Getting the right skills

The next generation of American millionaires will be plumbers and electricians, not from Silicon Valley. That’s according to Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, the company considered the most valuable today because of their role in producing the most advanced microchips needed in the AI revolution.

- BOO CHANCO

The AI boom, according to Huang, isn’t only dependent on software engineers but also on those who physically build and maintain the data centers. As data centers rapidly expand, electricians, plumbers and carpenters are needed for support.

For high school graduates worried about the increasing number of unemployed college graduates and those replaced by AI, consider that the work of plumbers, electricians and carpenters are AI-proof.

Huang said society had overvalued four-year degrees while undervaluing vocational training, which is now essential for the ‘AI driven economy.

Huang suggested that young people should consider skipping traditional college degrees and be plumbers, electricians and carpenters instead.

Even in the automotive industry, an industry that is over a hundred years old, Huang’s concern is shared.

Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, warned that America is in trouble because of a scarcity of qualified workers. Ford has 5,000 mechanic jobs paying $120,000 a year they can’t fill.

According to Yahoo Finance, Farley, like Huang, blames the problem on a systemic shortage of training and education for skilled trades.

Says Farley: “The pipeline feeding those hands-on roles has eroded — and the consequences go far beyond economics. God forbid we ever get in a war, Google’s not going to be able to make the tanks and the planes...”

China too, The Economist, in its recent issue, reported that “China has too many university grads and too few jobs for them.”

China Youth Daily, a state-owned newspaper, quoted an education-ministry researcher calling for a rethink of values that have resulted in “an oversupply of diplomas and a shortage of skills.”