BRIDGING

In 2017, after several years focusing solely on the crane and rigging skills gap, Melvin began thinking more deeply about the broader challenge the two-fold skills gap posed. The name Bridging America’s Gap (BAG) popped into his head, and after finding the website domain name unclaimed, things progressed quickly. Before he knew it, he was filling out the paperwork to register BAG as a nonprofit organization. By the start of 2018, Melvin was able to give BAG his full attention; by February of that year, the first BAG website was up and running and the first partners had signed on. The organization received its official 501(c)(3) designation just four months later.

A BETTER FIT

Melvin pointed to the current state of affairs created by the existing “college for all” solution the U.S. has promoted as the genesis of the skills gap dilemma. In other countries, education is handled in a different way. “Students are tested early on to find out what will work best for them and are then encouraged to follow an appropriate career path,” he explained.

“Currently, we have over fifteen million high school students in the United States. Over thirty percent (about five million) have no plans to pursue a post-secondary education upon graduating. Of the ten million young people that do go on to college, approximately forty percent will not receive a degree within six years of starting college, but they will have college debt averaging well over thirty thousand dollars each. That is both a national tragedy and a national crisis at the same time.”

Melvin and BAG call the trades skills “… a natural answer to both the tragedy and the crisis.” Unfortunately, the trades “… have become a ‘bad word,’” Melvin said. “As a result, it’s become common in the U.S. for people to enroll in four-year colleges or universities rather than applying for skilled trade positions. Then they leave a short while later with a lot of debt and, in many cases, no clear sense of what they want to do.”

As a non-profit organization, BAG works to align all sides of a given industry to a shared vision, and then lead them in the development of a solution to their skills gap challenge. The effort involves collaboration with students, educators, and businesses, and the end goal is to bring the next generation to the skilled trades industries in the necessary numbers.

This is approached through a number of initiatives, and Melvin likens the process to coaxing two shy people into talking to each other. One of the primary BAG initiatives is the Career Skills Event, in which students from local schools and community colleges spend a half-day at a member business’ facility, moving quickly through a series of education stations and hearing direct testimony from industry professionals. Participants learn about career opportunities while getting hands-on experience.

The hope is that with a clear window into what the various trades entail within their respective day-to-day activities, and the professional elements (good salaries, robust benefits packages, and opportunities for growth and advancement) that place these jobs in a desirable position, students may come to find them much more attractive—and maybe even a better fit than a four-year-college education path.