Mike Rowe is best known (at least to me) as the really American-looking dude that pitched Ford cars and trucks in his signature baseball cap.
(Photo Credit: Mike Rowe’s Facebook)
He was also the host of “Dirty Jobs,” a Discovery Channel show that ran for eight seasons that highlighted jobs that were, well, dirty.
But what Rowe is becoming increasingly known for is his public relations campaign to encourage Americans to get over the stigma and start taking those “dirty jobs” because employers need them and they are out there.
He’s recently appeared on Bill Maher’s and Mike Huckabee’s talk shows and his message is this: There are jobs for Americans out there, but they are going to have to do physical work to get them.
He argues the current message to teenagers that everyone should go to college and then find a job is misguided.
“We are lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist,” Rowe said on Huckabee’s show. “That’s nuts.”
His foundation website says there are three million skilled trade jobs that are available, but the people aren’t trained for or willing to do them.
Exactly how many of these jobs are available is debatable, but Rowe is generally right. At least hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs need to be filled and employers can’t find people to take them, CBS News reported last year.
“We can’t find enough students who are interested in pursuing these trades,” Click Bond COO Karl Hutter told CBS News. “Because it seems hard? …Because it seems like you have to do math? I don’t know.”
I’m not sure either, but raising awareness, like what Rowe is doing, might be the first step.
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