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mikeroweWORKS Foundation As the host of Dirty Jobs and Somebody’s Gotta Do It, Mike Rowe is known for traveling the country, working at just about any dirty job. Now, he’s working to fill those jobs that too often go unfilled—jobs that require skilled labor. In 2008, Rowe started the mikeroweWORKS Foundation to “launch a national PR campaign for skilled labor.” Each year the Foundation funds the Work Ethic Scholarship program to help people train for skilled jobs that are in demand. The Foundation says that since the program started, more than $5 million for Work Ethic scholarships and similar programs have been distributed. More than 200 applicants won scholarships in 2019. Rowe is also a believer in the S.W.E.A.T Pledge, breaking down the importance of work ethic, personal responsibility, delayed gratification, and a positive attitude. The pledge includes:
There is no such thing as a “bad job.” I do not “follow my passion.” I bring it with me. I believe the most annoying sounds in the world are whining and complaining. I will never make them.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL SEGAL
I believe that my education is my responsibility, and absolutely critical to my success. I believe that I am a product of my choices—not my circumstances.
According to the Foundation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics lists more than seven million jobs available across the country, most of which do not require a fouryear degree. These are the jobs that Mike Rowe is trying to fill through his Foundation, which lists on its website skilled jobs from across the country that need to be filled right away—anything from diesel mechanics and heavy
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equipment superintendents to plumbing estimators and CDL licensed truck drivers. “Our crumbling infrastructure, our widening skills gap, the disappearance of vocational education, and the stratospheric rise in college tuition—these are not problems,” Mike says on his website. “These are symptoms of what we value. And right now, we have to reconnect the average American with the value of a skilled workforce. Only then will the next generation aspire to do the work at hand.” Learn more about the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, its scholarship program, and job listings at mikeroweworks.org.
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