Why the skilled trades remain the smart choice.

 

Why Choose a Trade Skill?

Today, the status quo says a college degree and a white-collar job are the keys to a successful career. And they are keys, but not the only keys.

The skilled trade industry is wide-open and offers multiple opportunities for a successful career.

A skilled trade is typically acquired through vocational or on-the-job training resulting in certification.  Trade skills are usually hands-on and often involve physical/manual labor. In addition, they are essential to your daily life!  Just take a quick peek around you, and you’ll see skilled trades and tradespeople everywhere.

There are four general areas of skilled trade, ready to meet industrial, commercial, and residential needs. For example, these spectrums included opportunities in and for: 

Construction 

• Electricians
• Carpenters
• Pipe Fitters
• Welders
• Painters

 Manufacturing

• Precision metal fabricators
• Robotics technicians
• Mechatronic engineers
• Industrial mechanics
• Tool/metal die makers

Transportation

• Automotive service technicians
• Motorcycle mechanics
• Heavy-duty equipment technicians

 Personal Services

• Landscapers
• Chefs and caterers
• Cosmetologists

The Benefits of Skilled Trade

Whether you are looking for a new career path or just starting, there is a world full of benefits to choosing a trade skill, including (but not limited to)

 Always in Demand

Currently, Baby Boomers occupy over half of skilled trade jobs in the U.S., but they are retiring, and those jobs are opening quickly! Forbes has estimated that by 2028 more than three million skilled trade jobs will be available. So, you can be assured of a vast demand for trade workers, both now and in the future.

Good Living

Also, skilled trade jobs provide an excellent living.  Many skilled trade jobs offer starting salaries that rival salaries of starter jobs associated with typical four-year degrees – and are sometimes higher. While numbers range throughout the different industries and vary from state to state, the national average salary for a skilled trade worker is $13-$34 an hour. An electrician can make (on national average) up to $40+ per/hour!

Flexible Educational Path

One of the most significant benefits of choosing a skilled trade career is educational flexibility and freedom. Trade skill certifications take less time to achieve and are far more bank account friendly than traditional college degrees.

Most trades do not require a formal education — a high school diploma or GED, coupled with a field-specific certificate, is sufficient. Community colleges and technical schools offer certification programs. Apprenticeships, which allow you to learn in a hands-on environment while earning an income, are another great avenue.

Most certifications take about two years to earn, depending on the trade. In addition, some industries require a license to practice in the field. For example, electricians, cosmetologists, and HVAC technicians must obtain a license (issued by a government agency) to work.

Additional benefits include:

• Entering the workforce more quickly and with less debt!
• Lots of room for growth (additional certifications increase your wheelhouse and your income)!
• Doing hands-on work that you enjoy!

At Hamilton Connections, one of our specialties is matching the right talent to the right opportunity within the skilled trades! In fact, we call ourselves placement professionals. So, contact us today, and let’s get started!

Arianism:A brief history.

 Arianism is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (c. AD 256–336), a Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. who was begotten by God the Father. The Arian concept of Christ is based on the belief that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten within time by God the Father, therefore Jesus was not co-eternal with God the Father. Arianism holds that the Son is distinct from the Father (and therefore subordinate to Him).

The term Arian is derived from the name Arius; it was not what the followers of Arius's teachings called themselves, but rather a term used by outsiders. The nature of Arius's teachings and his supporters were opposed to the theological doctrines held by Homoousian Christians, regarding the nature of the Trinity and the nature of Christ.

There was a controversy between two interpretations of Jesus' divinity (Homoousianism and Arianism) based upon the theological orthodoxy of the time, one Trinitarian and the other also a derivative of Trinitarian orthodoxy, and both of them attempted to solve its respective theological dilemmas. The former was formally affirmed by the first two ecumenical councils; since then, Arianism has always been condemned as "the heresy or sect of Arius". As such, all mainstream branches of Christianity now consider Arianism to be heterodox and heretical. Trinitarian (homoousian) doctrines were vigorously upheld by Patriarch Athanasius of Alexandria, who insisted that Jesus (God the Son) was "same in being" or "same in essence" with God the Father. Arius stated: "If the Father begat the Son, then he who was begotten had a beginning in existence, and from this it follows there was a time when the Son was not." The ecumenical First Council of Nicaea of 325, convened by Emperor Constantine to ensure church unity, declared Arianism to be a heresy. According to Everett Ferguson, "The great majority of Christians had no clear views about the nature of the Trinity and they did not understand what was at stake in the issues that surrounded it."

Ten years later, however, Constantine the Great, who was himself later baptized by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia in 337 AD, convened another gathering of church leaders at the regional First Synod of Tyre in 335 (attended by 310 bishops), to address various charges mounted against Athanasius by his detractors, such as "murder, illegal taxation, sorcery, and treason", following his refusal to readmit Arius into fellowship. Athanasius was exiled to Trier (in modern Germany) following his conviction at Tyre of conspiracy, and Arius was, effectively, exonerated. Athanasius eventually returned to Alexandria in 346, after the deaths of both Arius and Constantine. Though Arianism had spread, Athanasius and other Nicene Christian church leaders crusaded against Arian theology, and Arius was anathemised and condemned as a heretic once more at the ecumenical First Council of Constantinople of 381 (attended by 150 bishops). The Roman Emperors Constantius II (337–361) and Valens (364–378) were Arians or Semi-Arians, as was the first King of Italy, Odoacer (433?–493), and the Lombards were also Arians or Semi-Arians until the 7th century. Visigothic Spain was Arian until 589. Many Goths adopted Arian beliefs upon their conversion to Christianity. The Vandals actively spread Arianism in North Africa.

Arianism is also used to refer to other nontrinitarian theological systems of the 4th century, which regarded Jesus Christ—the Son of God, the Logos—as either a begotten creature of a similar or different substance to that of the Father, but not identical (as Homoiousian and Anomoeanism) or as neither uncreated nor created in the sense other beings are created (as in semi-Arianism).