What Happens After 30 Years in the Trades? | Herb Sargent

About this episode

Herb Sargent discusses the importance of teaching life skills alongside job skills in the trades to ensure dignity in retirement.

What if the real workforce problem isn't recruiting — it's that we're handing young people tools before we've taught them how to live? Herb Sargent, recently retired CEO and Board Chair of Sargent Corporation, has spent decades proving there's a better way. Herb watched a man named Freedom — a 70-year-old truck driver shuffling between offices and a trailer he lived in — and made a decision: nobody who works for Sargent Corporation would retire without dignity. That commitment turned into a full workforce development system that teaches budgeting, retirement planning, soft skills, and career pathways — before a single shovel hits the ground. Herb Sargent is the recently retired CEO and Board Chair of Sargent Corporation, a 100% employee-owned civil construction company founded in Maine in 1926. Under his leadership, Sargent grew to 550+ employee-owners, built a construction academy that helped grow their under-25 workforce from 10% to 25%, and achieved 1 million injury-free man-hours through a single five-second mindset shift. If you lead a trades company, run a workforce development program, or are trying to recruit and retain Gen Z workers, this conversation is exactly what you…

People in this episode

Host: Andrew Brown

Guest: Herb Sargent

Topics covered

• workforce development
• trades education
• career pathways
• life skills
• retirement planning
• Gen Z recruitment

Keywords

• workforce
• trades
• education
• career
• skills
• retirement
• Gen Z
• construction
• Sargent Corporation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sargent Corporation

Places: Maine

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