[J D Sauser]

Originally Posted by Hillbilly

Interesting, and a quite accurate picture by Dolores and J-D...IMO, that is. I am sure that there might be a few who could assemble, but not the ones I play golf with, mostly.

Any one of us that visits one of the hardware stores recognizes the fact that we are not really amongst our peers, are we? You can pick out the "furerners" really easily, can't you? And over there, in the gift section or the household items section, you can see the 'grand dames' of local society picking out wedding gifts....But not one of the 'grand sires' of the realm are there looking for tools, like Tim "The Toolman" Taylor....

An astute look at how things are....so, do we set up a tent just outside of IKEA? Do we get Infotep to create a new class of artisans to put things together>??? Cool idea for Ikea...

HB

Hmmm... the tent idea is gooooood! Aqui le almamo su baina!
Has anyone ever observed a Latin American reading the manual, I mean EVER?You know, these IKEA deals... it's a bunch of particle boards and two little bags of funny screws and other hardware... and a manual hidden in between the boards...
They will get a L O T of returns "... miiira, que eto 'ta maaaalo! O e asi que e eta baina?"

Originally Posted by Skippy1

Are there any good trade schools where Dominicans can learn the skills and get a quality qualification?
I ask as its something I am thinking about setting up if I can find the support and funding from businesses. I am thinking along the lines of vocational training full time first year and two years on the job apprenticeships with a trade qualification at the end.
Technical instruction and theoretical learning maybe on a day release or evening class basis.

Skippy1

The lack of (serious) trade schools is routed in the American (all Americas) lack of appreciation of trades. "Become an academic or be a nothing"! Somehow, the concept of year long state supervised apprenticeship paired with state trade schools has not carried over from Germany and other European countries... which have less Universities per capita but more certified professionals which can earn a good living, a major pillar of these countries economies.

Here it mostly boils down to "learning by doing"... and many times it looks more like "experimenting by failing"... which is easy, as there are more ways to fail than to succeed.

... J-D.