Say hello to the new industrial worker. Instead of holding a wrench, this worker wields a computer."...

1. Say hello to the new industrial workers
Say hello to the new industrial worker. Instead of holding a wrench, this worker wields a computer.
"Folks who do computer work would never want to be classified as industrial workers, but
objectively, in fact and in practice, they would be industrial workers," says Henry Berger, professor
emeritus of history at Washington University in St. Louis.
As computer systems migrate into all sectors of work, computer work is becoming more specialized
and industrialized, Berger says. A rapidly growing number of workers must have computer skills.
Coding.org and other industry organizations predict that the U.S. economy will need one million
more coders by 2020.
These groups have championed an approach to teaching computer-related skills that's modeled after
the system of vocational education that developed in response to the industrialization of the U.S.
economy in the 20th century.
"The Code-to-Work movement," writes Treehouse CEO Ryan Carson on his company's website, "will
take someone from no experience, to job-ready, to a rewarding career -- all without a degree and
zero experience."
That vocational approach got a major endorsement earlier this month when President Barack Obama
announced a new initiative named TechHire.
Backed with $100 million in Labor Department funding, TechHire is modeled on what organizations
such as LaunchCode, founded in St. Louis in 2013 to train software coders, are already doing.
Communities taking part in TechHire will commit to developing or expanding tech learning
programs that prepare students for work in the industry in months instead of years. Companies
taking part will commit to hiring "nontraditional" candidates, who lack a college degree or
professional education.
"Of course, you can't become a full-fledged programmer in 10 weeks," says Anu Gokhale, professor
in the department of technology at Illinois State University, but specialization in the information
technology and computer-related fields has created many jobs that don't require high skills.

2. "Coding is just one example," she says. "Some others are computer networking, web design,
software testing and database networking." Some specialties require more education than others.
The education required to get a college computer science degree "gives people skills for multiple
roles and the ability to learn more," Gokhale says, while vocational training "gives people skills for
one particular job."
Large corporations are more likely to hire people with technology-related vocational training,
because they operate on an industrial model with "very compartmentalized and specific roles," she
said.
Small companies, however, "may require one person who can wear many hats," she said.
People campaigning for mass tech-related training present tech jobs as a substitute for
disappearing, middle-income union jobs in manufacturing -- and the Obama administration made
that connection.
"The average salary in a job that requires information technology (IT) skills ... is 50 percent higher
than the average private-sector American job," the White House said. Connecting people to those
jobs, "is a key element of the President's middle-class economics agenda," the statement added.
In comparison, the pay package for unionized jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,
is 40 percent higher than the average for private-sector American jobs.
In St. Louis, the $15-an-hour training wage offered by companies taking part in LaunchCode, a
program to find the best people ready for technology training, is similar to the starting training
wage at companies such as Boeing or General Motors or construction apprenticeship programs.
On the other hand, the training part of TechHire, Berger says, "sounds to me less like job training,
but rather more like training people to go into job training."
Training is only part of the equation. Working conditions also matter. Unions have a reputation for
bargaining over pay and benefit issues, but in tech jobs, the big issues often have to do with
schedules and work-life balance.
The tech industry, Berger notes, has a reputation for requiring people to work extraordinarily long
hours and sacrifice family and personal lives for their jobs.

3. "The expectation that workers will put in whatever time is needed on a job certainly has existed in
the past, but on a small scale. The large-scale basis of that expectation in the tech industry is a fairly
new phenomenon," he said. "The big question is, will they be able to find a workforce that will be
able to continually function that way?"
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/say-hello-to-the-new-industrial-workers/article_30d8e7a6-9c2
c-5399-9b94-789946e53984.html