Some people aren’t great at white collar positions. I work trades and my boss’s grandson is a teen who is very smart and works hard on some jobs, but he struggles in school. White collar positons for people with high energy or long term focus issues can struggle in them. We aren’t able to let the robots do everything yet so we still need people to work trades. Schools should be providing quality pathways to both.

I think the bigger issue with the trades is the overtime culture and excessive hours most of them face. With better hours with the same pay i think the whole industry and workers standards would benefit.