
After decades of pushing bachelor’s degrees, U.S. needs more tradespeople - SQL2219
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/decades-pushing-bachelors-degrees-u-s-needs-tradespeople
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ddingus
And it needs to pay them enough to live a modest, reasonable life.

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Caveman_Coder
I was pulling in 100K (base pay) as a tradesman, granted I was an operator,
but it is still considered a "trades" position. Also, a college degree is not
required in order to land most power plant/transmission/distribution system
operator positions. Hell, you have nuclear power plant reactor operators
making > 175k/yr and they don't have any degree whatsoever.

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toomuchtodo
> Hell, you have nuclear power plant reactor operators making > 175k/yr and
> they don't have any degree whatsoever.

Experience is required in lieu of a degree. But, to your point, no degree is
required.

We should be finding every opportunity to get people into jobs that don't
require a degree but require specialized skills, as it sidesteps an inflated
credential gate (Sidenote: I don't think college is entirely useless, but its
value has been drastically disconnected from its cost for some time).

"A reactor operator license requires 3 years of experience as an operator for
a nuclear reactor. This can be as a field operator, or can include
military/naval time. No college degree required. A certain amount (Typically 1
year) must be at a similar plant design and 6 months must be on site before
starting license class.

A senior reactor operator can be "instant" or "upgrade". The upgrade process
is a reactor operator becoming a senior reactor operator and requires an RO to
have at least 1 year of licensed experience. For instant candidates, you need
an engineering degree, or certain types of naval experience as a watch
officer, plus on site time, plus 3 years experience in the industry (or naval
experience).

These time requirements are time required PRIOR to starting license class. The
class itself is around 18-20 months."

Source:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/3nm9ox/whats_it_lik...](https://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/3nm9ox/whats_it_like_to_work_as_a_power_plant_operator/cvplobc/)

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Caveman_Coder
What you found for RO/SRO positions is pretty much spot on, and there are
other "experience-in-lieu-of-degree" types of jobs that pay exceptionally
well.

Regarding the naval experience aspect, the utilities that hire navy veterans
look for certain qualifications obtained while in the navy (EWS for enlisted
folks in lieu of a degree).

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toomuchtodo
My concern with reactor operators is that it's a dying industry due to the
challenges in getting a commercial reactor permitted and constructed, along
with the costs of renewables driving nuclear out of commercial viability.

With that said, I think there'd be great value in an organization advocating
and enabled students to get into these "experience-in-lieu-of-degree" types of
jobs you mention. Mike Rowe is doing this [1] as part of his mikeroweWORKS
Foundation/"Profoundly Disconnected", but my opinion is this needs to be
performed at scale nationwide (such as getting involved with school counselors
at the high school level).

[1] [http://profoundlydisconnected.com/](http://profoundlydisconnected.com/)

~~~
Caveman_Coder
> "My concern with reactor operators is that it's a dying industry due to the
> challenges in getting a commercial reactor permitted and constructed, along
> with the costs of renewables driving nuclear out of commercial viability."

When nuclear power plants shut down, the ROs/SROs will not be too hard pressed
to find new opportunities. The renewable energy plants that are replacing
nuclear will still need to have their control rooms staffed, and operators
will simply move into new roles with those utilities, or they'll get out of
the generation business altogether and find a cushy transmission/distribution
operator role, which isn't really dependent on the political climate with
regards to generation technology.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I agree that the best transition strategy would be for grid/network operators
to acquire these people as reactors reach their end of life and are
decommissioned.

~~~
Caveman_Coder
Plus, the TSO/Dispatcher role is a lot less bureaucratic than being an RO/SRO.
I think most current RO/SROs would enjoy the job immensely more. You still get
to operate a pretty large, intricate, and intellectually interesting system
but without all the fuss of dealing with the NRC.

