Opportunities in the Community

Yugant, I love this question of yours. I’m a huge proponent of education that goes beyond the standards and frameworks that we’ve become used to. There’s a lot to be said for established organizations and frameworks, but innovation too brings a lot of advantages. 

In my learning community we see a lot of people who are employees looking for employers of last resort, this means that they are taking the jobs in our fields because they can’t get work in any other industry. 

Much of the work our organization supports is dirty, hazardous, hot in the summers, cold in the winters, and uncomfortable in a multitude of ways. Additionally, the pay for those starting out isn’t great, but if you stay in the industry, don’t mind travel or seasonal work, then the payoff can be substantial. We are seeing alot of new employees coming to the industry looking for less of a job and more of a career. In the past the industry has been sink or swim, they are demanding pathways and structures that lead toward success and a long term, lucrative career. This is all very positive for the industry and for the individual worker. 

In terms of the Aldrich (2017) article, what we are seeing is representative of bridging social capital and linking social capital. We have several different races and classes all working in a similar industry for the same purpose, which is similar to how Aldrich defines bridging social capital. Then, we are a community-based non-profit and often we host events for our members and for our guests that are designed to support the industry and the workers in the industry. Lunch and learns, cocktail parties, informational presentations, showcases, training classes at discounted rates, and more, all would be similar to what Aldrich describes as linking social capital. 

Having worked in this organization for five years, watched how we have spun up and helped support other similar organization in the US and outside the US, I can see the effect it has both on the individual worker and on the communities. I think it would be beneficial if other industries utilized safety councils as aggressively as the energy industry has, yet when I talk to other workers in many other fields, a safety council is a completely new idea to them. Lately, I think that our education system has become too staid and unyielding. I spent a year in Europe as a foreign exchange student and saw how vocational schools were utilized in many of the countries where I lived and visited and I wish that children in our area had the same opportunities in high school as I saw there. 

References

Aldrich, D. P. (2017). The importance of social capital in building community resilience. In Rethinking Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation in a Time of Change (pp. 357–364). Springer International Publishing.