By Mac Arthur Howard III
NASHVILLE, TN — Due to the turbulence of recent times, the economy of the United States has been experiencing some developments that have many people worried. Prices for goods from food and gas have been steadily creeping upwards and economic experts are expecting a full-on recession to begin in as short a time as next year. While this should obviously worry the general adult population, a recession represents a unique threat to the young adults of our nation as well.
Many graduating high schoolers- of this year and the next- will have to face the very real possibility that they may not be able to afford to attend a traditional four-year university and, by extension, prepare themselves for a traditional career. This is where the option of technical learning might help keep them afloat.
Career Technical Schools or “trade” schools offer students the chance to acquire a set of skills that have an incredibly small chance to become outdated or obsolete and are almost guaranteed to keep them working through the recession.
“Our schools aim to teach young people how to work for themselves,” said trade school teacher, principal, and superintendent in Massachusetts, David Ferreira. “Students at schools like these are taught to understand the importance of both academic and practical learning along with the essential for working for and eventually owning their own private businesses that offer invaluable everyday services.”
Ferreira is also the co-editor of the recent novel, Hands-On Achievement, a book that highlights how the mixing of traditional and technical education types has led to great success in their young adults entering the workforce and them becoming national leaders in it.
Hands-On Achievement emphasizes that fresh graduates would do well to consider jobs like wood and metal working, hairstyling, plumbing, and mechanical work. These trades and similar ones will almost always be in demand and many of their practitioners set their own service prices, offering rare and exceptional job and income security during a recession.
“We understand that wholly academic learning is not for everyone,” Ferreira said. “But we don’t abandon it either. We make sure each of our students is given just as much time to focus on things like math, literature, and history, but we try to frame it in a way that allows them to apply it to their chosen trade.”
The advantages trade schools offer have been widely overlooked in recent years, but they offer a legitimate, advantageous, and stable alternative to the more popular, traditional academic endeavors which may end up being a great risk within the next year.
To learn more about David Ferreira and Hands-On Achievement, visit https://www.amazon.com/Hands-Achievement-Massachusettss-National-Vocational-Technical/dp/0985208678.
