Trends

Trends in Adult Education in The Trade and Hospitality Industry

Who will be the students in your classroom?

There will be a clear answer to this question if you are a kindergarten teacher, an elementary school teacher, or a high school teacher. However, if you are going to instruct your students in plumbing, carpentry, or cooking, it might not be a simple question to answer. 

Trade industry students are likely to come to our classes at different ages and stages of their careers. This is not an unknown fact, but it is a challenging issue. 

“Dozens of articles in the last two decades have emphasized growing job instability and increased autonomy of workers by reporting that the average American — or Australian, or Canadian, or New Zealander — will go through many careers in a lifetime. The number is usually seven, though at times it is as low as three, and sometimes as high as 10.”   (Carl Bialik, A lifetime of career changes, New York Times September 3, 2010)

 “Almost one in five people living in Canada is a visible minority. And in nine different municipalities, those visible minorities are actually the majority.” (Heather Scoffield, the Canadian Press, Published Wednesday, May 8, 2013 8:37AM EDT)

 

A Canadian work environment includes workers of the various ages, cultures, and backgrounds. As the first article states, we change careers an average of five to seven times in our lifetime. This mean we need to regain the new skills five to seven times as well, so learning institution will be busy.     

“Many of the newcomers at the Murfreesboro trade school are in their 40s and 50s — twice the age of the typical student there. A lot of them, like S'ari Gian, already have college degrees.” USA TODAY by Clay Carey, Trade schools boom with enrollees twice the age of typical student, 7/19/2009

The trade and hospitality industry is strongly related to the economy.  This last article explained that many professional workers lost their jobs after depression in 2009. They needed to change careers to support their families.

There are certainly many youth workers in the trade and a hospitality industry. However, the new employees are not all young. Mid-age workers may start their careers at the same time as young workers who have just graduated from school. Immigrants join the industry from many different cultures and backgrounds.

Considering this varied workforce, we need to find a methods to show us how to work together effectively in the Trade and Hospitality industry in coming years. 

Resource from: 

Carl Bialik, A lifetime of career changes, New York Times September 3, 2010,
Heather Scoffield, Canada's immigrant population surges to 6.8M foreign-born residents the Canadian Press, Published Wednesday, May 8, 2013 8:37AM EDT,
 USA TODAY by Clay Carey, Trad schools boom with enrollees twice the age of typicl studentsTrade schools boom with enrollees twice the age of typical student, 7/19/2009