To a large extent, the dream of everyone was to go to school, get good grades, graduate and get a white-collar job, a good-paying one if I may add. That's all good. Perhaps, that's how it should be. But maybe there's a need for a reorientation from this perspective. From the idea of school even. That seems to be a major point for this high underlying desire for white-collar jobs among many youth.
Some people have been out of school for years and are still roaming the streets in search of these jobs while living off their parents at the same time, which is a tragedy. The government of a country like mine has made the dreams of white-collar jobs a fantasy. What irks me more is when I hear people playing close to a million for these jobs which they don't get sometimes. And I tend to wonder, what of the blue-collar jobs? Why can't we explore them?
As mentioned, the school itself has made it seem like the perfect and certain destination should be in administrative and office work. That's how we see it from this part of the world at least. However, I beg to differ. There can be a different track which the youth can take beyond these admirable white-collar jobs.
Blue-collar jobs symbolise those who engage in manual and physical labour. These are jobs like carpenter, plumber, electrician, driver, cleaner, machine operator, welder, mechanic and skilled trades. While office and administrative jobs are exalted, there's dignity and gain in blue-collar jobs too. Perhaps, youth today are getting lazier and more so that we don't want to engage in manual labour, tagging them dirty and low standard.
However, have we realised that the gains from some of these blue-collar jobs are far more than some of the white-collar jobs? I have seen such. The man who engages in manual or physical labour is never out of funds to sustain himself and or the family, but the office worker lives on debts continuously. I see this as a challenge to the youth to change our perspective on this.
Beyond personal gain, these jobs have a lot to offer society. From my perspective, I consider that society will suffer more without these jobs as opposed to white-collar jobs. They are usually the closest to us when it comes to human interactions. The wages for these works might seem meagre; which seems to drive many youth away as well, but a cumulative of it after a week, month or year will be a thing of surprise.
Some people have built their homes; families, houses and investments with these jobs. They are lucrative in their own way. Society needs more of these jobs than we think. As such, we should learn to appreciate those who do these jobs and not degrade them, which is one reason many youth don't resonate well with this kind of work.