Louis CarterFounder and Chief Executive Officer, Best Practice Institute · Founder and CEO, Best Practice Institute - Most Loved Workplace® | Organizational Psychologist | Creator of AI Workplace Intelligence and Employer Branding Platform

Hands-On Skills Vanishing: We NEED Welders & Fixers! #shorts

3 Apr 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:07

In this YouTube short, two speakers discuss the recent removal of hands‑on vocational classes such as sewing, art, woodworking, mechanics, and welding from many schools, arguing that these courses are crucial for visual‑thinkers and for producing workers who can maintain and repair industrial equipment. Speaker A cites conversations with factory managers who now struggle to find qualified technicians, noting that the few remaining programs are largely located in the agricultural heartland of the United States. The dialogue then shifts to a personal anecdote: Speaker A describes building a gate for a cattle ranch—a project also depicted in an HBO documentary—illustrating how practical, self‑directed problem‑solving skills are still being applied in rural settings. The overall message is a call to preserve and expand hands‑on education to address a growing skills gap.

Chapters

And I think one of the worst things the schools did is taking out all the hands-on classes— sewing, art, woodworking, mechanics, welding— because these are the classes where the visual thinkers can excel. And some of these shops I worked with, it was a single welding class that opened the door. I'm not saying welding's for everybody, but the problem I'm seeing now, and I've talked to lots of factory managers, they can't find people now to fix equipment. We still have places where the shops still exist, and it's mainly in the middle of the country, in the farming country, where the kids are growing up, um, learning how to work on equipment.
And when you, when you're on the cattle ranch, uh, with your aunt and uncle, you, you fixed the fence and you created your own machine.
I made that gate you could open the car. I actually did that. All the projects shown in the HBO movie are accurate. I actually did all those projects.
And you did it, um, to help the— also the cattle ranch, the cows, and the noises around you, and, and, and to create a system that was best for yourself as well. So you, you improved your environment for yourself.
Well, that's right.