"Not long ago, Ricky Brown, approaching 40 and wanting a raise, decided to go to college. After he earned a degree, his salary increased by 40%.
Mr. Brown didn't get a traditional four-year degree, though, or even a traditional two-year one. He went through an apprenticeship-style program in Kentucky. New research shows it is paying off big for graduates, who typically earn nearly six figures within five years of graduation.
Mr. Brown, who dropped out of high school, now earns $72,000 a year maintaining and repairing machinery for an aluminum factory in Russellville, Ky. "I wanted to show my kids anything's possible if you just want it and try hard enough," said the 41-year-old father of two.
The program, the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education, began in 2010 as an experiment among several companies, including Toyota Motor Corp.'s Georgetown, Ky., factory, which was having trouble finding "middle-skill" workers to operate new technology. The program pairs employers with community colleges. Today, nearly 400 employers participate in 13 states.
To date, conventional wisdom is that a high salary requires a four-year degree. To be sure, the "college premium" remains near record highs: Workers with a bachelor's but no graduate degree earned $78,000 on average in recent years, compared with $45,000 for those with only a high-school diploma, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Students of FAME -- a mix of new high-school grads and older factory workers well into their careers -- typically spend two days a week in class and three days on the factory floor, earning a part-time salary. They learn to maintain and repair machinery; traditional subjects such as English, math and philosophy; and soft skills such as work ethic and teamwork. After earning an associate degree, most work full time for the factories that sponsored them.
Among the most sought-after are middle skills, said James McCaslin, provost of Southcentral Kentucky Community & Technical College in Bowling Green, a FAME school.
"Because the machines have become so sophisticated and because the margins are so thin, companies are looking for people who can do all the things we deliver," Mr. McCaslin said.
The FAME program typically covers five semesters, or two years. To enroll, students must interview with employers, who consider past grades, standardized tests and demeanor.
James Atkinson, who oversees FAME apprenticeships at Kentucky-based GE Appliances, said people feared in the 1980s that automation would kill all of their jobs. Now, "We need people that can work on those robotics. Sometimes it might mean you're going to lose three, four, five assemblers, but may gain two maintenance workers that are higher skilled that are making more money to run those machines"." [1]
The numbers listed here show what can be achieved depending on your education, and talents if you emigrate to the West. Well, if you stay in Lithuania and elect clowns again (everyone is looking at you, Valinskas), then, seeing the new roads for billions of euros, you will at least know how digitization is done in the West, where it all starts, and you can boldly rip off your hairs, knowing that you did elect wrong ones again. Anyway, from poverty and stress, your hairs will fall out on their own, only maybe a little later.
1. U.S. News: Apprenticeships Offer Step Up for Workers
Mitchell, Josh. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]20 Oct 2020: A.3.
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