Michelle: Could you tell our listeners how you first got interested in this subject?

Tash: As the years progressed with my son and he was going through high school, I talked to him and a lot of his friends and I realized that not all of them were actually interested in going to college and they were looking for vocational training, technical programs to get them into the workforce right away. And that had me thinking about alternative pathways that would be an avenue for them to go to. And having technical skills right out of high school can provide them with a way that they can earn and be able to thrive in the workforce.

Michelle: That's great. It's such a good idea. I think gaining a little more traction these days. Did your son end up pursuing any of these careers or he's still in school?

Tash: He's currently in school and he took a gap year. First, he started nursing and then he thought that he needed to figure out what he wanted to do. He went into manufacturing a bit and then he decided he would go into accounting.

Michelle: That's nice. You got to try a few things before kind of committing to school. So good. So, in terms of trends with the industry, have you seen this being popular where younger people are kind of more interested in these fields or does it seem like there's still kind of a lack of awareness?

Tash: I think it's like with everything else. It depends on how open they are to advice and feedback and having the options put in front of them. For example, all the manufacturing trends now with machine learning, artificial intelligence. But at the same time, there's a space where they need folks to do some of the things that the equipment can't yet do. The inspections, the actual touching the machines, optimizing the inputs for the production processes. I was reading an article from Deloitte in their publication, Insights, and they're saying that over 40% of manufacturers in the US plan to increase investment in AI machine learning just in the next three years.

And that means that they're going to require a lot of entry-level positions to leverage people in some of these machines between when they actually perhaps start using more advanced smart sensors and robotics and some of these businesses while the advanced robotics is out there, it's quite expensive. And some of the small businesses are kind of midway in that spot. So I think there is the opportunity for kids getting out of high school to get skilled up. And also inside of the construction aspect, there is a lot of opportunity there as well.