The answer is most likely yes and you're not alone. I created and launched www.DieselMechanicJobs.com in the year 2002. I had researched and found that the world was changing with the advent of the Internet that not only changed the way people were doing business but dramatically affected young people in their career choices. Turning wrenches is a talent few are born with and a great number of even those who are born with said talent and desire, working as a computer tech and/or a program developer pays much better and is a 'cleaner' job. You work your mind, not so much your body.
Excerpt taken from www.TransortTopics.com:
"Today’s shops are staffed by service technicians who are a mixture of baby boomers (1946 through 1964), Generation X’ers (early 1960s to early 1980s) and Generation Y’ers (early 1980s through early 2000s) — a complex palette of diversity."
Awakening to the reality that diesel and automotive mechanics are harder and harder to find and retain is a rude awakening for us all. Employers must watch their bottomline and in the economic hard times in which we live, all employers who need the services of mechanic techs are playing a game of Russian roulette if they do not hire and keep dependable, well experienced, engine and trailer mechanics.
Some say the answer is clear; pay better wages and retirement. That, I agree, is a good practice but only part of the solution. Generation Y and future generations must be introduced to the profession at an early age. High schools have long ago, for the most part, abandoned shop classes due to downsizing budgets, therefore removing the opportunity from young people's grasp in the early development of their lives. Once graduated high school, if one lives near a vocational school, or community college, that offers diesel or auto engine repair, then the opportunity may be available to those who have a desire to get sweaty and dirty, work long hours on their back or knees rather than a nice cushy computer and/or Internet programming job which will earn them 200% more money.
I don't know the solution (and no one seems to know) but I do know the diminishing pool of experienced and student diesel technicians is a far greater concern to everyone than even the on-going shortage of qualified truck drivers. Without enough mechanics there will be no need for drivers. When more and more repair shops go out of business due to a mechanic shortage, we will all suffer the consequences. All transportation, land, air and sea, will be affected.
The military produces quite a few mechanics and upon leaving the military, smart employers welcome them with open arms but as more and more foot soldiers are replaced with drones and other alternatives we may be impacted in a very negative way as our military source for hiring heavy duty equipment mechanics will need to train fewer and fewer mechanic specialists.
If anyone reading this article can offer up ideas or programs that are in place that are making headway with this devastating issue please leave your comments!
Marge Bailey/Admin
No comments:
Post a Comment