1. AYB’S MISSION IS TO CLOSE
THE SKILLS GAP BY HELPING FOLKS
ANSWER TEN IMPORTANT
QUESTIONS.
2. America's Skilled Trades Dilemma: Shortages Loom As Most-In-Demand Group Of Workers Ages - Forbes
Why Do We Have a Skilled Trade Shortage?– Angie’s List
The Construction Labor Shortage: Where Did All the Skilled Labor Go?
– Tradesmen International
Shortage of Skilled Workers Creating A Crisis in Construction Industry – Memphis Daily News
HEADLINES ON THE SKILLS GAP:
America Has To Close the Workforce Skills Gap - Bloomberg
3. MIKE ROWE ON THE SKILLS GAP:
“THE SKILLS GAP IS A REFLECTION OF WHAT WE VALUE. TO
CLOSE THE GAP, WE NEED TO CHANGE THE WAY THE COUNTRY
FEELS ABOUT WORK”
“WE ARE LENDING MONEY TO KIDS WHO CAN’T PAY IT BACK TO
TRAIN THEM FOR JOBS THAT NO LONGER EXIST. THAT’S NUTS”
4. EACH AYB PLAYBOOK HELPS
YOU ANSWER 10 QUESTIONS:
• WHAT DOES A CAREER IN A PARTICULAR SKILLED TRADE LOOK LIKE?
• WHAT SHOULD YOU CONSIDER WHEN ENTERING THAT SKILLED TRADE?
• HOW DO YOU BECOME A SUCCESSFUL CRAFTSMAN IN THAT SKILLED TRADE?
• HOW MUCH CAN YOU MAKE IN THAT SKILLED TRADE IN YOUR LOCAL MARKET?
• WHAT ARE YOUR CAREER OPTIONS ONCE YOU ENTER THAT SKILLED TRADE?
• HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO SUCCEED AT EACH STAGE OF YOUR CAREER?
• HOW AND WHERE CAN YOU FIND WORK IN THAT SKILLED TRADE IN YOUR LOCAL MARKET?
• WHAT CONCRETE ACTIONS SHOULD YOU TAKE TO BE A HIGHLY VALUED EMPLOYEE?
• WHAT SHOULD YOU CONSIDER BEFORE YOU STRIKE OUT ON YOUR OWN?
• WHAT – AT MINIMUM – DOES IT TAKE TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL SMALL BUSINESS?
Take a look at some recent headlines…
Click and read each of 3 headlines:
These headlines and many others reinforce earlier data points
This crisis exists because employers demand "job ready" employees trained with the skills needed to do the job posted. They are not there and that needs to change. And doing something about that in whatever small measure is what has become my passion.
You may know who Mike Rowe is from his hit show “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel.
Rowe is a also a very vocal advocate for getting people to understand the need and looming shortage in the Skilled Trades
Click: and read: The skills gap is a reflection of what we value…”
He calls out our cultural, societal bias for kids going to college at any costs vs. offering them the choice of going into the Skilled Trades
Click and read: We are lending money to kids who can’t pay it back for jobs that no longer exist…if they ever did
The student debt issue alone should be a reason enough to consider an alternative for many kids who now think that college is the only path forward from high school
With regards to Mike Rowe, I am planning on contacting him to enlist his support and celebrity to help promote At Your Best. I am very confident that I can gain his full support. I will speak more to that point a bit later. Like Rowe, I will engage other potential influencers like Labor Secretary Alex Acosta to leverage the At Your Best message.
Let’s talk a little about those 9 questions and how they figure into the structure of the Playbooks. These are questions click and read: the first 4 or 5 if not all
I see At Your Best’s mandate as being: Helping the reader thru those “Kitchen Table Moments” when they are sitting by themselves or with someone important to them trying to think thru what they should do next.
As one of the SMEs put, give them a “view beyond the horizon” so that they can have a vision what lies ahead so they can make better decisions today
So, consider the lifecycle of a career in a particular Skilled Trade and these are just some of the questions that a person would be asking themselves along the way.
.