Shortage of Trained Workers Affecting Many Businesses

In a previous blog, we discussed the fact that the world is in need of skilled workers…young people trained in a specific trade. We touched on the fact that many high schools, usually due to funding issues, have scrapped their trade courses. What a shame and a disservice to our young people. College is great if you are interested in a field that requires a college degree or if you enjoy school. For some, college is really not an option whether it is due to finances, degrees not offered in their area of interest, or the fact that college is just not a good fit for every person.

While not all states are taking active measures to combat the lack of young people in the trade industries, about five years ago Florida stepped away from the pack by offering forty-eight career and technical centers which provide the education and certification necessary to work in a specific career or technical field. Additionally, we are fortunate in our area that local high schools offer some trade courses. For example, Space Coast High School in Cocoa offers a course in A/C Refrigeration and Heating Technology. Six of our local high school offer Automotive Maintenance and Light Repair which is a class that has been widely cut from high school across the nation. Astronaut, Melbourne, and Palm Bay Magnet High Schools all offer Building Construction Technologies.

While Florida is doing what it can to ensure that high school students have trade options, it is also up to us as their family members and community to encourage them to pursue their areas of interest. We should be proud of kids who learn how to repair our A/C units, especially here in Florida! We should applaud kids who are learning how to repair cars and build homes! These are reputable and NECESSARY trades.

Why are we bringing this up? Quite simply, the lack of young people pursuing trades is causing a hardship for business owners. They are struggling to find trained workers to join their workforce. According to a 2017 article by Global Risk Insights, a survey by the Associated General Contractors of America showed that seventy-three percent of businesses had a difficult time finding qualified workers!

When businesses like us, Tripod Aluminum, can’t find trained workers or even workers who are willing to be trained, it can affect our ability to get our work commitments completed in a timely manner. Additionally, it prevents us from accepting as many job contracts as we would like because we know that we don’t have the employee roster to get too many jobs done in a timely manner that both we and our customers desire. It pains us to fall behind schedule. We understand that when this happens, it is frustrating to the customers. The last thing we want is dissatisfied customers!

We have a great local business here at Tripod Aluminum. We serve Viera, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, Palm Bay, Satellite Beach down the coast to Port St. Lucie. We get to be outside in the beauty of Florida on a daily basis. And, we get to help beautify your backyards with our premium screen porch and patio enclosures, as well as screen pool enclosures. We also provide repairs if you already have a screen enclosure but it has sustained some type of damage.

It is our desire to serve you to the best of our abilities. If we DO fall a bit behind, please lend us a little understanding as we are constantly fighting the labor shortage. But, we promise to always do quality work with quality materials. Please call us today for all your screen enclosure needs. And, if you or someone you know is trained in this field or looking to learn our trade, please send them our way! We would love to increase our labor force, always be on time, and be able to accept every screen job offer that we receive! We hope to hear from you soon.