[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Alaska Mike

I serve on the advisory board for a Building Trades Program at the local junior college. The program has students spend time in the classroom 2 hours per day and 6 hours on the jobsite. In one year they build a complete house from footings to frame up to roof to all the interior finish. It is a complete 3 bedroom home when they are done.

We offer a 1 year certificate or a 2 year construction management AAS degree. (a real 2 year college degree, transferrable to any college in the nation).

Our recruitment efforts used to be aimed at high school graduates. Now our recruitment efforts are those 22 to 30 years old. Why you might ask? We found that most of our students had to go out and either try college or try work, and they found that neither worked for them, or they found that the jobs they were able to get had no career, and they were destined for endless low pay, no insurance, and surprisingly no satisfaction.

They also had gotten married, had a few kids, and realized that they wanted more out of life for themselves and their new family.

Our program offered a sense of satisfaction, a piece of paper that said they could do something, and the start of a real career with many opportunities.

I guess what you didn't learn in high school, the school of hard knocks quickly filled in. Our students are dedicated, eager to learn, and come with some skills already. But most importantly, they know the value of an education, and all leave our program to be very successful.

It is not society, not the school system, not the generation you were a part of, but the individual. Some learn this lesson in 4 years of high school, and some take a little longer.

I am glad to hear of such classes. If they asked to raise my taxes to support programs such as you have described, I would vote yes! It's a "give them fish or teach them to fish" kind of thing in my opinion. Here in Florida (at least south Florida) construction continues at a pace almost equal to that of before the crash of '08. Maybe a little far for your graduates in Iowa, but I'm sure there are these kinds of jobs between you and I.