America’s Skilled Trades Gap Demands Faster Action. Let’s Accelerate Together.

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For decades, we told a generation of American kids there was exactly one respectable way to build a life: sit in a college classroom for four more years after high school, take on the debt, get the degree.

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It was a good story. It just wasn't a complete one. And the bill for that incompleteness is now coming due. At least 2.1 million skilled trades jobs may go unfilled by 2030, a hole opening up in the part of the economy that quite literally keeps the lights on, the water running and the roads passable. We'vetaken to calling this the Essential Economy, because that is what it is: essential. And it is straining.

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A year ago, Ford brought together business leaders, educators and policymakers in Detroit to look honestly at that strain. We called it ACCELERATE the Essential Economy. Next week, we do it again, only bigger, and with a year of evidence instead of just conviction. That, more than anything, is the story I want to tell you here: not just what we said a year ago, but what we've actually built since, and what we're about to build next.

The instinct, when a problem is this large, is to wait for someone else to solve it - Washington, the school board, the market. We rejected that instinct a year ago, and I'll reject it again now. No single company, school or government fixes a gap this size alone. But together, moving in the same direction at the same time, might. Here is what we've produced together so far:

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• We founded the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades with BlackRock, Google and Carhartt to build job pipelines, launch a skilled trades report and grow the movement.
• We partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies to modernize and expand Detroit Public Schools' auto tech program, piloting a model we hope to replicate in other cities.
• We teamed up with Lyft to provide transportation support, helping SkillsUSA students access training and apprenticeships.
• We commissioned new research with the Ad Council Research Institute to understand how students, parents and teachers view the skilled trades today.

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What we found should trouble anyone who cares about this country's future. Only about a third of teenagers believe a career in the trades is "respected."Even the students who are drawn to this work often can't find a clear first step, or they're gently, persistently redirected toward the four-year path everyone still assumes is the only serious one. We haven't just underinvested in the trades. We've told several generations of capable kids, in ways large and small, that this work is a fallback rather than a calling.

That's the deeper problem year two of ACCELERATE has to confront. Next week at Michigan Central Station, we'll bring together tradespeople, CEOs, mayors, small business owners and civic leaders - not for another round of diagnosis, but to put real weight behind the fix. Here's what to expect:

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• The full results from The State of America's Skilled Trades: A National Report, developed by Jobs for the Future and Burning Glass Institute in partnership with Alliance for America's Skilled Trades, establishing a national benchmark to track the workforce and understand what it will take to build capacity for the future. One of our biggest findings: For every 100 skilled trades workers needed, training programs are producing just 55 people.
• New members joining the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades, elevating programs that work and using the new national report to align action.
• Conversations with a range of leaders tackling this topic, including Alliance co-founders Larry Fink, BlackRock chairman and CEO; Linda Hubbard, president and CEO of Carhartt; and Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google - alongside skilled trades advocates like Mike Rowe and Essential Economy workers like Lexi the Electrician.
• Government and media voices, including Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield, journalists Poppy Harlow and Joanna Stern, and a wide bench of educators and investors.
• A national social-impact program led by Ad Council-known for iconic campaigns such as Smokey Bear and Love, Your Mind.
• A new certified pre-owned program for commercial trucks and vans, giving Essential Economy workers access to more affordable work vehicles.

None of this closes a 2.1-million-job gap by itself. What it does is give the country a shared set of facts, a growing movement, and a public conversation starting next week about what we owe the people who build, wire, weld and repair the physical world the rest of us depend on.

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I hope you'll watch the sessions live, or catch up after, and share your ideas in the comments. This isn't a problem Ford can solve, or any one company can solve. It's one we solve together, or not at all. So, let's get to work.

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Jim Farley is president and CEO of Ford Motor Company.