Alternatives to College

Sweetgum
Wed, 16 Aug 2023 03:53:37 +0000

JackH2021:

It is true that many trades are hard on the body, and there is risk of injury. In many shops, the older guys are supervisors or running jobs, so the young apprentices are doing the heavy lifting. A common career progression in the trades is apprentice-journeyman-master, which often leads to lighter work like bidding jobs (sales), training, scheduling, operations management, etc.

But the damage has often been done by then. My mother-in-law’s partner has owned his own construction firms and done a lot of manual labor for all his life. He’s also had two knees replaced and one hip and has limited range of movement in one shoulder. The docs have pretty much done all they can for the shoulder. He loves his work, though, and still can’t bring himself to retire (obviously just supervising and calling the shots at this point.)