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" The field of plumbing just doesn&amp;#039;t entice an ambitious, forward-thinking young man like it did back in August of 1916. In those days, our magazine brimmed with plumbing, electrical and bricklaying trade school applications, mail-order technical manuals for telephone men, railroad men, motormen and traffic men. There was an invitation to come to Akron, Ohio, to learn the tire-repair business. There were innumerable ways to earn, become, learn and train.  Today, though, the path to skilled trades is rarely as clear. Demand for plumbers is projected to exceed the supply, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a general aging of the journeyman ranks will likely create job openings faster than they&amp;#039;re filled. Job opportunities are expected to be very good\u2014employment in the field is projected to expand 10 percent between 2006 and 2016\u2014but some employers have reported difficulty finding qualified tradespeople to do the work. The Ridge Tool Company, which owns the plumbing tool brand Ridgid, has commissioned a study on the issue: &amp;quot;Where Have All the Plumbers Gone?&amp;quot; One place potential plumbers have not gone, concludes the study, is to vocational classes in public schools. Fewer classes mean fewer tradespeople: Only 16 percent of the 1000-plus high schoolers Ridgid interviewed said they had taken or were planning on taking a vocational class in the skilled trades. But once they actually took such a class, the respondents became twice as likely to consider pursuing the trade as a career. Enrolling in those classes has become more difficult in the past decades, as computers have filled the school classrooms formerly populated by drill presses and pipe vises.    In August 1916, Popular Mechanics brimmed with opportunities. More recently, the path to learning a trade has become less clear. As manufacturers invest in a new generation, &amp;quot;your great chance&amp;quot; may come along again.  Some other organizations are picking up where public schools have left off. SkillsUSA holds annual competitions in which aspiring tradespeople demonstrate their prowess in plumbing, cabinetmaking and more. The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) recently started a program called &amp;quot;Cornerstone of Craftsmanship,&amp;quot; in which a mentor shares career advice with apprentices-to-be. Ridgid has a similar program called ProFuture\u2014Wyatt Kilmartin of Ridgid said the program &amp;quot;gets new products and technology in front of the next generation of tradespeople,&amp;quot; and also gives the manufacturer a chance to hear the students&amp;#039; questions about the field they&amp;#039;re preparing to enter. In St. Louis, Lindbergh High School has partnered with the nearby South County Technical High School. Students on a vocational track bus over to take everything from plumbing to nursing, then go back to Lindbergh to finish their academic credits. Lindbergh vice principal Ryan Sherp sees struggling kids enjoying their first academic successes once they begin technical classes, and he expects the trend to continue. &amp;quot;In the history of American education, we&amp;#039;ve seen the pendulum swing between classical education and technical skills. I think we are moving much more toward technical training.&amp;quot; This may be because the BLS pegs median 2008 to 2009 plumber wages at $20.56 an hour, versus $15.10 median for all other occupations as of May 2007. Or maybe it&amp;#039;s because working in the trades once seemed like a &amp;quot;not college material&amp;quot; type of failure, and today, television shows like The Office cast cubicle life as a dead end of mediocrity and insignificance. So will we soon see ambitious young men entering the trades with a fervor not felt since 1916? Mike Igo of the Cornerstones of Craftsmanship program offers hope: &amp;quot;There is still joy in seeing young people today who want to learn the craft,&amp;quot; said Igo, a lifelong tradesman turned shop teacher, and now an NCCER Master Trainer of carpentry in Louisiana. He said he believes that with today&amp;#039;s educational opportunities\u2014both in schools and from companies\u2014&amp;quot;Young people today have the opportunity to start their construction career with as much knowledge as their grandfathers.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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