PalmRoyale
Senior Member
For decades there's been a habit in the Netherlands of looking down on people who work with their hands. Society told kids they need a higher education and an office job because that's when they know they've made it. Technical companies haven't invested in people or offered any kind of training and kept the wages low. Afterall, someone who works with their hands isn't that important. As a result there are now some 65,000 jobs (and the number keeps growing) that these companies can't fill because young people are doing exactly what society told them to do, avoid manual labour. They don't want to be a plumber, carpenter, painter, mechanic or get their hands dirty in any way. This also has an effect on my company. I have loads of work and I need at least 2 more good shipwrights but I can't find them anywhere. Shipyards all over the country have started to hand out steady jobs again so they all have work and nothing to worry about. The shortage of experienced shipwrights is bigger than it's ever been and inflow of young people into this line of work has never been lower. It's gotten so bad that I'm looking for people in other EU countries. It's either that or turn down a lot of work.