hour because they are not wiling to put forth any effort at all to go from a entry level job and work up to higher pay.
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