After reading your July editorial addressing a “Shortage in the Skilled Workforce” and editorials in other publications, I thought someone might get a clue on what is really happening.

I am a career craftsperson who has raised two children. I have remained predominantly in the hourly ranks. The disparity between an hourly “skilled worker” compensation and the “salary” ranks has encouraged me to influence my children to seek a college education, not trade or industry-related courses in high school.

Paper, pencil, and engineering creativity are not the only ingredients that breath life into a machine. It takes the intuition, experience, and imagination of a “skilled craftsperson” to understand what was intended. The “skilled craftsperson and operator,” through education and experience, learns to improvise, tune, and maintain a machine to efficiently produce a product. Until the compensation difference has improved, you will continue to see a decline in the traditional “skilled workforce.”

As parents, why would you encourage your children to join the “skilled workforce?” — Thomas Haldi, CCST, Process Control Specialist, Charleston, SC

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