The Lost Art Of the Skilled Trades

Data center electricians are making big money. Andrew Brown asks who's training the next generation of electricians while the same experienced people get recruited from job to job.

Mike Rowe shared a story about visiting a data center in Texas, where he met three electricians, all under 30. According to Mike, all three were making more than $240,000 a year, and all three had been recruited away from other projects three times in the previous 18 months. Andrew posted about it on LinkedIn, the post passed 100,000 impressions, and the comments from people who work in the field turned into this...

Concetta Defa, executive director of the Utah Building Trades Council, on why data center training has to build real electricians, not one-job installers.

Tech companies are pouring money into training workers to build data centers, and electricians on those jobs can make over $200,000 a year with overtime. Concetta has seen this before. When she was an apprentice, crews were putting up cell towers, and people who only ever learned cell towers struggled to pass journeyman exams and many left the trade once that build-out ended. Her question for every workforce program today: when the data center boom...

Julian Scadden, CEO of Nexstar Network, on why the trades need a clear path from technician to business owner, not just a pitch about six figures.

Everyone says the trades pay well, carry no student debt and don't need a degree. Julian wants to know why kids still aren't lining up. His answer starts with his own story: early in his plumbing apprenticeship, a service manager pulled him aside and said everyone loved how clean he kept the truck and how well he did the paperwork, but he wasn't a good plumber. Julian never planned to be...

Jon Ward, CEO of Ward Vessel and Exchanger, on why welders quit in the first 90 days, how a "people first" culture actually gets built, and why your best welder is rarely your best mentor.

Jon asks a question most shop owners avoid: if a million young people raised their hands tomorrow and said they wanted to work in the skilled trades, would employers actually be ready for them? His answer is blunt. A lot of companies say they'd hire 20 or 40 people tomorrow if they could find them, but most have no system to actually bring that many...

The AI and data center boom is creating a wave of new trade jobs for electricians, HVAC techs, and welders. Host Andrew Brown asks the real question: are we filling projects, or building tradespeople?

Every headline right now says the same thing: massive money pouring into new data centers, new energy infrastructure, new construction. That means a hiring wave for electricians, HVAC techs, pipefitters, and welders. But Andrew argues there's a difference between teaching someone the three tasks a specific project needs and actually training them in the trade, and most companies aren't paying attention to which...

Travis Nevins of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades explains what a glazier actually does, and why this skilled trade career is everywhere you look and almost nobody can name it.

Every skyscraper facade, every mall handrail, every office glass partition, that's glazing. Travis has spent 25 years in the trade, and he opens by pointing out something most people never notice: glazing surrounds us constantly, yet it's one of the least recognized paths into the skilled trades.

Travis Nevins is the Deputy Director of Organizing at IUPAT. He spent five years as a...

Andreas Brockmann of United Grinding built an apprenticeship program that now gets 400 applicants for 5 spots — and it starts apprentices with hand tools, not machines.

Three years ago, United Grinding had 15 candidates for 4 apprenticeship positions. This year, they had over 400 applicants for 5 spots. Andreas Brockmann, the Apprenticeship Coordinator who built the program from scratch, says the shift didn't come from a hiring gimmick — it came from treating apprentices like real employees from day one: full benefits, a $19.50 starting wage, 15 days of vacation, and a four-year path to becoming a mechatronic technician.

Andreas reached out to Andrew afte...

Aircraft mechanic Joshua Borel of Chennault Aviation breaks down why the industry faces a 700,000-person shortage over the next 15 years — and how A&P techs build six-figure careers.

Joshua Borel didn't set out to work on airplanes for a living, but as Director of Maintenance at Chennault Aviation, he's now responsible for a fleet that ranges from a 1962 Piper to customer aircraft flown by first-time solo students. His rule is simple: you can't pull over at the next cloud. Once you're airborne, there are no second chances, so the work has to be right the first time — ever...

Employee retention doesn't start with recruiting it starts with the first 90 days. Host Andrew Brown breaks down what construction and manufacturing leaders do differently to keep new hires from quietly walking out the door.

After more than a hundred interviews for The Lost Art of the Skilled Trades, Andrew set out to learn how companies recruit better. Instead, he kept hearing the same thing from guests across every trade, every state, every generation: nobody stays because of a great application process. They stay because of a person — a foreman, a mentor, a superintendent — who noticed them in the...

Aircraft maintenance apprentice Miyah Spade of Canadian Helicopters breaks down what it really takes to keep planes and helicopters safely in the air — and why almost nobody knows this trade exists.

Miyah just walked off the floor of an international aerospace maintenance skills competition in Orlando, where her team was the only one to fully complete their event — removing and reinstalling a 150-pound aircraft slide under a strict manual, timed, and inspected to the letter. She talks about what it takes to hold that much information under pressure, and introduces the "Dirty Dozen" — the twelve human factors, like d...

Jason Altmire and Riley Burr, co-authors of Trade Up, break down why the skilled trades pipeline is broken — and the fix isn't just more people, it's better retention.

The math doesn't work: the number of Americans over 65 grows 3% every year while the under-18 population shrinks 0.2% annually, and there are already 15% fewer kids in kindergarten than there are high school seniors. That gap keeps widening until at least 2041. At the exact same time, record numbers of college graduates can't find jobs while record numbers of employers can't fill open trades roles — a paradox Jason and Riley unpack in deta...

Aviation maintenance technician Brianna De Armond breaks down what it really takes to become an aircraft mechanic — and why one signature on the paperwork can define an entire career.

Brianna is a student in the Aviation Maintenance Technician program at San Bernardino Valley College and a competitor at the Aerospace Maintenance Competition (AMC). In this episode, she shares the moment she realized aircraft maintenance is as much about reading manuals and ATA codes as it is about turning wrenches — and what it feels like to sign off on a plane carrying a couple hundred people, knowing your name...

The electrician shortage is real: 10,000 retire each year, only 7,000 enter. Siemens Foundation CEO David Etzwiler is building a $9.25M solution.

Meanwhile, 130,000 new electrical jobs are coming online in the next decade — driven by AI, data centers, and hyperscaler buildouts. The gap between demand and supply is accelerating. Yet most people still think of the trades as a backup plan, not a first choice.

David Etzwiler is the CEO of the Siemens Foundation, the corporate philanthropic arm of Siemens USA. He leads Careers Electric, a $9.25 million workforce initiative in North Carolina that is building a multi-lane hi...

Aircraft maintenance technicians keep every plane in the sky — and half are about to retire. John Goglia, former NTSB board member, on what's at stake for aviation safety.

United Airlines alone has 14,000 mechanics. Within five years, roughly half will be eligible for retirement. That's 7,000 highly skilled aircraft maintenance technicians — gone. The pipeline to replace them is dangerously thin, and the average airline mechanic today is approaching 60 years old. The workforce shortage that began after 9/11 never fully recovered — and what happens next could push maintenance work out of the country entirely.

John Goglia spent decades on the ha...

Glenda Rahn, Director of Workforce Development at Merit Ontario, reveals why skilled trades companies lose new apprentices in the first 30 days — and what to do about it.

Every contractor says the same thing: "We can't find people." But Glenda Rahn has seen something different on the ground — and it's not a recruitment problem. It's a retention problem. Companies bring in new hires who are excited on day one and then fail to give them what they need to stay: clear expectations, a real mentor, and a reason to belong.

Glenda is the Director of Workforce Deve...

Aircraft maintenance technician Bret Oestreich on signing off 250 lives every night shift — and why aviation's most essential trade stays hidden.

Every time you board a plane, someone signed their name to a document saying that aircraft is airworthy. That person is an Aircraft Maintenance Technician — and most passengers never see them, never think about them, and never know they exist. Bret Oestreich, National President of AMFA (Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association), has spent decades inside this world. He started on C-130s in the Air Force, earned his A&P license and pilot's license simultaneously, and worked his way...

Liam McComas is 25, works in construction, and believes Gen Z owes it to themselves—and the trades—to earn trust before expecting it.

Most content about Gen Z in the workforce falls into one of two camps: either the younger generation doesn't want to work, or companies need to change everything to keep them around. Liam McComas rejects both. At 25 and two years into his career as a project engineer at Neumann Brothers in Des Moines, Iowa, he's made a choice most people his age won't: the responsibility for earning trust on the job site belongs to the...

Aircraft maintenance technician Evie Garces climbed from Aviation High School to VP at American Airlines — now she's recruiting the next generation.

A mother chaperoning a hangar tour at American Airlines started to cry. Her son wasn't "college material," she said. She thought military was his only option — until she walked into that hangar and discovered the A&P license. That moment is why Evie Garces spends her weekends, evenings, and every spare hour making sure more families know this career exists.

Evita "Evie" Garces is Vice President of Line Maintenance at American Airlines, where she over...

Rob Holmes co-founded ForgeNow to solve America's skilled trades shortage — producing apprentice-level HVAC, electrical, and plumbing technicians in just 6 weeks.

The average plumber in Texas is 54 years old. The average electrician is 60. Within 10 years, 50% of today's tradespeople will be on social security. And nobody's talking about it. Rob Holmes is. His answer is ForgeNow — a military-style trades training school in Dallas that runs a full-time, hands-on program Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and graduates technicians ready to work at apprentice level in six weeks. Starting wage: $25 an hour. Graduation rate: 91% — versus 23% at community colleges.

R...

Aviation maintenance is booming — and Boeing's Jennifer Radtke says the mechanic shortage now outpaces the pilot shortage for the first time in history.

710,000 aviation technicians will be needed over the next 20 years. Airlines are already experiencing delays from maintenance staffing gaps — and that number is only going to grow. Yet most young people still have no idea this career path exists, what it pays, or how far it can take them. Jennifer Radtke has spent 32 years in aviation, starting as a mechanic and working her way to Functional Chief Engineer at Boeing — a role she didn't even know e...

The U.S. needs 320,000 more welders by 2029 — and data centers are accelerating the shortage. UA Training Specialist Bob Derby joins Andrew Brown.

There's a program most people in the trades have never heard of: the UA Welder Finishing School. It takes pipe welders with existing skills — from trade schools, non-union shops, or plant work — and gets them UA-certified and dispatched to a job in 8 weeks or less. At no cost to the individual. Meanwhile, data centers are creating a surge in piping and welding work that shows no sign of slowing. The labor market is wide open — and the...

Aircraft maintenance technician careers start at $75K and climb past six figures — but a 40,000-person shortage is threatening aviation. Rob Cush of AMFA joins Andrew Brown.

By 2028, the aviation industry is expected to hit peak retirements — and the average aircraft maintenance technician is already 56 or 57 years old. The wave is coming. At the same time, new A&P graduates are being poached between school and their first job by oil and gas, because a $500–$1,000 testing cost creates a 60–120 day gap that other industries are happy to fill. The pipeline is leaking at every stage.

Rob Cush is...

What are employers actually looking for in the next generation of tradespeople? According to Serenity Satterfield, it’s not just technical skill. It’s confidence, communication, professionalism, and the ability to step up before you feel fully ready.

That is what SkillsUSA is building.

Serenity Satterfield is the SkillsUSA National High School President, and her own story shows why the organization matters. She went from a small chapter in San Bernardino, California, to advocating for career and technical education on Capitol Hill and serving in national office — all because she kept saying yes to opportunities that p...

The trades don’t have a shortage of interest — they have a bottleneck at the point of entry.

Christine Boehm of SupplyHouse.com breaks down how skilled trades scholarships and trade school scholarships are removing the barriers most people never see — and opening doors that were never accessible to begin with.

For years, workforce development in the trades has focused on awareness: getting more young people to consider careers in HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and construction. But interest isn’t the problem. The real gap shows up after someone decides they’re in — when cost, access, and lack of...

What the Trades Don't See (But We Do) | Aaron Witt, BuildWitt

Aaron Witt of BuildWitt has visited job sites on 5 continents. His take: the trades' biggest problem isn't negative perception — it's invisibility.

Most people in the trades blame the younger generation. They say Gen Z is lazy, college-obsessed, or soft. But Aaron Witt — who showed up to his first construction job at 18 with zero background — says the real problem is structural. The industry built its entire training model around workers who grew up in the trades. Now a whole generation is showing up without that baseli...

What if the real workforce problem isn't recruiting — it's that we're handing young people tools before we've taught them how to live? Herb Sargent, recently retired CEO and Board Chair of Sargent Corporation, has spent decades proving there's a better way.

Herb watched a man named Freedom — a 70-year-old truck driver shuffling between offices and a trailer he lived in — and made a decision: nobody who works for Sargent Corporation would retire without dignity. That commitment turned into a full workforce development system that teaches budgeting, retirement planning, soft skills, and career pathways — before a single shovel hits the...

The welder shortage has never improved in 30 years. Kris Scherm of ESAB explains why — and what it will take to fix the pipeline.

When Kris Scherm entered the welding industry in the nineties, the American Welding Society reported a 150,000 welder shortage. Three decades later, that number is projected at 320,500 by 2029 — and it has never once gotten smaller. With the average shipbuilder now in their late 50s, the pipeline problem is about to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

Kris Scherm is a 30-year veteran of the welding industry and Global Product and Busi...

Welder and metal artist Sarah Stork went from farm chores to SkillsUSA national champion — and built a thriving sculpture business on her own terms.

When the guys on her SkillsUSA team laughed her off on the spot, Sarah didn't sulk — she found a new event, taught herself welded sculpture from scratch, and placed second in the country on her first attempt. The year after that, she won gold. That's not beginner's luck. That's what happens when someone with the right instincts finally finds the right trade.

Sarah Stork is a Georgetown, Texas-based welder, metal artist, and...

HVAC systems are changing. The margin for error is shrinking.

Host Andrew Brown sits down with Jay Henderek, Sales Director at ESAB, to examine why process discipline in the Skilled Trades matters more today than it did even a decade ago. As HVAC industry trends push systems to become smaller, more complex, and increasingly influenced by A2L refrigerant legislation, shortcuts that once caused minor issues can now create serious safety risks.

Jay explains why nitrogen purging for brazing is no longer a “best practice” but a baseline requirement. What some technicians still treat as opti...

Brazing best practices, nitrogen purge brazing, and air fuel vs oxy fuel system decisions all reveal the same principle: the best tradesmen never cut corners.

Host Andrew Brown sits down with John Henderson, Sales Director of Gas Equipment at ESAB, live from AHR Expo to examine why disciplined fundamentals—not speed—separate respected contractors from those constantly fixing preventable mistakes.

John explains why nitrogen purge brazing is often skipped on job sites and why experienced tradesmen refuse to treat it as optional. What may look like a small time-saver can introduce internal oxidation, long-term system dama...

Skilled trades careers offer another path. Tony Bertolino explains plumbing apprenticeships, on-the-job training, and why apprenticeships aren’t “less than” college.

Host Andrew Brown sits down with fourth-generation plumber, contractor, apprenticeship instructor, and business owner Tony Bertolino to break down how trades careers actually develop, from plumbing apprenticeship programs and on-the-job training to the shift from technician to owner.

Recorded during live apprenticeship competitions, Tony shares what sets top apprentices apart: mindset, self-discipline, and pride in doing the work well. The conversation explores why classroom learning has limits, how hands-on repetition builds real mastery, and why tr...

Before skill, before technology, trades careers are built on responsibility and showing up.

Andrew Brown and Dan Callies, President of Oak Creek Plumbing, break down what actually sustains blue-collar careers: character, mentorship, and earned respect.

Andrew and Dan explore how plumbing apprenticeships develop more than technical skill, why hire for character, train for skill remains a durable leadership principle, and what it really takes to grow from apprentice to journeyman to business owner. Drawing from decades in the field and in leadership, Dan explains how accountability, attitude, and consistency shape long-term success in the trades.<...

Welding careers, welding apprenticeship programs, and the welding skills gap—Arc Junkies host Jason Becker breaks down what today’s welders need to know.

Host Andrew Brown sits down with Jason Becker, Marine veteran, longtime welder, educator, and host of the Arc Junkies podcast, to explore the real-world journey from hands-on welding work to industry-wide storytelling and advocacy.

This episode unpacks how years of hands-on welding experience shaped Jason’s voice as an industry advocate and podcast host—learning welding through repetition, hard work, and decades in the trade and how he went on to hosting...

The first thing a superintendent said to Valerie Butler on a jobsite was: ‘You’re not who we want out here.’”

Host Andrew Brown sits down with Valerie Butler, a plumbing apprentice at P.I.P.E. Incorporated, to explore how to build a successful plumbing career path in today’s skilled trades industry. Valerie shares her journey from the Marine Corps to a hands-on plumbing apprenticeship, offering real insight into military to trades career transitions, job site realities, and the value of skilled trades mentorship.

This episode takes an honest look at what it’s like being...

Aircraft maintenance is the backbone of aviation safety. Andrew Brown and Jason Pfaff break down the aircraft maintenance technician shortage, FAA A&P certification, and aviation careers.

Host Andrew Brown sits down with Jason Pfaff, CEO of the Aviation Institute of Maintenance, to explore the unseen world of aircraft maintenance and why the growing aircraft maintenance technician shortage is becoming a serious issue across the aviation industry.

They unpack what goes into keeping planes airworthy, why FAA A&P certification is one of the most rigorous credentials in the skilled trades, and how aviation maintenance...

Host Andrew Brown tackles the growing welding workforce shortage and explains why it’s one of the most urgent challenges facing the construction and skilled trades industries today. As experienced tradespeople retire and fewer young workers enter the pipeline, the future of welding jobs in the U.S. hangs in the balance.

Andrew breaks down how to get into the welding trade, why traditional advice is failing Gen Z, and what’s missing from today’s education system. He explores skilled trades careers for Gen Z, highlighting how craftsmanship, problem-solving, and creativity are being overlooked in favor of out...

Want to start a plumbing career? Charles Goede joins host Andrew Brown to break down trade school training, union apprenticeships, and the SkillsUSA competition.

Host Andrew Brown sits down with Charles Goede , the U.S. competitor for WorldSkills Plumbing & Heating 2026, to explore how a young tradesperson rises through trade school training, excels in the SkillsUSA competition, and builds a long-term plumbing career.

Charles opens up about mentors who shaped him, the reality of union apprenticeships, what it’s like to compete on a world stage, and how the skilled trades create life-changing opportunities—from travel to h...

Career change at 40? Learn how skilled trades careers, plumbing apprenticeships, and the Trade Up Program help adults start working with your hands.

Host Andrew Brown sits down with Lixil America’s Senior National Sales Trainer Vinny Arnese to unpack what it really looks like to make a career change at 40, begin a plumbing apprenticeship, join the Skilled Trades, or shift into a hands-on career through the Trade Up Program.

They break down the rising demand for skilled trades careers, why so many people over 40 are ditching white-collar stress for working with your hands, and how Li...

Union-backed skilled trades careers create long-term opportunity. Tom Bigley joins host Andrew Brown to break down trade school options, union benefits, and how to launch a successful path in the trades industry.

Host Andrew Brown sits down with Tom Bigley, Director of Plumbing Services for the United Association, to explore how today’s skilled trades careers really work—covering everything from plumbing union entry requirements to why modern apprenticeships and trade school pipelines offer unmatched union benefits and long-term security.

Tom shares 40+ years of insights on recruitment, opportunities for women, career advancement, pension programs, and how...

Behind every home built and tool lifted, the Home Depot Foundation is powering skilled trades careers through its Path to Pro trade programs. Courtney Jenkins from the Home Depot Foundation joins host Andrew Brown to discuss how to start a career in the trades, and what’s next for the trades industry.

Host Andrew Brown welcomes Courtney Jenkins, Manager of National Programs and Strategic Partnerships at the Home Depot Foundation, for a deep dive into the future of skilled trades careers. Discover how trade programs, Path to Pro, and national partnerships are training thousands for construction jobs, HV...