The Lost Art Of the Skilled Trades

Andreas Brockmann of United Grinding built an apprenticeship program that now gets 400 applicants for 5 spots — and it starts apprentices with hand tools, not machines.Three years ago, United Grinding had 15 candidates for 4 apprenticeship positions. This year, they had over 400 applicants for 5 spots. Andreas Brockmann, the Apprenticeship Coordinator who built the program from scratch, says the shift didn't come from a hiring gimmick — it came from treating apprentices like real employees from day one: full benefits, a $19.50 starting wage, 15 days of vacation, and a four-year path to becoming a mechatronic technician.Andreas reached out to Andrew after disagreeing with a LinkedIn post, making a simple but pointed argument: an 18-year-old can't walk into industry already knowing how to be a professional — companies have a responsibility to develop them. That conversation became this episode. Andreas unpacks exactly how United Grinding recruits, trains, and mentors apprentices in Miamisburg, Ohio — from six months on hand tools before anyone touches a machine, to bringing parents into the very first interview, to why CEO buy-in makes or breaks the whole thing.This episode is for manufacturing leaders, HR and workforce development professionals, and trades employers who keep saying "young people don't want to work" — and are ready to hear a different explanation, and a real blueprint for fixing it.IN THIS EPISODE(00:00) – Meet Andreas Brockmann: Why a LinkedIn disagreement turned into this conversation about who's really responsible for developing young talent.(02:00) – The 10% rule: Why United Grinding dedicates roughly 10% of its workforce to apprentices, and what that investment actually returns.(09:00) – From 15 candidates to 400: How the program grew every year since it launched three years ago.(10:00) – Hand tools before machines: Why apprentices spend six months on a workbench with files and chisels before they ever touch a drill press or CNC machine.(15:00) – Getting the whole company bought in: Why apprenticeship programs die without the CEO "200% behind it," and how United Grinding builds and vets mentors.(29:00) – Bringing parents into the process — and why Andreas believes the skilled trades talent gap is "our fault, not theirs."Key TakeawaysCompanies, not young workers, are responsible for closing the skilled trades talent gap — and treating apprentices like full employees from day one changes who applies and who stays.Apprenticeship programs only survive difficult years if the CEO and leadership are fully bought in from the start; programs get cut first when budgets tighten, and that's the worst time to cut them.Starting apprentices on hand tools for six months before machines builds fundamentals, patience, and pride in the work before productivity even becomes the goal.Bringing parents and family into the recruiting process — not just the applicant — builds the home support system that determines whether an apprentice actually finishes the program.About the GuestAndreas Brockmann is the Apprenticeship Coordinator at United Grinding North America in Miamisburg, Ohio, where he built the company's four-year apprenticeship program from the ground up. An engineer by training with decades of manufacturing and workforce development experience, Andreas has grown the program from 15 applicants for 4 positions to over 400 applicants for 5 spots in just three years.He works directly with local high schools, career centers, and even middle schools to build a talent pipeline for precision manufacturing careers, and regularly collaborates with other Ohio manufacturers on workforce-sharing and apprenticeship best practices.Keywordsapprenticeship program, skilled trades apprenticeship, manufacturing apprenticeship, mechatronics technician, CNC apprenticeship, workforce development, Gen Z in the trades, apprentice mentorship, career pathways in manufacturing, tuition reimbursement, Andreas Brockmann, United Grinding, United Grinding North America, Miamisburg Ohio, manufacturing careers, industry 4.0, workforce shortageRESOURCE LINKSAndreas Brockmann on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasbrockmann/United Grinding Apprenticeship Program: https://www.grinding.com/en/about-us/our-team/apprenticeship-program/WORK WITH ANDREWKeynotes, workshops, podcast activations, and workforce storytelling for the skilled trades.andrewbrownspeaker.com

Employee retention doesn't start with recruiting it starts with the first 90 days. Host Andrew Brown breaks down what construction and manufacturing leaders do differently to keep new hires from quietly walking out the door.After more than a hundred interviews for The Lost Art of the Skilled Trades, Andrew set out to learn how companies recruit better. Instead, he kept hearing the same thing from guests across every trade, every state, every generation: nobody stays because of a great application process. They stay because of a person — a foreman, a mentor, a superintendent — who noticed them in the first few weeks on the job.This episode pulls together the pattern hiding in plain sight across dozens of conversations, including moments with welder Nate Bowman, workforce leader Glenda Rahn, Zekelman Industries CEO Barry Zekelman, and NCCER President and CEO Boyd Worsham. Each one, without knowing it, described the same three leadership behaviors that determine whether a new hire builds a career with your company or quietly starts looking elsewhere.If you lead a crew, run a shop, or manage new hires in any skilled trade, this episode gives you three practical moves to make this week — no bigger recruiting budget or new software required.IN THIS EPISODE(00:01) – The WTF moment: Why leaders get blindsided when a good employee quits without warning, and why the instinct to "recruit better" misses the real problem.(02:03) – The pattern behind 100+ interviews: How Andrew kept asking about recruiting and kept hearing about mentors instead, including Nate Bowman's welding helmet story and what it reveals about belonging.(09:32) – Pattern 1, Expectations: Glenda Rahn on why the "work ethic" problem is really a clarity problem, and what a 22-year-old project engineer told Andrew he actually wants from a leader.(14:35) – Pattern 2, Where leadership disappears: Barry Zekelman on walking the floor, the difference between orientation and onboarding, and why every leader needs to answer "who owns day 27?"(16:42) – Pattern 3, Confidence: Boyd Worsham's story about the instructor who taught him "the business of construction," not just the trade.(23:34) – The 3-part challenge: make success visible, check in before there's a problem, and give people a chance to succeed.Key TakeawaysNew hires decide whether they belong within the first 90 days — and that decision, not the recruiting process, is what determines whether they stay long term.Clear expectations beat motivation every time. Telling a new employee exactly what success looks like at day 7, 30, and 90 removes the uncertainty that causes early turnover.Onboarding is a relationship, not a one-day event. Leaders who put short check-ins on the calendar at day 14, 30, and 60 catch small problems before they become resignation letters.Confidence is built through experience, not given through speeches. Leaders who hand new employees real responsibility before they feel fully ready create the evidence that keeps people committed to a career, not just a job.About This EpisodeAndrew Brown hosts The Lost Art of the Skilled Trades, where he's interviewed hundreds of contractors, CEOs, foremen, apprentices, and workforce leaders across construction, manufacturing, and the skilled trades. This episode is a synthesis, not a single interview — it draws on recurring moments from guests including welder Nate Bowman, workforce development leader Glenda Rahn, Zekelman Industries CEO Barry Zekelman, and NCCER President and CEO Boyd Worsham.Their stories, told independently and without ever meeting each other, kept describing the same leadership behaviors — proof that the biggest opportunity in the skilled trades isn't just recruiting more people, it's leading the people who already said yes.Keywordsemployee onboarding, first 90 days, new hire retention, construction leadership, skilled trades retention, onboarding vs orientation, employee expectations, workforce retention, apprenticeship mentorship, construction workforce development, Andrew Brown, Nate Bowman, Glenda Rahn, Barry Zekelman, Zekelman Industries, Boyd Worsham, NCCER, The Lost Art of the Skilled Trades, manufacturing leadership, Gen Z workforce, foreman mentorship, employee belonging, workplace cultureRESOURCE LINKSAndrew Brown: www.andrewbrownspeaker.comSUPPORT THE SHOWIf you found value in this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Your support helps us keep telling the stories of the skilled trades.

Jason Altmire and Riley Burr, co-authors of Trade Up, break down why the skilled trades pipeline is broken — and the fix isn't just more people, it's better retention.The math doesn't work: the number of Americans over 65 grows 3% every year while the under-18 population shrinks 0.2% annually, and there are already 15% fewer kids in kindergarten than there are high school seniors. That gap keeps widening until at least 2041. At the exact same time, record numbers of college graduates can't find jobs while record numbers of employers can't fill open trades roles — a paradox Jason and Riley unpack in detail, alongside a catch-22 most people never talk about: trade school graduates being locked out of entry-level jobs because employers demand three to five years of experience they have no way to get.Jason Altmire is President and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), the national trade association for private postsecondary career schools, and a former three-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Riley Burr is Executive Director of the CECU Research Foundation and VP of Policy and Research at CECU, with a background authoring federal workforce and education reports. Together they wrote Trade Up: Why the Future Belongs to Skilled Trades and How Career Education is Transforming the Workforce — a data-driven look at the "Toolbelt Generation" and the systems failing to connect willing workers to open jobs.This episode is for parents trying to guide a kid toward a real career path, Gen Z workers weighing trade school against a four-year degree, employers struggling with 90-day attrition, and anyone who wants the actual data behind the skilled trades shortage instead of the headlines.IN THIS EPISODE(00:00) – The impossible math: Jason and Riley explain why an aging population and a shrinking youth pipeline make the skilled trades shortage a demographic problem, not just a recruiting problem.(08:00) – The zero-experience catch-22: why trade school graduates with the right soft skills keep getting rejected for lacking three to five years of experience, and what "qualified applicant" actually means to employers.(16:00) – Broken pipelines: guidance counselors who only know how to advise for college, a state charter trade school with a random lottery, and why parents don't know how to steer kids toward the trades even when they want to.(26:00) – Women in welding and the power of visibility: why only 5% of the skilled trades workforce is women, but 32 of the top 50 welding accounts on Instagram are run by women — and what that means for recruitment.(36:00) – Data centers, AI, and job security: why Microsoft's research shows blue-collar trades have the lowest task-replacement risk from AI, and why data center construction is reshaping pay and poaching in the trades.(46:00) – Mentorship builds the tradesperson: why most attrition happens in the first 90 days, and why "apprenticeship teaches the trade, mentorship builds the tradesperson."Key TakeawaysThe skilled trades shortage is a demographic math problem first: the population over 65 grows 3% a year, the population under 18 shrinks 0.2% a year, and that gap keeps widening until at least 2041.Many employers create their own shortage by demanding three to five years of experience from trade school graduates, locking out qualified candidates in a catch-22 they can't work their way out of.Retention lives or dies in the first 90 days on the job, and mentorship — not just apprenticeship — is the single biggest factor tradespeople point to when asked what changed their career trajectory.AI poses far less risk to skilled trades work than to white-collar jobs — Microsoft's task-replacement research shows blue-collar roles have the lowest automation exposure of any job category tracked.About the GuestDr. Jason Altmire is President and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), the national trade association representing private postsecondary career schools. He previously served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (2007–2013) and has led senior roles in the hospital and health insurance industries. Since joining CECU in 2020, he has grown the association's membership, revenue, and media reach, including launching CECU's research foundation.Riley Burr is Executive Director of the CECU Research Foundation and Vice President of Policy and Research at CECU. She previously served as lead author and contributor on federal workforce reports for the National Center for Education Statistics, with research focused on bridging the skills gap and expanding the role of trade schools. Jason and Riley co-authored Trade Up, drawing on that research to map out how career education is transforming the American workforce.Keywordsskilled trades workforce shortage, trades pipeline crisis, skilled trades career pathways, trade school vs college, registered apprenticeships, career and technical education, HVAC career, electrician apprenticeship, welding career, plumbing trade, aviation maintenance technician, women in the trades, Gen Z workforce, Toolbelt Generation, mentorship in the trades, workforce retention, AI and blue collar jobs, data center construction jobs, Jason Altmire, Riley Burr, Trade Up book, Career Education Colleges and Universities, CECU Research Foundation, Andrew Brown, The Lost Art of the Skilled TradesRESOURCE LINKSJason Altmire on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonaltmire/Riley Burr on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rileyburr/Trade Up (book): https://tradeupbook.com/Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU): https://career.orgSUPPORT THE SHOWIf you found value in this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Your support helps us keep telling the stories of the skilled trades.