Hands-on vocation training imported from Germany

South Carolina BMW plant imports German apprenticeship program - PBS Newshour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpDAocHVxwM

Take a look at the Career Day at 2:50... of those options, which would you choose?

I love stories like these about people who quit pursuing a career track that they don't really like and find a hands-on job they really do like. The German vocational training system was actually designed in the 1700s, yet still is effective today. It is part of what has been called the "German Skills Machine," which helps make Germany the #1 economy in Europe and the #3 exporter in the world despite having less than half the population of Brazil and less than 7% of the population of India. Bosch, Stihl, Siemens, BMW, Mercedes, Bayer, Faber Castell, and BASF (the largest chemical producer in the world) are some of Germany's biggest export companies.

And some more similar stories

Dual Benefits - Stihl exports a German training system to Virginia Beach | Made in Germany - DW.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuX9ATIrlrs

Dual Vocational Training - Germany's successful system | Made in Germany - DW.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzNM2BqKsxs

From college dropout to craftsman - DW.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfPIcEIJvVw

"With all the young people around [in Munster], you'd think it would be easy to fill apprenticeships. But most high school grads enroll at university instead... however 1/4 later quit."

"Young people spend years studying things they don't like... but over the years they get a much better idea of their interests and strengths, and develop the courage to explore areas better suited to their personality and interests."


Stihl plant in Virginia Beach

The array of construction jobs that nobody hears about in school

Build your future
http://byf.org/

There are so many hands-on jobs in construction that most people--including me--never heard about in school. The "Craft Professions" section on this website has a great overview.

Yet these days, in the world of desks and cubicles, in school nobody tells you any professional uses for using your hands and for moving, doing, and touching i.e. kinesthetic and tactile jobs and we could add "coordination" jobs. These talents are channeled into arts and sports and crafts which, in school, are often considered frills or entertainment.

One of the goals of this site Build Your Future is to help dispel that illusion. All of the jobs on it require the same type of talents and sports, arts, and crafts along with many other types of intelligence. The options are much broader than many people realize.

As noted in a previous post, studies often mislead people into believing that hands-on jobs pay less than jobs requiring college degrees because the studies lump low-skill hands-on jobs like flipping burgers in with high-skill jobs like maintaining wind turbines or installing solar panels.

The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning through Movement

"Learning happens from the feet up"
-Michael Kuczala

Great video on how the brain-body connection plays out in the classroom.

Note at the end he mentions making lessons a) real and b) three dimensional through movement--engaging spatial intelligence as well as kinesthetic.

The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning through MovementMichael Kuczala - TEDxAshburn  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41gtxgDfY4s

Combining nature with hands-on work outdoors

The Nature-Smart Career: 11 New Jobs For a Nature-Rich Future

http://www.childrenandnature.org/2014/03/24/new-nature-smart-careers-11-for-the-future-and-for-right-now/
by Richard Louv


Richard Louv has a lot of great perspectives on connecting nature and people. I like his term "nature deficit disorder"--the disorder being with our system rather than within people.

"7. New Agrarian. Who’s that? Urban farmers who design and operate community gardens. Designers and operators of vertical farms in high-rise buildings. Organic farmers and innovative vanguard ranchers who use sophisticated organic practices to produce food. The focus is on local, family-scale sustainable food, fiber, and fuel production in, near, and beyond cities.

8. Health care provider who prescribes nature. Ecopsychologists, wilderness therapy professionals, are going mainstream. Some pediatricians are now prescribing or recommending “green exercise” in parks and other natural settings to their young patients and their families. Hospitals, mental health centers, and nursing home are creating healing gardens. The Portland, Oregon parks department partners with physicians who send families to local parks, where park rangers serve as health para-profesionals. In the U.K., a growing “green care” movement encourages therapeutic horticulture, ecotherapy, and green care farming.
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  9. Green exercise trainer. Exercising indoors and outdoors seems to produce different results. Even when the same number of calories are burned. Outside exercise appears to have better results, especially for psychological well-being. Green exercise trainers can help individuals and families individually or by organizing “green gyms” and family nature clubs. “People walkers” can help the elderly take a hike.

11. Bioregional guide. We’ll see the emergence of the citizen naturalist who, as professionals or volunteers, help people get to know where they live. One organization, Exploring a Sense of Place in the San Francisco Bay Area, guides groups that want to have a deeper understanding of the life surrounding them. Think of these guides as nature-smart Welcome Wagons who help us develop a deeper sense of personal and local identity."

Working with your hands: the secret to happiness?

Working with your hands: the secret to happiness?by Oliver Burkeman in the Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/may/08/working-hands-happiness-burkeman


"Our physical surroundings no longer hold our attention, and we start to succumb to what Crawford calls 'virtualism' – 'a vision of the future in which we somehow take leave of material reality and glide about in a pure information economy.' This is the vision peddled by numerous commentators on the future of the internet: an ethereal, anchorless world in which all we do is exchange ideas, where everything is funded by advertisements for everything else, and in which all that matters is the production of knowledge – not the sewers and electricity networks and kitchen tables and washing machines on which the knowledge-producers will still presumably rely."

The case for working with your hands

The author has a Ph.D. in political philosophy and runs a vintage motorcycle repair shop.

We need much more training, encouragement, breadth of options for people who want to work with their hands and want to get out of an office--which is a lot of people.

The case for working with your hands by Matthew Crawford
http://www.amazon.com/Working-Hands-Office-Fixing-Things/dp/0141047291/ref=la_B001QV943Q_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443207185&sr=1-3

Hand-eye coordination is a major part of many careers

Hand-eye coordination is a major part of many careers.

Careers for Those With Good Hand-to-Eye Coordination
http://work.chron.com/careers-those-good-handtoeye-coordination-12465.html