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Comment by rollthehard6 | Hacker News Reader

I don't know about the US, but here in the UK, if you are in say, your 40s/50s and out of work, good luck trying to get yourself a trade - apprenticeships are still the province of the young and the government won't help retrain you either. This to me is as big a problem with respect to vocational training as encouraging all school leavers to go to university to get a degree. As people live longer we can't continue to ignore those who would retrain into a trade.

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You do realize that the skilled trades are physically demanding, and usually by the 40s or 50s as a tradesman you are either in management or counting the years till union retirement, or you're probably on disability from the injuries years of working in them can cause?

I mean, you do Hvac or electrical work, you're not doing it in a comfy ac office. You're working in summer heat for long shifts, lifting 100 pound boxes of tile. Not like the average 40 year old is going to be able to be an undersea welder, or will have the stamina to work as a welder on the shop floor.

Part of the retraining could be physical conditioning for the work. Your body's capabilities are not a fixed quantity.

Wouldn't it be assumed that someone in their 30/40s would have savings to retrain?

When I went to uni, there were a few mature students.

If you're unemployed and looking to retrain then what savings? You've probably used up most of it while looking for work in a field that was quickly shrinking.

> Wouldn't it be assumed that someone in their 30/40s would have savings to retrain

Maybe 50 years ago? Not for the last 20 years at least. The average 30/40 year old is in debt, nevermind having savings.

Lets say I've been making 50k a year since I was 20. I put 5k a year into a retirement account (IRA/401k/$country's equivalent) and another 5k into just a regular saving account to keep it liquid for a rainy day. After taxes and what not that means I'm probably living on 20k a year.

I lose my job at 35. I now have 75k in liquid savings. I spend the first 6 months looking for a job, now I'm down to 65k, I decide to retrain. That's 10-20K and 12-24 months if I go to Community College. So I'm dead broke by the end. If I have to buy a car, or break an ankle I'll never make it.

So I get a part time job in retail making 10-12k a year before taxes just to help defray the cost and to keep the unemployment gap on my resume smaller. Great I make it through. Except now I'm 37 looking for a job in a field that I have no previous work experience in. So I keep my retail job and try to squeeze enough hours out of it keep everything together, or I get a second job. Now I'm a constantly stressed and exhausted 37 year old paranoid about taking a day off to interview because what if they cut my hours in retaliation for missing a shift who is looking for a job in a field that I have no previous work experience in.

Just to add: there's some assumptions here like: I live in a place with a community college.

This "works" if I'm in Albuquerque when I lose my job. If I live in Carrizozo or Tucumcari? I'm kinda fucked.

Not today, no.

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