Government Needs to Provide More Funding for Trades Classes

RCS Influencer Pete Harding says that the blue-collar workers are the ones that built this nation and will always be needed.

Editor’s note: Listen to the interview below to hear what Pete Harding has to say about Roofing Day in D.C. topics. You can also read the transcript below the interview.  

Hi, welcome to March Influencer Topic with Pete Harding. My name is Megan Ellsworth, and we are talking about Roofing Day, 2021. This month's topic is what issues would you like to be discussed at Roofing Day in DC? Pete, take it away?

Pete Harding: I'm not sure it's something you can talk about at DC, but I would talk about anything I damn well please in DC. Labor, the labor factor. I think the number one thing... Well, in my world, it's labor. Nobody wants to become a roofer, it's not something they want to do, although you can make more than a freaking doctor while doing it. Out here in California, many people are making that money. So, I think it kind of falls back to the trade classes in school too, because everybody in the schools are focusing towards the technological aspect of life, which yeah, that's where it's going, but there's still that blue collar nation that builds everything. I'm a proud of blue collar guy, and I can name up a whole bunch of friends that, shop class, wood class, upholstery class, saved their freaking lives. Making tons of the money with businesses that they've grown. Me, I took every... The woodshop class, they taught me how to frame. They taught me how to roof in these classes, because they said, "Pete, your grades aren't good, the trades are for you." Basically, you're an idiot and here, fricking get going.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, no.

Pete Harding: Yeah, they didn't like me, but... So, but I was really good with my hands and figuring out problems, because that's what we do, we figure out problems. So, in DC they need to shore up to blue collar activities, the iron workers, the plumbers, the roofers, the framers. All the kids that are out there getting in trouble, need to work with their hands. I was one of those people, and I got in trouble and till I was 25, but I was still roofing, and I was killing it, and I'm still killing it.

It's huge, to get them shop classes back in... The trades classes, maybe a little bit more of a different format, into the high schools and the junior highs. Because even by junior high, the teachers know which kids are going to be going to the troubled child category, because maybe they're looking out the window all the time, like me, or dreaming of different things. So, the teachers know who they are, and the counselor can figure them out, and then they ask him which trade school would be great for you? Who'd like to pursue? I would like to see more funding from the government for the future blue collared nation people.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, I agree, and also trade schools after high school that aren't-

Pete Harding: Totally, junior college would be the perfect venue for this. I went to junior college for, I say two weeks, it was probably more like eight days. Just because somebody offered me $4 an hour to tear off roofs, and all the beer I can drink, and I'm like, "I'm out of here, later, this is the life for me." Lo and behold, it chose me, but if I had another chance to choose something else, I would. But if I would have that chance to figure that out at an earlier age, [inaudible 00:04:45] just be filed away as the trouble child, or troubled children, because we cannot express ourselves the way that the school system is telling them to do it.

Megan Ellsworth: Precisely.

Pete Harding:  We express ourselves with hard work, with our hands, with creating things other than... I love to create videos and stuff, because I love to create things. But not everybody's going to be a TikTok sensation, or something like that. It's what built this nation, the blue collar, the plumbers, the iron workers, the roofers, these types of people are always going to be needed. We command an enormous amount of money to build a multi-million national company from. I have a sixth grade education, [crosstalk 00:05:57], that's what life is about. But if you give that extra push from trade schools, either starting in eighth grade to high school, to junior college, that's six, eight, 10 years of fricking hard work.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, precisely. It also is helping communities, underserved communities, and the population as a whole. So, definitely funding towards those opportunities in schools is needed. Do you see that in your area at all, a lack or a gain?

Pete Harding: Not at all, I just see it getting worse, because I'm in the heart of the Silicon Valley, and we'll see these young guys driving around their leased Carreras, and Porsches, and stuff, and looking all hip, slick, and cool. That's what they want to do, but unfortunately, many of the children, 99.9% of the kids, or 90% of the kids, they're in public school, their grades don't match that. So, it's like, I'm going from my experience back in the eighties of being pushed under the rug. It's the blue color that sets the foundation, and we work with our hands. We carry heavy things, we solve complex problems, like my little thing I say about roofing. People ask me what I do, I protect billions of dollars of industry while doing the fourth most dangerous job in the United States. I'm a roofer and I'm a damn [crosstalk 00:07:40]-

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah.

Pete Harding: ... I've traveled this whole freaking country roofing. I've seen our glorious country roofing, I make more money than I ever thought I could. I also give away more money than I ever thought I would too, so the shift needs to happen mentally for many of the kids. Like, "Oh, if I'm not a computer programmer, or this or that, I'm nothing, or if I'm not a gamer..." All those things, it's still the 1% of people that are going to make money on it, the TikTok, how many people are actually making the money off of that type of stuff? Very little, and the hard work of the construction industry gives you the mentality of consistency, efficiency. That's what roofing gave me, consistency and efficiency will make you grow up in any industry.

You can command enormous amounts of money by banging nails, if you're the best of what you do. It's gotten lost with this whole explosion of technology. Yeah, it's super cool, I can document how bitching roofing is with my iPhone. [Inaudible 00:09:20] too, because roofing chose me, I didn't choose roofing. I tried most of my life to get out of roofing, because I would hear, "Oh, you're just a roofer." I had this mentality of, well, if I'm not some computer guy, because we're in the Bay Area, I'm nothing. But then I [crosstalk 00:09:53] switched my thought about it. No, if you're not a roofer, you're nothing, because we do the fourth most dangerous job in the United States, and protect billions of dollars of industry while doing it, develop their ministry while doing it.

Megan Ellsworth: Yes, so true.

Pete Harding: Everything weighs a hundred pounds, you've got to be strong, you got to be not afraid of heights. You got to be able to work 12 hours a freaking day, nonstop, from sunup down, and earn your shower, be willing to get filthy dirty while taking your life into your own hands. Now, that's a bitching job, what else could you want? That's awesome, and you're outside all the time, you get to travel the country, you get to be at different places all the time. It's glorious to me. Wow, I was going off, that was pretty good.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great though, thank you. I do think the funding idea that is definitely what needs to be discussed at Roofing Day this year. Thanks, Pete. Well, I will see you in April with the next topic, I've really appreciated all you had to say about Roofing Day in 2021. So, thank you.

Pete Harding: I can't wait.

Peter Harding is the founder of Go Green Roofing Corporation. See his full bio here.