The Blue Collar Route:

An Alternative Road to Success.

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With college tuitions rising and job prospects dimming, many high school graduates are looking at alternative paths to help them achieve financial success.

Just ask Chad Toulouse, a 24 year-old from Pennsylvania.

Chad is part of an emerging trend of high school graduates who choose to pursue blue collar positions through training programs that help them become, among other professions, machinists, auto mechanics, aviation specialists and heavy equipment operators.

Toulouse always though he’d fulfill his parents dream of going to college. And for one year, he did just that. But after struggling to find a career direction, he dropped out. The son of a utility linesman and grandson of a steelworker, Toulouse started taking classes at a community college, and worked for $6.00 per hour pumping gas at a local BP station. When he saw a television ad promoting a nonprofit training program to help people become accomplished machinists, he found his calling.

Toulouse signed up for the course, Manufacturing 2000, sponsored by a consortium of businesses in collaboration with Duquesne University. Programs like Manufacturing 2000 provide essential training to help people like Toulouse develop sophisticated technical skills. There were 20 people in the class with Toulouse. He believes the hands-on training was the best way to learn. “We did some work in the classroom,” says Toulouse, “but about 90 percent of the work was hands on. I got a chance to experiment, to work on the machines. “The best way to learn is by doing it,” he adds.

There is an art to making precision parts and Toulouse takes pride in his work – and in his advancement. He started as a machinist making parts according to different specifications. He then moved into the role of inspector and was responsible for the quality control of the shop’s parts. Today, just three years after completing the Manufacturing 2000 training program, Toulouse is a group leader responsible for approximately 73 machinists working the day and evening shifts. His biggest challenge is “keeping things in order”, solving problems, meeting deadlines and setting expectations. He balances deadlines and people with a maturity and ease that belie his youth. He sees a future in the field and refers to himself as a “shop guy”. He is living in the moment, taking one day at a time, and seems happy to be doing so.

With overtime, Toulouse says he made about $45,000 last year. Is he doing better financially than if he had stayed in college? Right now Toulouse thinks so. He drives around in a new Ford pickup truck and is saving money to buy a house.

Toulouse feels fortunate to have found a career that is both personally and financially rewarding. “I have no regrets” he says. When asked if he would recommend that others pursue the same career same path he’s taken, he says “if you want a well paying job, and aren’t sure you know what you want to do, give it a shot. Why not?”.