Southern Trust Home Services, a leading electrical, HVAC and plumbing company serving southwest Virginia, is celebrating National Tradesmen Day to help shine a light on the need for more skilled trades professionals and demonstrate how rewarding the industry can be.
“There are a number of reasons why the United States is seeing a decline in skilled trade workers, but by showing young people that these professions are valued and stable, hopefully we can start turning that trend around,” said Ted Puzio, owner of Southern Trust Home Services. “Events like National Tradesmen Day honor the men and women who work in the trade industries. These are essential positions, and we need to attract more talented workers.”
Puzio said that according to the National Electrical Contractors Association, 7,000 electricians join the field each year but 10,000 retire.
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“That’s just one example, and the same is true in the plumbing and HVAC service fields,” he said. “For years, we’ve told students that the only way to get ahead is to get a traditional four-year college degree, so we stopped exposing skilled individuals to these opportunities. We should show our children the wide array of careers they can choose from and position the trades as a good option for jobseekers interested in a career change.”
Puzio said there will always be a demand for electricians, plumbers, HVAC repairmen and construction workers because those professions can’t be outsourced. He said Southern Trust is always looking for home service professionals to fill open positions, and his home service business isn’t alone in the search to find more skilled talent.
“No matter how the market shifts, we will always need people in our communities to install the lights, keep clean, warm water flowing and keep our homes comfortable,” he said. “Not only is it fulfilling work, it also pays well and doesn’t require thousands of dollars in student debt to learn the trade.”
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Puzio said that a combination of the national push toward college-only careers beginning in the late 1990s and removing shop class from high school curriculums across the country has resulted in a shortage of home service professionals and this needs to change.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with attending college, but the message that it’s ‘college or bust’ if you want a fulfilling career needs to be tweaked,” he said. “Hopefully, in celebrating National Tradesmen Day, pushing for more inclusion in high school career days, and talking about the virtues of the industry, we can start attracting more students into the skilled trades pipeline.”
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