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Amy Rolph,
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 24, 2008
The average construction worker is well into his 40s, and unless
something changes to make the fresh-from-prom set take a sudden
interest in framing and drywall, that work force is just going
to keep getting older.
In an industry where retirement tends to come early and
knowledge is passed down on the job, that trend presents a
potentially paralyzing problem -- especially as demand for
workers continues to rise.
Crews will be at a loss for skilled workers. Buildings might not
go up so quickly. So-called "green initiatives" could falter.
And the young people who passed up those opportunities? Unless
they managed to land that desk job at Microsoft, they might have
missed out on a chance to make a comfortably upper-middle-class
living, some industry experts say.
The shortage isn't confined to carpenters -- it extends to
plumbers, stonemasons, electricians, cabinetmakers, welders and
a list of other trades that were once sought after.
What has some educators and employers puzzled is that many of
those professions offer the chance to make upward of $50,000
right away. But they say a negative perception of the trades
coupled with a mounting push for college education has dealt the
professions a hard blow in the United States.
Nettie Dokes, manager of Seattle City Light's apprenticeship
program, calls apprenticeships "the other four-year degree." (An
apprenticeship, often regulated by unions, is a period of
on-the-job training that typically lasts one to five years.
After that, workers graduate to higher journeyman-level wages.)
Dokes worries how her quickly expanding crews of linemen will be
able to retool technologically without new blood coming in.
Years ago, she would hire 20 apprentices every year. Now she has
spots for almost 60, and can't guarantee those will be filled.
"Historically here, from even a biblical time, a parent sent
their child to apprentice with a skilled trade individual,"
Dokes, said. "Here for us, after World War II, we made a shift
where all of the focus and energy was based around a four-year
credentialed program."
The state's community and technical colleges have thousands of
students in trade programs.
Enrollment in work force training at the technical and community
colleges, which includes some apprenticeships, reached nearly
60,000 five years ago, but has slowly fallen since then.
However, the Department of Labor and Industries reports that
more than 17,000 workers were in apprenticeships at the end of
last year, and that they have been steadily growing through the
years.
Still, industry officials say the community colleges and
apprenticeships aren't keeping up with demand. And those
programs often attract older students, who will end up having
shorter working lives.
In Washington, apprentices for state projects can start out
earning more than $30 an hour, according to Labor and Industries
figures.
"It's not like the college system where you go to college and
sit in class -- these folks are out there working in the field,"
said Halene Sigmund, who oversees apprenticeships for the
Bellevue-based Construction Industry Training Council. "They're
all making family living wages."
The 'misfits'
At Seattle Central Community College's wood construction
program, boatbuilding instructor Gordon Sanstad tallied the
construction industry's woes as he led a tour through the
Central District facility. Cabinetmaking, boatbuilding and
carpentry -- the program's three emphases -- are fields
dominated by "what we call the gray-hair set," he said.
And they're industries where local demand is high.
Even his students are older than you might expect, he said. The
average age of those enrolled in the wood construction program
is 34.
Sanstad led the way through sawdust-covered workrooms where
students labored over projects such as half-scale models of
stairs and the naked ribs of what will one day evolve into
boats.
Tours, he said, are starting to be a bigger part of his job. At
least once a week he leads a group of high school students
through the facility, hoping they'll find appealing the prospect
of steady work that can't be easily outsourced.
The young students who enroll are often "misfits who can't fit
in anywhere else," Sanstad said.
"If they aren't going to the university, what are they going to
do?"
Nicole Lundheim paused from working on a half-finished small
racing boat to talk about how these days people "don't want to
get dirty." The 32-year-old grew up watching her grandfather and
father work on houses -- construction is in her blood.
That's not the case with everyone, she said.
"We're in a technological era," Lundheim said. "People aren't
exposed to it. I was exposed to it, but I was unique."
Sanstad and other instructors back that theory up. Forty years
ago, the program didn't need to have introductory classes for
students to learn the basics of construction -- how to operate
tools and keep all their fingers at the same time. Now, the
course is mandatory.
Frank Worsham, a 52-year- old student, came late to boatbuilding
after a career at Boeing -- so he's all too familiar with the
aging tendency of the trades.
"I've thought that if I ever did it over, I would do this when I
was younger," he said as he bent over a half-finished dinghy. "I
don't understand why young people aren't doing these things."
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be
an 18 percent increase in the need for plumbers and pipe fitters
from 2004 to 2014. During that same time, demand for carpenters
and painters will increase 13 percent, and the need for
electricians will go up 14 percent.
Demand for heating, ventilation and air conditioning mechanics
and installers will swell 27 percent during that time, according
to the bureau's data.
Some economists speculate that "green initiatives" championed by
government and corporations will create millions of jobs over
the next 10 years, some of which would be technician positions
or renovation work.
Image problem
Problems related to aging work forces haven't gone undetected.
Late last year, Gov. Chris Gregoire announced "Running Start for
the Trades" grants for 14 school districts, hoping to promote
pre-apprenticeship training for students.
That was part of the latest push to mobilize young people toward
the trades -- a drive that might be working. In the last two
years, the state has seen a 62 percent increase in registered
apprentices, said Elizabeth Smith, apprenticeship program
manager for the state's Department of Labor and Industries.
But the average ages in apprenticeships still tend to border 30
-- evidence of what Smith and others call "the 10-year drift."
After graduating high school, young people apparently work
elsewhere before finding their way to the trades.
"I don't know why it is -- I just know that we see it, and we're
working on changing it as well as we can," Smith said.
Some educators think schools are at least partly to blame for
the diminishing interest young people have in the trades. They
complain that WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning)
scores have taken top priority over elective classes -- music
and art along with the trades -- and students don't get to see
their career options in the same way they used to.
"We live in tech-central," said Cal Pygott, who leads Bothell
High School's construction program. "Every parent thinks their
student needs to go to a four-year school. But not every student
needs to, wants to, or has the grades or ability to go to a
four-year school."
Pygott heads the school's "Construction Academy," which allows
high school seniors to complete the first year of construction
apprenticeship before graduation. After watching the drop-off in
trades-related training years ago, Pygott says he's slowly
seeing programs like his re-emerge.
But beyond lack of support from high schools, Pygott said the
trades face another problem that can't be remedied by lobbying
the Legislature: The industry has an image problem.
Until parents and students stop thinking of construction workers
as "some big guy with a beard" who "swears a lot and drinks
beer," he said that industry is likely to have a hard time
recruiting.
But Pygott thinks parents, students and school districts are
missing the big picture: job security.
"We import all or most of our clothing, all or most of our
consumer electronics, more and more of our food -- our
automobiles are either made overseas or owned by overseas
companies," he said.
"But we cannot import our highways. We cannot import our
bridges. We cannot import our skyscrapers or our
infrastructure."
WHERE TO LEARN ABOUT BUILDING TRADES
These area schools offer training in building trades:
Seattle Vocational Institute: building trades pre-apprentice
programs.
South Seattle Community College: building trades apprentice for
such crafts as ironworkers, electrical workers, painters and
bricklayers.
Seattle Central Community College: cabinetmaking and fine
woodworking; carpentry; marine carpentry and boatbuilding; and
wood construction.
North Seattle Community College: HVAC
ON THE WEB
To learn about apprenticeship programs in Washington, check this
site provided by Labor and Industries:
http://goto.seattlepi.com/r1314
For apprenticeship programs at these colleges:
• South Seattle Community College:
http://dept.seattlecolleges.com/duwamish/art.htm
• Renton Technical College:
http://www.rtc.edu/Programs/Apprenticeships
• Lake Washington Technical College:
http://lwtc.edu/future/programs/apprenticeships
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