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First Red Hat Academy for High School
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Thu Feb 06, 2003 08:05 PM
from the back-to-school dept.
from the back-to-school dept.
FrankBama writes "As a follow-up to the story of a few days ago, Red Hat has started a program in my old hometown. The story's at the News & Record. I love this part '...this training normally would cost more than $10,000. But Weaver students can get Red Hat certification free -- and use it get a job paying more than $30,000 a year right out of high school.'"
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Nice that it's free for the students... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Nice that it's free for the students... (Score:3, Insightful)
You probably could. If you had a good understanding of systems administration in general. They wont. They'll have a bunch of general knowledge about how linux works and what some of the config files are for. If they're lucky they'll get to sit at a help desk. If they stick with the high school education alone and put in enough years, the annual cost of living increase might get them to 30k.
This is a good learning base to move on to college, but nothing short of going to work for your dad is going to get you 30k as a 'redhad administrator' out of high school.
Re:Nice that it's free for the students... (Score:3, Interesting)
No kidding. I understand the need for teaching practical, specific skills, but only to a point. I mean, I took a programming class in high school (Pascal, whee). I didn't learn much, since I'd learned some of the basics of programming on my whiz-bang Commodore when I was 8. But I know some kids learned something. At least they learned about subroutines and somewhat structured programming.
There's this whole argument about teaching practical skills vs. a rounded liberal-arts education. It's kind of tiresome, but I have to say I lean a bit towards liberal arts. While my job is primarily in system administration, I am involved in some curriculum development. A big problem, I think, is that when a school offers a "practical" class, it is made an elective. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but electives, I think, aren't put under nearly enough scrutiny. Like you said, big deal if a kid knows what config files do what. They should concentrate on how computers work, not how to open files in redhat. Teach kids about binary math and how to subnet before you teach them how to crank up a dhcp client.
Unfortunately, the people who end up teaching these classes are physics teachers who can use word but not wordperfect or whatever. That's not really the teachers' faults, I think. The schools just don't support a more comprehensive program, especially for electives. This is often because the school administrators don't know how to properly support them, I think. They send these teachers off to a week-long training and expect them to teach a bunch of kids who were just tossed into electives because they couldn't hack it in trig.
I teach Cisco classes to teachers, and I've seen a lot of this kind of thing (no, I don't develop curriculum for Cisco). That and CS grads who think Visual Basic rocks all over C. That one always leaves me speechless.
At my high school (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:At my high school (Score:2, Informative)
But Good for Red Hat. Send out those little Linux trojans into the Winworld.
Now are they also going to teach PHP and MySQL?
Re:At my high school (Score:4, Interesting)
#1 - CCNA is worthless to a high school student (at least a sophomore) I reciveved my cert in february, got a job in march, and then after my cert expired 2 years later, i had no real desire to do any more cisco out of high shcool.
#2 - people don't realize how difficult it is as a HS student. HS was cake, but HS, Junior College, and a job as a CCNA (mostly diagnosing router problems) wasn't the best way for me to spend my time. After my sophomore year, i worked on my associates degree more fully, and let me tell you.... way more worth it. Most kids that are smart enough to get a CCNA, are smart enough to do a few/a lot of community college courses. Do that instead of a cert.... that way getting into a bigger school is cake. (only a 26 on the ACT for me, but it was irrellivent)
Parent
Re:At my high school (Score:5, Insightful)
The teachers are telling the kids how they can make $40k right out of high school. I got my CCNA thru their school program as a senior
let me tell you, it is total BULLSHIT. 90% of the people who actually passed the cert (which was only ~50% of the class, me included) will never touch a router at least not for another 5 years. and they WONT find a $40k job out of high school working on cisco equipment, especially with the current IT economy
I was lucky and landed a job out of high school in 2000 when the economy was still decent, I work as a mainframe computer and high-end 64-bit unix machine operator in a large computer datacenter (also the webmaster for our datacenter). I was the last person they hired without a degree, now they wont even consider u unless you have a degree AND working IT experience. CCNA's are now worthless thanks to cisco flooding the market with no-knowledge high school punks who think they are the shit because they vaguely know what "config t" is
Parent
Too true, my MCSE did wonders (Score:5, Interesting)
I used that to leverage interviews and offers that made my friends at school jealous, and this was at MIT, they weren't slouches. One interviewer freshman year asked if I was graduating in the spring, and was quite disappointed when I explained that I was a freshman looking for an internship (then she saw the education line on my resume).
I pimped the MCSE and Citrix CCA (easy to pick up after working in Citrix's tech support department for 3 months) to get great jobs through the dot-com era. It was nice that when my friends were scrounging for money to buy shitty beer, the girls were impressed with my fully stocked liquor cabinet of premium stuff.
I turn 24 in a few weeks, run my own business, getting married this summer, and generally have my life together. The last of the credit card debts from starting a business are getting repaid, and things are going well. Take away the MCSE, and instead of getting good jobs as internships, I'm UROPing (undergrad research, most of which is just bitch work for $8/hr), and just getting my act together in the corporate world.
I dealt with clients, managed a team, and generally acquired a lot of experience while in school. Didn't cost me my "youth" either, I managed to be social chair of my fraternity among other experiences. Getting job skills in school is critical.
Hell, if I had stayed with Citrix like my HS drop-out friend that got me the job did, I'd also have a house and car from cashing in my stock options.
Skills are good, learn them. They don't replace a liberal arts education for personal growth and knowledge, but they can get you an opportunity to get rewarding summer jobs, instead of menial ones. Being a broke college student sucks, I was happier making $35/hr part time as a Citrix/MS geek than $8/hr cleaning test tubes in a lab.
Alex
Parent
Presumptions (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, wait now -- who's hiring again?
Re:Presumptions (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Presumptions (Score:3, Insightful)
Not nearly as bad though.
Re:Presumptions (Score:3, Insightful)
A lot of people, if you're an experienced systems administrator who's willing to work for $30,000 a year...
hehehe (Score:5, Insightful)
I had to leave IT and I have several years of experience. Thanks to bootcamps certifications are no more then peaces of paper. A paper is nice but its worthless without experience.
Good on many fronts (Score:5, Interesting)
Shop/Trades (Score:3, Informative)
They're much more likely to be brought on as a carpenters/plumbers/welders/machinists apprentice than get a job in an office. They put in their dues on the jobsite, and can wind up a very well paid craftsman.
A lot of companies are giving up on certifications like this. Many more are looking for people with actual skills with computers and administration. You should be able to hand your IT guy a manual and he should be able to figure out the nuances of the system.
These children are being done a disservice by this. It's no different than the 'get Microsoft certified and make $50,000 a year' ads blaring on the radio.
Re:Shop/Trades (Score:4, Insightful)
Banished to the domain? Hardly.. Have you any idea what a master plumber or carpenter makes? You're a fool for looking down your nose at people who work with their hands for a living.
You can get a job in IT with HS education. But chances are that 30k job will pay 30k for the rest of your life.
If you want a future out of high school, you're better off as a tradesman.
Besides, people will always need carpenters, contractors, plumbers and electricians. The wont always need a RHCE
Parent
Not the only such thing happening (Score:5, Informative)
Never helps me... (Score:2)
Thats too young! (Score:5, Insightful)
I know all the shit-hot teenage geeks out there are going to think I'm out of line for saying this (especially when they feel they are ready to take on the world). I'd recommend they go to University and expand their minds a bit even if they feel it is below them or that they wouldn't learn anything. Don't rush into being a wage-slave, kiddies, its not half as much fun as you think it is.
Re:Thats too young! (Score:5, Insightful)
This applies especially to positions such as Systems Administration where experience, wisdom and maturity are an absolute necessity.
Ahh-- but the only true wisdom and experience comes from actually doing the work. Being a "junior" sysadmin or an intern under good people is the best training anybody can get. I try to take on at least one (1) intern every summer, and I encourage anybody who wants to see the median level of "suck" in our job field get lower to do the same...
That is, unless you are a sucky sysadmin to start with... *smirk*
Parent
Re:Thats too young! (Score:4, Interesting)
So instead of coming out of high school and starting work at 30k, these kids are going to goto college and pay $10k+/yr for 4 years. They are going to be able to actually afford $3000 of that. So after college they have $30k in debt.
Now. Instead of going to school they start working at 30k. They have no debts. They have a car, a job, and are gaining experience faster than any college intern for 2 months during two summers.
I went to school for 4.5 years. I had nearly a full scholarship for athletics. I still have quite a bit to pay off. I have a job that doesn't pay all that great, I am worried about losing my job, I already lost wage increases. I had no experience, I have little money, and I am just as scared as everyone else.
How is this a bad thing? Get the money first and go back to school later. That's my opinion.
Parent
Re:Thats too young! (Score:2, Interesting)
How is this a bad thing? Get the money first and go back to school later. That's my opinion.
I'll second that! I'm taking classes for my B.S. now, since I've decided that my Associate Degree doesn't really satisfy me. I'm amazed and pleased with the changes in my "study ethic" after being in the workforce for six (6) years. I find that I'm applying myself a lot more effectively, both because I've gained maturity in my organizational and time management skills, and because now it's MY money that's financing my education (though it was my money the first time, too... *sigh*).
I'm also a firm believer that the money you earn early in life is the money that's worth most to you. I'm glad I've spent the last six (6) years investing in my house and in my retirement-- that's years of compounding interest and appreciation of value that I'd have never had if I didn't start working young.
Re:Thats too young! (Score:3, Interesting)
I can see this working very well when combined with a good local after school internship program. It can allow high school students to find a career that they enjoy earn enough money in HS and later to put themselves through school. Yes this is a tough way to do things but I'll teel you this I'll hire a hot teenage geek that loves to do this over some college kid that isn't sure what they want to do with there life.
BTW dont tell me kids dont know what to do go back a few hundred years and people had families by age 18 and a career this is just our society playing one up on itself every generation.
Re:Thats too young! (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course I havent worked in a corporate environment, and I dont particularly want to. I have dealt with beurocracy, I have dealt with stupid budget policys (go over budget, get more to spend next year, keep to your budget, get less), 3 day waits to get a cheque (check) signed, etc.
Half my CV is extra-curricular activities over the last 2 years. When I think now how boring my life would be had I dropped out and worked in a small buisness keeping windows from spontaneously rebooting.
A friend of mine didnt apply for uni to start with - went to work for an "e-" firm. Got a ton of paper certificates, then tried to get into uni. Didnt try hard, got on a 5 year degree course (not 3 years like most UK ones). He's got 3 years of uni left now, and will have just as many debts as me, if not more, when he graduates - he lives the $30,000+ a year lifestyle on a $5,000 loan cheque). I could have walked arround the world when he graduates!
Subversive... (Score:3, Funny)
When they are younger, it's easier to mold their minds.
Way to go for Linux world domination.
Reminds me of my time in High School! (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, I took that seriously, and made damn sure that I *knew* to enter the proper date when Appleworks was starting up, and that I *had* to make sure I had the right disks in the drives.
(Interesting note: Even in Word 2002, CONTROL-B and CONTROL-L are for bold and underlining, respectively)
Of course, we all learned how to use Apple DOS (both 3.3 and ProDOS) - we^H^Hthe rest of the class did this for a solid month, during which time I was permitted to play Choplifter, Cannonball Blitz, and Ultima V because I already knew how to use Dos... which *really* pissed the rest of the class off...
Anyway, to get to my point, I wonder how relavent the things that they learn now will be a few years after they graduate - and I hope it is *concepts* that they learn, instead of cookie cutter "type CATALOG to see a what's on your disk, insert your disk and type PR#6 to start AppleWorks" stuff...
-RickTheWizKid
(Open-Apple-S to save, Open-Apple-P to print)
Re:Reminds me of my time in High School! (Score:2)
Re:Reminds me of my time in High School! (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, I took that seriously, and made damn sure that I *knew* to enter the proper date when Appleworks was starting up, and that I *had* to make sure I had the right disks in the drives.
---snip
---snip
Anyway, to get to my point, I wonder how relavent the things that they learn now will be a few years after they graduate - and I hope it is *concepts* that they learn, instead of cookie cutter "type CATALOG to see a what's on your disk, insert your disk and type PR#6 to start AppleWorks" stuff...
---snip
I'm totally with you, the way things are "taught" is a big pet peeve of mine.
My school had a similar class to the one you describe, but for various reasons I never found my way into it. I was fortunate enough to have an Apple IIe of my own at home, with a few random reference books for various things. Instead of the rote class learning, I was teaching myself 6502 assembly (because I had a reference to 6502 opcodes and had found a way to get myself into the miniassember that came with Integer Basic), and learning the various subroutines that could be called in DOS 3.3. When I got my hands on 3.3E by begging and stealing from our nazi computer "teacher" at my elementary school, I remember the joy of decompiling 20 instructions at a time to get glimmer of what the minor differences were in the code. As time went on, I taught myself how to automate writing much of my assembly by using WPL, a very under-appreciated scripting language internal to AppleWriter II (well, Don Lancaster knew how good it is). Later, (once I had gotten my hands on the reference books) I taught myself the in's and outs of high level languages like Integer Basic and Applesoft; when I managed to sneak off with a copy of Apple Logo, I learned everything I could about that, because "it's fun to learn what makes things tick!"....meanwhile, the class learned the syntax of various DOS 3.3 commands.
Anyway, I took nothing very seriously, at that formative age (10 years old) I had found a toy that had limitless possibilities, that could be reprogrammed to perform any task you could conceive. The class was being taught how to operate a tool within narrow confines of specific pre-decided tasks.
Now, almost 15 years later, what I learned then on that Apple IIe was invaluable; what I learned that was truly valuable was not how to interface with a disk ii controller and count clock cycles for timing in my ML loops, it was that I learned something about learning. The class had learned how to be told what to do.
The most valuable thing that IIe taught me is that you are fooling yourself if you tell yourself you "know" everything about a subject. When people say they "knew" DOS 3.3 because typing "catalog
The next most valuable thing I discovered was how to pull something apart and learn how it works, without a master plan in front of you. Too many people have been taught to "learn" by being shown an example, and then emulating. It's faster, it get's the grade school concert band able to push out a few notes in time for their parents to be proud during the winter concert, but rote knowledge is a poor subsititue for actual understanding. Type "pr#6" to boot off the floppy in drive 1, slot 6...does that actually teach you anything about what is going on, or are you just mechanically following directions? When all you learn is to follow directions, inovating when given an unexpected problem is very difficult. When you understand what is happening, you give yourself many more choices, and much more control.
Anyhow, I learned many of the same subjects that the computer class at my grade school set out to learn. But I suspect that over time I got much more out of my learning experience than those students did, simply because of the way they were forced to learn.
To make this slightly on-topic, does anyone know how the Redhat classes are taught? Do the teach you think unix, or do they teach you the syntax of commands?
Parent
But if Microsoft were to do such a thing..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:But if Microsoft were to do such a thing..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft is a molopolist, it used or attempted to use its molopoly in operating systems to gain additional monopolies and destroy competitors.
Redhat didn't.
Think of it like a prison record: would you trust high schoolers with a convicted (and largely unrepentant) criminal?
-dameron
Parent
Just what we need... (Score:2, Insightful)
Seriously, most of the H.S.-diploma-only folks I've ever dealt with in the professional world have chips on their shoulders. Ten times worse than those who went to Ivy League schools, in fact.
Re:Just what we need... (Score:3, Interesting)
Some of the best and brightest I.T. people I've ever had the pleasure of working with didn't possess college degrees.
By contrast, I'd be a very rich man by now if I had a dollar for every college-degreed "professional" I've seen who can't write a complete sentence to save his/her life.
If anything, the "chips on the shoulders" of the H.S. diploma only folks were placed there by the jealous majority of college-degreed folks who have lesser skills despite the formal education.
Social skills, writing skills, exposure to a broad range of topics -- sure, all are valuable and important. Does one need to attend college (or even finish college with a 4 year degree) to have increased levels of any of these? Not that I know of! These skills are developed simply by going through life, trying to be the best person you can be. That means taking a little initiative to learn new things on your own. Most self-taught I.T. people are happy to do this.
Nutrition and dirt... (Score:5, Insightful)
But Weaver students can get Red Hat certification free -- and use it get a job paying more than $30,000 a year right out of high school.'
Oh, sweet $DEITY. They could spend time taking college classes in high school, learning marketable skills that aren't tied to a particular manufacturer's contrivances of what a computer operating system should look and act like, learning to code, READING BOOKS, and end up far valuable "just out of high school" than a little RedHat, Cisco, or Microsoft drone. It seems a little premature (high school) to be focusing so heavily on something so specialized instead of gaining an appreciation and general understanding of computing.
The kids that come out of these programs (I've got a "Cisco Academy" at a high school close by that I work with, and know people who teach at another high school that's been doing CompTIA "A+" training, and I've gotten to be around some of these kids) are mostly useless drones. The kids that really have potential are the ones that hack around on their own, have a genuine interest, and make something of themselves on their own. I'd take one (1) of them to ten (10) of these "cookie cutter kids". The training is just too specialized-- they can't handle something that wasn't "in the book".
Don't get me wrong-- I think it's great that schools are expanding their technical training-- but don't expect these kids to be useful for much other than what they've been "trained" for when they get done.
Those Cisco kiddies can sure make the patch cables, though. Snip-snip, crimp-crimp!
Same stuff...different decade (Score:2, Insightful)
One big difference though is the lack of unions in IT. Even through crappy economic times and corporate changes my father and friends from high school have continued to do alright--not great, but alright.
Great, but kids - please go to college (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope that the school is encouraging the kids to use this new knowlege as a jumpstart into college. Kids: $30,000 a year may sound like a lot when you're living with your parents but it's nothing once you have a mortgage and hungry mouths to feed! With a college degree you can command a much higher salary [1].
A college placement is much easier to come by if you can say you obtained Linux certs in school and it'll give you a huge advantage over the other students.
In writing this comment I have had one thought though. When are High Schools going to start teaching kids how to read, write and do arithmetic? I know plenty of people WITH high school dipolmas who can't spell, can barely read and need a calculator for basic arithmetic.
[1] I'm also hoping that by the time current high school students graduate college the economical climate will have improved and jobs will become available for them.
Now Paper RHCE (Score:2)
Train them and tell them they have a step ahead of others when they go on to college. Don't tell them they are ready for the real world.
high school programs are bullshit (Score:3, Insightful)
the instructor was the auto teacher who went through a 6 week course to teach a 2 year program. Any time a student had a question, the teacher didn't have a clue. After 2 years, not a single student was able to pass the certification test, or even think it was worth it to try.
I got a part time job working the help desk at a local ISP/website development/network administration company my senior year. after working there for 4 months i knew more about router configurations than any of my friends in the 'holy' Cisco program. You can see why i feel highschool programs are bullshit now.
Applying this to the Red Hat situation, Unless red hat hired and is paying the instructor, its going to be some math teacher, or shop teacher who got a book and a boot camp and he/she will be lost and the kids' time would be better spent reading stuff off of the internet durning a study hall.
Good Broad Experience (Score:2, Interesting)
Microsoft and Apple experience, why not
introduce a few of the next generation programmers
to what will be one of the competing desktops.
Hopefully an electronic ethics course comes
along with it all these computer classes
generally speaking.
Sounds like the Vegas Effect (Score:3, Insightful)
Why, when you get out of H.S. and work 4 years starting at $30K you still make more than your college counterpart in the long run?
Am I wildly jaded (Score:5, Insightful)
Too young? (Score:4, Interesting)
Getting certification does not mean that one can need not go to college. However, gaining skills and then applying them, typically in a job-like setting, offers a huge set of advantages.
Internship opportunities allow you to actually _use_ these skills and do something productive with your time. Imagine if all the "14 year-old script kiddies" could put their hacking skills to use on something, whether it be Cisco routers or adding features to samba (just to name a random project). OSS gives great amounts of opportunities for students to apply their technology skills in a productive way, but this isn't enough.
Schools need to help students learn these skills and give them opportunities to use them. Would I have survived 8th grade had I not been running the lighting and sound for nearly all school productions and maintaining the school website? Probably not. Besides, it's clear that it is "fun" to crack into various systems, but what if that could be done in a productive way too? That's just what I did last week when I (at the request of the technology department) discovered that my school's security model resembles swiss cheese (I'm still trying to get them away from Windows...
Furthermore, there are some situations where just working on random hacking projects won't do. This is where an internship comes in handy: being able to apply your skills in some sort of useful way while learning. Here, there are no real expectations that you have to know how to do this or that, just lots of abilities to learn new things and try them out.
If anything, schools need to do more to encourage students to get involved in the field. Have students be working on something productive, whether it is building cgi scripts for the school website to working as an intern for the summer (or even for a two-week break), and you will see a group of students that are more prepared to face the world and have a thirst to learn more: exactly what is provided by a college education. You may even see a few less students smiling smugly when you discover that the school website was cracked yet again.
case study (Score:3, Insightful)
At age 9 I mowed 3-4 lawns a day for a summer and bought my first computer for $400. I hacked on it 24/7. It has been to my benefit, IMO, that I have never been big on games, because boy are they a waste of time. I did a lot of QBASIC.
I got my first job at a small (10 person) startup IT consulting firm at age 15, broke all child labor laws working 60-80 hrs a week (by choice mind you), and made $8/hr. My 1 year raise was $.25/hr. A few months later, I got knocked up to $9/hr. During this time I did mainly VB programming. At this point, the company fired their router guy, so I jumped right in and filled the gap. I soon obtained my CCNA and soon after ask for, and recieved, a salary of $32,000, before my 17th birthday.
I then obtained my MCP because we were a Windows shop. I was still at this point 50/50 programmer/tech. I couldn't decide what my pasion was for. IT company started going downhill, a few days before my 19th bday I baled and got a job at a financial institution - titled 'network technician' on a team of about 4 techs, however I am the network administrator by any definition, I have the responsibility (but not the title) of the security administrator, as well as Exchange administrator (to my agony). I just obtained my MCSA as part of my job objectives for the last 6 month period. At this point I am making $42,000.
I took 12 credit hours at a community college back when I was 16, and am realizing now that especially in the field of network security a degree is important not just for the piece of paper to show the suits, but anyone really does benefit from the well-rounded education you get along the way. I intend to continue attending university part time for as long as it takes. I love my job, my hobby. I am now purchasing a house, enjoying being married, and looking forward to every day I get to go to work, and excited that I have the oppourtunity continue my college education...
A piece of paper? (Score:5, Insightful)
$30k??? (Score:5, Insightful)
This sounds like a good way for a lot of promising young kids to get absolutely screwed (and not in the good way that most of them wouldn't mind).
looked at it... (Score:4, Interesting)
Bottom line: too damn expensive for schools.
Re:$30,000 a year (Score:2, Insightful)
$30k per year with $0 direct education costs
$50k pery year with $bigint direct education cost.
Hrm. Doesn't sound that bad to me.
Re:$30,000 a year Can I have what you are smoking (Score:3, Insightful)
There are very few jobs that you get right out of college paying 50k a year, I don't care what your GPA was, if you were student body pres, or blew the dean of men.
I have 13 years tech experience, plus an IS degree, and two years doing tech work in Latin America(speak fluent spanish) I just got a job pulling 42 grand a year with full benefits. AND I AM DAMN GLAD OF IT. The job is in Louisiana where the cost of living is dirt ass cheap, so it is like 55 any where else.
My friends who become engineers all, got jobs making 25-30k when they started out, and these are guys with GPAS from great school.
A college degree does not guarantee you a 50k job, nor does a masters.
And I hate to say it, but all my jobs looked at past projects and years on the job. Though the degree does open a lotta doors.
A college graduate with a good 8 years under his built might make 50.
You need a reality check.
Puto
Re:$30,000 a year Can I have what you are smoking (Score:4, Insightful)
No, it does not guarantee anything. On the other hand, should you find a job in some engineering fields on graduation, the average starting salary IS $50K. For example, the AICHE reports that the 2002 average starting salary for various engineering professions was:
* Chemical Engineering: $51,254
* Electrical Engineering: $50,387
* Mechanical Engineering: $48,654
A college graduate with a good 8 years under his built might make 50.
After 8 years of experience most engineers have been promoted twice and would expect a 30% increment at least over a fresh out of college employee. That would put such a person the the range of $65-70K.
Parent
Re:wait for the massive influx.. (Score:2)
Under Darwinian Evolution, that is not good for the geek!
Perhaps Redhat realises this, and are trying to get the next generation hooked earlier... ;-)
Re:Linux? (Score:2)
This is really unnecessary and harmful to the workplae overall, which is why I have chosen to go into tradeschool and become an electrician. You get paid modest wages while you learn (apprenticeship), and because of the low demand for college diplomas, trade professions are really lacking in new prospects.