A note from Hugh
I sat down with Daniel Quinonez right after he was named CEO of PHCC, and the number that stuck with me had nothing to do with membership counts. It was a promise about debt.
He is a history buff, so he started with 1883, when the Master Plumbers Convention in New York City passed a resolution to create apprenticeship training. One hundred forty plus years later we are still arguing about the same thing, which is whether the people doing this work deserve real training or a watered down version of it.
Blue collar is not about how you dress. It is about how you think. This week, think about who is coming behind you.
Hugh Hornsby
Blue Collar Smart
01 / The real problem
We keep waiting for someone else to build our workforce.
Every owner I talk to says the same thing. We cannot find people. Then the week gets loud, the calls stack up, and nobody has time to sit down with a school counselor, a neighbor's kid, or the helper already riding in the second seat. Meanwhile a sixteen year old in your zip code is being told the only respectable path costs a hundred thousand dollars and four years. Nobody is handing them the other option, because the people who live it are too busy to tell them.
02 / What experience taught
Earn while you learn, and finish owing nothing.
Daniel Quinonez, incoming CEO of PHCC, laid out the math plainly. He said a PHCC apprenticeship program averages less than about $2,200 a year depending on the state, scholarships are available, and many employers reimburse the student when they finish. His words were that if you work through the program with a good contracting company and earn your hours, you come out with no debt. He also pointed at the other side of that coin. He described a school in Texas where students reportedly paid $12,000 to $18,000 and came out with almost nothing. Good training and expensive training are not the same thing, and somebody has to help families tell the difference.
- 01
Tell someone the real numbers.Most families have never heard that a person can train, get paid while doing it, and finish without a loan. You know it. Say it out loud to one family this week.
- 02
Do not confuse a price tag with a program.Daniel warned about fly by night schools charging five figures for almost nothing. Before anyone you know signs up, check the state chapter, the curriculum, and who actually built it.
- 03
Start your exit years before you need it.Daniel said many small shops have nobody to hand the business to, and regret shows up after the sale. Employee ownership, a family transition, or a well researched outside offer all require planning while you still have time to choose.
The conversation
Daniel Quinonez
Incoming CEO, Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors National Association
Daniel grew up cleaning his father's tavern in the Ironbound section of Newark starting around age six, mopping floors and wiping bottles down on weekends. He went into the Army for the GI Bill so he would not be saddled with college debt. He spent years with the National Association of Home Builders, traveling to roughly 45 states, then joined the PHCC Educational Foundation before being named COO and now CEO. In this episode he talks with Hugh about apprenticeship standards, the danger of watering down licensure, succession planning for the one and two truck shop, and why he sees AI as a business resource rather than a threat.
Listen to the full conversation 03 / Your Yellow Pad challenge
Three names. One real conversation.
Take out a yellow pad. Write three names. First, the person in your company who could be your next licensed tech but has not been asked. Second, a young person in your life who has never heard the debt free path described out loud. Third, the person who would run your business for thirty days if you were out. Next to each name, write one sentence on what is actually blocking them. Training hours. Money. Nobody told them. No succession plan on paper.
Pick the name that stings a little. Before Friday, sit down with that person for twenty minutes and ask what they want their next three years to look like. Then write one commitment you will make to help, and put a date on it.
Thanks to our sponsors
If you aged out of your business next year, who in your shop already knows what you know, and who taught them?
← Back to all issues