Get a good job without being chained to a desk
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The average person takes 20 minutes to change a flat tire. Now, imagine you have only 11.5 seconds to change four tires, top off a gas tank, clean the grill, and make a few minor adjustments, all while cars race around the track at close to 200 mph. That’s what members of a NASCAR pit crew experience during a race every time their driver pulls in for a pit stop. It requires skills you can’t pick up sitting in a college class.
Instead, like many other skilled jobs, becoming a NASCAR technician requires hands-on, specialized training, not a traditional, four-year degree. In this instance, the training happens at the Universal Technical Institute in Mooresville, North Carolina. Some students in this program even have the chance to build engines that will compete in NASCAR-sanctioned races. The average desk job pales in comparison.
It also doesn’t hurt that starting salaries for these skilled jobs provide a solid living. Qualified mechanics can expect to earn starting salaries of $45,000 to $65,000. Paychecks for specialists and pit crew members are even higher. But since we’re short on NASCAR racetracks in Idaho, where can you go for a little excitement and work that doesn’t stick you in an office?
Skilled jobs come with great paychecks
Click here to view some of the highest paid skilled jobs in Idaho.
Take a look below at some of the highest paid skilled jobs in Idaho. All provide average salaries above Idaho’s statewide average of $41,910 a year. All keep you out of the office most days. And all are jobs that don’t get mentioned very often in high school classrooms.
| Occupation Title | Employment | Mean |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical power line installers and repairers | 540 | $81,770 |
| Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay | 90 | $77,720 |
| First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers | 2,480 | $58,440 |
| Electrical and electronics repairers, commercial and industrial equipment | 570 | $57,180 |
| Medical equipment repairers | 240 | $55,430 |
As we continue to improve our “go-on” rate in Idaho post-high school education, we need to make sure that we’re highlighting ALL available options for advanced training and learning. Students, both young and old, need to have access to all the facts.
Skilled jobs go unfilled
In Idaho alone, thousands of skilled jobs remain unfilled. A quick search at IdahoWorks.gov shows hundreds of these full-time jobs within 50 miles of Idaho Falls that only require a vocational certificate or credential. We need to stop pressuring folks to think a traditional college degree (and the debt that goes with it) are the only options.
Look at the College of Eastern Idaho, for example. It offers multiple areas of study. Want to climb 300 feet into the air to service wind turbines? Then a certificate in energy systems technology may get you headed in the right direction. For one ex-desk jockey, a new career servicing wind turbines has taken him around the country and as far away as New Zealand.
Maybe you want to turn your passion for working on cars and trucks into a career. CEI has a program for that too. Beyond CEI, there are multiple schools and training options around Idaho prepared to help you learn a skilled profession, including the option to apprentice with other experienced professionals.
Skilled jobs are the future
Traditional universities and colleges will continue to provide a valuable education for our doctors, scientists, and teachers. But a lot of the work required to keep our world humming along falls in the category of skilled jobs. In fact, some of the new skilled jobs we’ll need to fill in the future don’t even exist yet.
In Idaho, we must prepare for our rapidly evolving future and do everything possible to help our kids gain the skills to succeed. We start by seizing every opportunity to invest in Idaho’s future success and that future success will depend, in part, on making sure we have enough professionals to fill these skilled jobs.