Trading Up

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Dirty Jobs host Mike rowe and Caterpillar Inc. team up to promote the value of a trade school education, confronting cultural perceptions that a four-year degree is the only path to success

By ChristiNe BirkNer | seNior sTaff wriTer

 cbirkner@ama.org

Images courtesy of Mike Rowe Works and Caterpillar Inc.

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While you can make a good living working in the trades, these days fewer and fewer teens and twentysomethings start down the path to become plumbers, electricians, welders or mechanics. In 2012, the average tradesperson in the United States was 56 years old and only one in three parents said that they would encourage their children to work in a trade, according to SkillsUSA, a Leesburg, Va.-based national nonprofit organization for high school and college students who are preparing for careers in skilled service occupations.

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aby boomers make up the bulk of the manufacturing sector in terms of employment and they’re going to be retiring over the next few years,” says Patricia Lee, marketing director at the Rockford, Ill.-based Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International, an organization dedicated to supporting the metal forming and fabricating industry. “When the elevator no longer goes to the top of your building, that’s going to be a problem.”

Still, economic realities are prompting some high school students to consider alternatives to the traditional four-year college degree: The average cost of a year’s tuition, room and board at a four-year college in 2012 was $20,986, versus $8,451 at a two-year trade school, according to the U.S. Department of Education. From 2008 to 2010, earnings among men with high school degrees who were working full time rose 1.87%.

For men working full time who held bachelor’s degrees, earnings fell 4.17%, according to a study by the Chronicle of Higher Education. In 2012, 53% of recent college graduates were unemployed or underemployed, according to The Associated Press.

Trade schools are an alternative to the traditional fouryear college route, but skilled trade careers need a marketing campaign. If anyone can make being a mechanic or a plumber appeal to younger generations, it’s Mike Rowe. As host of Discovery Channel’s reality hit Dirty Jobs from 2005 to 2012, Rowe tackled various grimy tasks including cleaning sewers, working on oil derricks and cattle ranches, taming wild chickens and pouring tar on roofs. In 2008, Rowe, a spokesman for blue-collar brands including Ford and Lee Jeans, founded Mike Rowe Works, a nonprofit foundation and online resource

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center geared toward reviving skilled trades. In 2010, he participated in “I Make America,” an advocacy campaign for creating manufacturing jobs with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, and in 2011, he testified about the value of skilled trade jobs before the U.S. Senate during a series of Commerce Committee hearings focusing on manufacturing in America and the ways in which the government and industry can strengthen the sector and promote job growth. “A college education has basically had a massive PR campaign behind it for the past 20 years, but we’ve made it unappealing to learn a trade because we’ve positioned those jobs as vocational consolation prizes,” Rowe says. “People no longer equate dirt with success.”

To change this notion, Rowe and Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar Inc. started a marketing campaign in early 2013 for skilled labor called “Profoundly Disconnected.” Manufacturing companies in the U.S. have about 600,000 jobs that are open because employers can’t find workers with the skills that they need, according to the National Association of Manufacturers, and the goal of Profoundly Disconnected is to fill that skills gap. “The point of Profoundly Disconnected is to have a conversation about the value of [vocational] work and the possibilities for advancement. At companies like Cat, you talk to a heavy-equipment mechanic who’s been at it for three or four years and you learn pretty quickly that, a.) they’re making six figures, b.) they love what they’re doing and, c.) they’re like superheroes. They show up with a toolbox and save the day.

Why aren’t they the role model for work moving forward? I’ve got nothing against having a college education, but it’s insane to sell a one-size-fits-all philosophy,” Rowe says.

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Mike Rowe signed on to host Dirty Jobs in 2005 to pay tribute to his grandfather, a skilled tradesman.

Getting Their Hands Dirty

Profoundly Disconnected essentially took root when Dirty Jobs premiered. A one-time opera singer and local TV host, Rowe signed on to host Dirty Jobs in 2005 to pay tribute to his grandfather, a skilled tradesman, and the show inspired him to start Mike Rowe Works. “In 2008, the economy crapped the bed and the headlines caught up to some of the themes that were on Dirty Jobs. I started getting phone calls from reporters at The Wall Street Journal asking my thoughts on manufacturing and outsourcing, and the skills gap. I did have some opinions on it because every time I go to a [Dirty Jobs] site, I sit down with the owner of the business and pick their brain. I decided in 2008 to do something nice for the industries that had been so good to Dirty Jobs.”

MikeRoweWorks.com includes postings for apprenticeship opportunities, and scholarship and fellowship information.

“Unemployment was going through the roof, so I thought it would make sense to talk about the opportunities that did exist.

The next stage was, how can we get people to help us?” Rowe says. “Corporate America probably has more skin in the game

than anyone. What companies depend upon a skilled workforce, and how much trouble are they having with recruitment?”

Enter Caterpillar, a global manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines, which tapped Rowe as a spokesman in 2009 to differentiate its marketing efforts from other large-scale B-to-B manufacturing companies. “[Before 2009], we were identical to our competitors. You could take the logo off of our materials and you wouldn’t really know who it was because we all had the same message and the same tone,” says Sarah McDonnell, multichannel marketing consultant at Caterpillar and manager of its Mike Rowe campaigns. “We wanted our customers to look at us differently. We started hearing from our dealers who do a lot of the marketing for us about this show called Dirty Jobs. We watched it and saw instantly how Mike connects with these people, and that’s how we wanted to be.”

In 2011, Caterpillar faced a shortage of dealer technicians, and so it began featuring Rowe in videos on its recruitment website, CatTechJobs.com, which include snapshots of Cat

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“We can’t do this ourselves, so we balance the messages of profoundly Disconnected and CattechJobs.com, and connect them to each other. nobody wants to hear Caterpillar get on a soapbox and talk about these issues, so we benefit from Mike doing that. Mike also benefits from us because we’re such an iconic brand and we’ve got that history.”

SArAh MCDonneLL, CAterpILLAr InC.

dealer technicians on the job to show the value of skilled trades work. “From a marketing standpoint, the question I get all the time is, ‘What do people with ‘dirty jobs’ know that the rest of us don’t?’ They seem to be having a pretty good time on the show and part of the answer is it’s work that … gives you constant daily feedback. You always know how you’re doing if you’re working in the trades, whether you’re a fabricator or welder, or plumber or construction worker,” Rowe says. CatTechJobs.com is linked to the Profoundly Disconnected website, and also includes applications and local job training information.

The videos work particularly well in reaching Cat’s toughest target audience: influencers, or parents and guidance counselors, McDonnell says. “Guidance counselors are a huge issue. In one case, a guidance counselor told us that he would use Cat

as a punishment. He would say, ‘If you don’t get good grades, you’re going to have to go work with the Cat dealers.’ There’s a perception that it’s just turning wrenches and that’s all you do all day long, and we’re really trying to break that perception. Our techs do have cool jobs and they are paid well. The videos get that message out, profile our technicians, and talk about how great they are and how good their jobs are.”

Caterpillar’s recruitment efforts are a natural fit with Rowe’s work to promote skilled trade jobs over the long term, McDonnell says. “We can’t do this ourselves, so we balance the messages of Profoundly Disconnected and CatTechJobs. com, and connect them to each other. Nobody wants to hear Caterpillar get on a soapbox and talk about these issues, so we benefit from Mike doing that. Mike also benefits from us because we’re such an iconic brand and we’ve got that history.”

CAT DEALER TECHS UNDERSTAND HOW TO MAKE THINGS WORK. ®

technician, he is challenged Diego Santos. As a component rebuild Diego ESPECIALLY THEIR FUTURES. Meet community’s development. Plus, he is an instrumental part of his every day, the job pays well, and as he continues his education. job to look like in the years ahead can focus on what he wants his ® It’s whatever he wants it tech. dealer Cat a the beauty of being What will his future become? That’s call your local Cat dealer hands, your and head your how to work with to be. If you’re driven and know to work with cutting-edge need smart, talented individuals today. All over the country, our dealers all of our communities. customers on projects that impact technology while supporting Cat Are you built to be a Cat dealer tech?

logos, CAT, CATERPILLAR, their respective © 2013 Caterpillar. All Rights Reserved. as well as corporate and product Edge” trade dress, BUILT FOR IT, “Caterpillar Yellow” and the “Power without permission. of Caterpillar and may not be used identity herein, are trademarks

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Rowe’s videos and ads for caterpillar are effective at reaching parents and guidance counselors.

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Profoundly Disconnected takes an irreverent approach to promoting skilled trades.

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a weekly auction, dubbed collectibles, Rare and Precious, or c.R.a.P., puts autographed paraphernalia from Dirty Jobs up for sale on ebay.

Following the Money

Profoundly Disconnected’s website, which is funded by Mike Rowe Works and Caterpillar, takes a cheeky, irreverent approach to promoting skilled trades work. It includes a video series, “Lessons from the Dirt,” in which Rowe discusses the benefits of skilled trade careers; and a weekly auction, dubbed Collectibles, Rare and Precious, or C.R.A.P., which puts autographed paraphernalia from Dirty Jobs up for sale on eBay. Proceeds go to the Mike Rowe Works scholarship fund and SkillsUSA. C.R.A.P. items range from tame (hats and T-shirts) to outrageous. Biodegradable flower pots made of cow dung raised $1,400 and boxes of rotten egg-, dog food- and snotflavored jelly beans made during a Dirty Jobs episode at a Jelly Belly factory garnered $1,000.

The site also sells posters for $10 each with the motto “Work Smart AND Hard,” a major theme in the Profoundly Disconnected campaign. The poster is an “updated” version of a poster that Rowe saw hanging in his high school guidance counselor’s office in the 1970s. “On one side of the poster was a beaten-down, depressed-looking, blue-collar worker. On the other side was an optimistic college graduate,” he explains.

Underneath was the slogan “Work Smart, NOT Hard.” On

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Profoundly Disconnected’s version of the poster, one side shows Rowe in a cap and gown holding a degree and frowning, and the other shows a smiling blue-collar worker. Rowe encourages people to take photos of the “Work Smart AND Hard” poster hanging in their high schools or trade schools and post them on his Facebook wall.

To raise additional awareness of and funds for Profoundly Disconnected, Rowe also enlists the help of other brands, including Dallas-based KimberlyClark Corp., parent company of Viva paper towels, and Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. In 2011, Rowe appeared in Viva commercials with his parents, and in 2012 and 2013, Mike Rowe Works held a sweepstakes with Viva and Wal-Mart called the “Viva Mike Rowe Wall of Tough Jobs.” Contestants nominated skilled trade workers to be featured on a “Wall of Tough Jobs” on the contest website and one grand prize winner received a $5,000 Wal-Mart gift card. For each person nominated, Kimberly-Clark donated $5 to the Mike Rowe Works foundation. Each sweepstakes raised more than $100,000, and KimberlyClark also donated $150,000 to coincide with a C.R.A.P. auction in August 2013 featuring a roll of Viva paper towels autographed by Rowe.

Profoundly Disconnected has raised $1 million through August 2013, including Kimberly-Clark’s donation, $20,000 through the C.R.A.P. auction and $15,000 from “Work Smart AND Hard” poster sales, and has given away a total of $250,000 in trade school scholarships, according to Rowe.

This year, $50,000 of the funds raised through Profoundly Disconnected were donated to SkillsUSA, which has chapters in 4,000 high schools and colleges across the country. SkillsUSA offers competitions throughout the year that include plumbing, welding, HVAC, automotive and aviation technology, robotics, engineering and culinary arts, and the organization teaches job interview skills, customer service, community service and business meeting skills. Rowe spoke at SkillsUSA’s national competition in 2013 and hosts SkillsUSA videos on YouTube. “Mike has helped us gain attention not only through the mainstream media, by mentioning us on TV, but also through social media,” says Timothy Lawrence, executive director of SkillsUSA. “It really helps communicate our message and bring attention to the work we’re doing to build a highly skilled workforce.”

Dishing the Dirt

Profoundly Disconnected’s marketing is done through a “micro-macro approach,” Rowe says. The “micro”

MARKETING

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Like Profoundly Disconnected, the Rockford, Ill.-based Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International (FMA) also works to break negative stereotypes about skilled trade careers through marketing. For the past 10 years, FMA, an organization dedicated to supporting the metal forming and fabricating industry, has funded grants for summer manufacturing camps for middle school and high school students through its nonprofit foundation, Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs. The summer camps are designed to spark an interest in manufacturing careers among younger generations, says Patricia Lee, FMA’s marketing director. “Since it’s something that most of them are not going to get in school … we need to introduce kids to the technology of manufacturing and the careers it offers and show them how products get designed, developed and made.”

The foundation’s annual Manufacturing Day, where manufacturing companies across the country open their doors to the public to showcase their shop facilities and discuss the kinds of jobs that they have available, has the same goal. Manufacturing Day helps promote the positive attributes of careers in skilled trades and also highlights job opportunities for women, Lee says.

“If people can see what really goes on behind those mysterious walls in the industrial parks, we’ll be able to convince a lot more people that manufacturing offers amazing career opportunities, that it’s not dangerous and dark and dreary and back-breaking, but that it’s exciting, challenging and creative. And, that it’s not something that just big, brawny guys do. There are some really successful women in manufacturing and there are opportunities of all types in the industry.”

FMA’s summer camps and Manufacturing Day also help in promoting manufacturing careers to teachers and parents, and will aid in FMA’s marketing efforts over the long term, Lee says. “With parents and teachers, it’s like it is with students. You have to show people. Most educators [have] never worked in manufacturing, and they have to be convinced that manufacturing is an OK environment to work in. It’s a message we’re going to be delivering for a few decades and the challenge [of promoting manufacturing careers] will get greater as we move on.”

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“When Mike goes on Bill Maher or Fox News and talks about Caterpillar, our leads—people telling us who they are and that they want to work for a Cat dealer—spike by 400%.

We can’t get that type of attention ourselves because it’s a selfserving message when it’s coming from Caterpillar.“ Sarah McDonnell, Caterpillar Inc.

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approach includes social media—Rowe’s Facebook page has more than 100,000 likes—and media appearances. Rowe wrote columns about Profoundly Disconnected for The Huffington Post and Popular Mechanics, and he discussed it on Real Time with Bill Maher, Katie Couric’s talk show Katie, MSNBC’s The Cycle, Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor and Huckabee, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

“On a micro level, I’m auctioning all of the pieces of C.R.A.P. from Dirty Jobs, and that’s been on Leno. Leno says, ‘OK, you’re really auctioning off a box of polar bear shit?’ and he asks why, and I tell him, and the next thing you know, we’re having a conversation about the skills gap. On a macro level, I’m going straight to the chairmen of the Fortune 500 and saying: ‘Look, guys, you have jobs available right now and you’re having a hard time recruiting. Help me build a place where I can talk about these unloved jobs and tell these stories in a much broader context, and you’ll see the needle move.’”

The needle has moved for Caterpillar, McDonnell says.

“When Mike goes on Bill Maher or Fox News and talks about Caterpillar, our leads—people telling us who they are and

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Planning for the Road Ahead

that they want to work for a Cat dealer—spike by 400%. We can’t get that type of attention ourselves because it’s a selfserving message when it’s coming from Caterpillar. When he talks about us, we benefit just as much as our targeted ads to the work-ready, if not more. Since the campaign started, we’ve connected 5,000 interested and qualified people with our network of dealers.”

At a grassroots level, Rowe and Caterpillar representatives speak about Profoundly Disconnected and the importance of skilled trades at conferences hosted by the Boy Scouts of America, the National FFA Organization (formerly Future Farmers of America) and SkillsUSA, and Rowe meets with trade schools to prompt them to share job openings and scholarship opportunities on ProfoundlyDisconnected.com and MikeRoweWorks.com. “Reruns of Dirty Jobs are just as important as a keynote speech at SkillsUSA or the FFA or the Boy Scouts of America. A relationship with Cat, a relationship with Kimberly-Clark, the C.R.A.P. in my garage, those all matter, too,” Rowe says. “I’m going to do everything I can over the next few years to keep the conversation going.”

Extending that conversation over the next few years could be a challenge, Rowe admits. “Traditional marketing is not going to work. This isn’t about marketing a new Ford or a new bulldozer. It’s about changing the way people feel about a good job.

We want to see a heavy-equipment mechanic recognized by society with the same level of admiration and importance as we would recognize a Ph.D., or somebody with an MBA. To do that, you don’t have to tear down the Ph.D. or the MBA. Mostly, it’s putting all of the [options] on the table. That’s really the message to guidance counselors, schools and parents.”

Trade schools likely will continue to battle against negative perceptions over the next decade, Lawrence says. “It’s a cultural challenge. Technical [training] does support good jobs that lead to middle-class lifestyles, but our society sees these jobs as alternatives that aren’t good for their sons and daughters.

We have to change the mindset and inform people about the opportunity, from Congress to state governments to moms and dads. Mike has really increased awareness of the issue of the disconnection between school and work.”

Profoundly Disconnected has succeeded in making careers in manufacturing more appealing overall, Lee says.

“Mike has done a lot to draw attention to the kinds of people who manufacturing attracts. There’s something that’s very appealing about the people he’s chosen to highlight in his show. He has shed some light on … a lot of things that manufacturing organizations have been saying for close to a decade now, which is you no longer work in manufacturing as a job of last resort.”

By the end of 2013, Rowe hopes to bolster Profoundly Disconnected’s mission by adding more scholarship funds and more corporate sponsors to the effort. “The big idea is to have $10 or $20 million in scholarship funds in one pile, an association of trade schools that have excellent results over in another area, and then a few key companies in the Fortune 500 that are committed to changing perceptions and willing to list the opportunities within their organizations. If all goes as planned, we’ll close the skills gap and solve unemployment by Friday,” he laughs. m

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