Parents and teachers for more than a generation have steered students toward college and white-collar work, and few states
need the graduates more than Indiana, which has one of the lowest levels of college attainment in the country.
Lost in the attention, though, are jobs that donâ??t require a bachelorâ??s degree but still offer wages well above what many college grads earn.
Manufacturers often complain of being overlooked. So do electric utilities.
Increasingly, coal mining companies are joining the fray. Theyâ??re desperate for employees as baby boomers retire and the country increasingly turns to coal to meet its electricity needs.
Yet, the industry suffers from a stigma of black grime and pick axes, says Nat Nolan, president of the Indiana Coal Council, a trade group of mine companies.
The work still isnâ??t clean, and most of the new jobs are in underground mines. But the pick axes were traded for mechanized equipment and computers long ago, and safety is much improved from the explosion-ridden days of the past.
Mining companies are offering entry-level pay of $50,000 a year to workers who hold nothing more than high school diplomas. A couple of years of electrical training pushes the figure to about $70,000, and a few years of experience can result in a six-figure salary. Thatâ??s more than most beginning lawyers earn.
For people who simply donâ??t want to go to college, or know they arenâ??t college material, has the value of a college education been oversold?
Lost in the attention, though, are jobs that donâ??t require a bachelorâ??s degree but still offer wages well above what many college grads earn.
Manufacturers often complain of being overlooked. So do electric utilities.
Increasingly, coal mining companies are joining the fray. Theyâ??re desperate for employees as baby boomers retire and the country increasingly turns to coal to meet its electricity needs.
Yet, the industry suffers from a stigma of black grime and pick axes, says Nat Nolan, president of the Indiana Coal Council, a trade group of mine companies.
The work still isnâ??t clean, and most of the new jobs are in underground mines. But the pick axes were traded for mechanized equipment and computers long ago, and safety is much improved from the explosion-ridden days of the past.
Mining companies are offering entry-level pay of $50,000 a year to workers who hold nothing more than high school diplomas. A couple of years of electrical training pushes the figure to about $70,000, and a few years of experience can result in a six-figure salary. Thatâ??s more than most beginning lawyers earn.
For people who simply donâ??t want to go to college, or know they arenâ??t college material, has the value of a college education been oversold?
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Most college graduates are smart enough not to seek dangerous, dead end jobs located hundreds of feet down in coal mine and up on high voltage electrical lines during a big storm.
Coal Miners and Electric Company Lineman deserve their compensation, but so do the more educated and better compensated leaders of the coal and electrical companies.
The military.
It is very disturbing however that the culture of blacks in the US today lets
so many of this important group fail to finish high school.
Most college graduates are smart enough not to seek dangerous, dead end jobs located hundreds of feet down in coal mine and up on high voltage electrical lines during a big storm.
I never cease to be amazed at the holier-than-thou manner in which many of my peers display themselves. I suppose there's no danger of any non-college graduates taking offense to such comments, though. After all, surely THOSE people don't read the IBJ online...if they can read at all, eh, Bing?
Just because someone dumps thousands of dollars into a school does NOT make them any smarter, it only gets them paid more!