JOHNSTOWN, Pa.—Alex Bambino, 21, is the son of two educators. He’s busy working, welding a piece of material that will be used on a heavily armored military vehicle when finished. Despite two college-educated parents who teach at the local Cambrian County schools, he wanted nothing to do with college following high school.
“I like working with my hands, being part of making something that is important, and I had no interest in starting my adult life in debt,” he said.
So he went to Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center, and he became so good at what he did that he was recognized at the SkillsUSA championship as a national competitor. He found work in his hometown at JWF Defense Systems, located in the old Bethlehem Steel plant along the Conemaugh River. And he became part of something bigger than himself in the machines he helped make.
Bambino is just the kind of young person Mike Rowe has been talking about for the past few years in his tireless effort to inspire young people to consider a different path after high school.
For 16 years, Rowe, host of “Dirty Jobs,” has highlighted the purpose, skills, and importance of the everyman. He has run a foundation that draws attention to the need our workforce has, and which our educators lack, in encouraging young people to look to the trades to keep our roads, bridges, cars, and national security humming.
Rowe, in an interview with the Washington Examiner, said he started the mikeroweWORKS Foundation in 2008 in large part because of the country’s workforce shortage in skilled labor and trade jobs.
Rowe said what they do at mikeroweWORKS is offer work ethic scholarships to men and women who want to “learn a skill that’s in demand” and work.
“We have got $2.5 million burning a hole in our metaphorical pockets,” he explained, adding they could also use more money since interest this year is through the roof.
The current scholarship cycle launched on Feb. 12. To earn the scholarship, applicants need to enroll in an approved program, sign the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, answer four questions about the S.W.E.A.T. (Skill & Work Ethic Aren’t Taboo) Pledge, make a video, have two solid references from a teacher or boss, and verify school costs by April 17.
“Recruiting in the trade fields is a big problem for American companies today. We have millions of positions open and an untrained labor force to fill them,” he said.
Rowe, fresh off the blunt and inspiring talk he gave at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, said young people like Bambino are exactly why he does what he does with his foundation, especially in light of the fact that the national deficit in skilled artisans affects national security.
Rowe said speaking at CPAC was a significant experience for him.
“The reason I went was because the foundation itself is really beginning to tip. The headlines of the day have so caught up to the message that I’ve been out there with for the last 16 years. I just really feel for the first time I can’t afford to not fish where the fish are,” he said.
He is not wrong. The culture has caught up with his message, so much so that Rowe says they have 10 times more people applying for the scholarship his foundation offers.
Rowe said it is like watching a tanker turn around when you talk about stigmas, stereotypes, myths, and misperceptions.
“Those things don’t get debunked overnight. It takes a long time. And, of course, work ethic, that’s a very tricky thing to talk about because it’s been a dog whistle for the last four years, and now it’s not.”
Rowe said that for the first time in all the years he has been doing this, he is seeing real enthusiasm around the trades.
“And also a real genuine kind of head nodding. It’s begun to occupy sort of an equal and opposite place as to where CRT had us for so long. And so to see my S.W.E.A.T. pledge turned into a curriculum and to see that curriculum now in 60 schools, I can’t imagine that could have happened five years ago,” he said.
Rowe said he likes to check in on scholarship recipients from the past to see how their choices worked out. He recently called a young man, Johnny Goodson, who was 30 when he applied for a scholarship in 2017.
“He was the drummer in a rock ‘n’ roll band, and he really loved his life. But he wasn’t making any money. He’d fallen in love, and he wanted to raise a family. So he fills out this application and sends it to me. He was always good with his hands, so he wanted to work on heavy equipment,” Rowe explained.
Seven years later, Goodson is married, has his second child on the way, and is a level four tech responsible for inspecting all of John Deere’s construction work.
“He’s as high as you can go. He’s an absolute rock star, only this time a different kind of rock star,” Rowe said.
Rowe shared a photo of Goodson with his adorable son, Tony.
“This is a 37-year-old man who reinvented his life and is now prospering as the result of learning a trade,” Rowe said.
The influx of new applicants this time marks the first time Rowe is not struggling to give the scholarship money away.
“Believe me, the standards are still there. You still have to jump through all the hoops, but I just can’t believe that, as of today, we have 10 times the applicants that we had this week last year. I’m not doing anything different. But somebody has flipped a switch in our culture, and the headlines are starting to catch up with what I’ve been saying,” said Rowe.
He’s right about the shift in culture. People want to be part of this movement. You see it in TikTok accounts of plumbers, farmers, and mechanics with insane numbers of followers and shares. It’s the same on Instagram, X, and Facebook.
Rowe stressed that he cannot speak for Gen Z as a cohort.
“But I can tell you that there’s a sizable chunk of them who have gotten the memo, and the memo is, ‘Hey, that debt you’re looking at signing up for to go to Cornell or Yale or wherever, that’s real.’”
In short, they are recognizing they are about to step in gum that’s going to stick with them for a long time, said Rowe.
“Thanks in part to social media, where people in the trades really can post a fun, engaging video of what their work looks like,” he added.
There are three legs to the post-high school education stool. The first is the basic perception and awareness that opportunities exist. The second is the cost of the alternative: $1.7 trillion in student debt, a number that has started to resonate. The third has something to do with urgency.
Rowe stressed that young people like Bambino are needed desperately to maintain and build our maritime industrial base.
“There are 15,000 individual companies building our nuclear-powered subs, which now, by the way, are the pointy part of the stick. If things go sideways with Taiwan and our aircraft carriers are very vulnerable, we need these submarines,” he said.
Rowe said companies such as BlueForge deliver those submarines and are desperate to hire skilled tradespeople in areas such as additive manufacturing, computer numerical control machining, welding, and more.
“They literally say to me in a call, ‘We’re looking everywhere. Do you know where they are?’ And I said, ‘Actually, yeah, man, I know where they are. They’re in the eighth grade,’” Rowe said. “I don’t want to be an alarmist. However, that is why I’m taking a more pointed posture around this whole thing. Because now it’s not just, ‘Hey, how long do you want to wait for a plumber or an electrician?’ Now it is a matter of national security.”
Here in Johnstown at JWF Defense Systems, Rowe would find his mecca—there are scores of young people straight out of trade school or high school as part of the two-year, pay-while-you-work apprenticeship training.
The backdrop here would make Rowe’s heart sing. Here they were, inside a massive steel mill that not that long ago was occupied by the skilled tradesmen who built this country, made a decent living, and even helped supply materials to keep our country safe during conflicts.
In a way, Bambino is doing the same thing under the same roof. There are military Humvees in the assembly line here, along with other more sensitive things we were unable to discuss. And if Rowe gets his way, with a little help, he becomes not unlike George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life: a man who has had an effect far beyond what he’ll ever fully realize.
COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM
Salena Zito is a Pittsburgh-based columnist for the Washington Examiner.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal – By Salena Zito
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Mike Rowe is a patriot.
This article is a proof that our educational system must change, that it is pointless waste of money to drag people through high school when they obviously are not scholarly material, but would make a wonderful tradesman that is needed. Skilled workforce is a successful workforce .
Schools need to bring shop back into schools. It should be mandatory for all students in middle school to take at least one year of instruction.
The company I work for, where i’m the only employee, desperately news skilled carpenters. They are few and far between.
Perhaps the tide is turning.
Mike Rowe is a good man doing good work. We could use a more like him.
It’s to bad that the schools only have one set of courses geared to college students. When I was in high school the were 3 avenues of courses. Those that were those who planed on college, those who wanted to go in business, those who wanted to go into trades. Classes were geared for those students. classes were different for each of those avenues.
As a Retired Tradesman of 42 years…..
I approve if this post!!!
Mike is a great guy. We have been watching his Saturday night show on TBN for the last 4 years or so. It’ called The Story Behind the Story.
Rowe has been tireless in his pursuit for building up excellence in workers. There was a time when hard working skilled men and women were a proud breed who excelled, tended to their duties and responsibilities and were prized by all. The current society disdains manual labor, hard work and skilled people…..until their toilet backs up or their roof caves in, or they need some tech to solve their A/C, computer, electric or mechanical problem. And when they do, they scream bloody murder at the cost. They want their cake and want to eat it too…..so, more power to Mike and his pursuit….and just watch how things change. Good stuff, Maynard.
Good on him! I think schools push so-called “higher education” on students too much while ignoring the trade arts like auto mechanic, HVAC worker, machine shop, etc. Its like the “Breakfast Club”: “without electricians there wouldn’t be lamps” (paraphrase?)
Now even the coders will be out of work. AI will take their jobs and robots will start working at McDonald’s. I’ve been telling teenagers for YEARS to do something that robots cannot do. And we absolutely MUST get the 304-0 million illegals out of this country so that jobs are going to American citizens. E-Verify is the law, I do NOT understand why Trump is not forcing employers to use it. No job, no money, they will self-deport. Saves us the trouble of tracking them down and paying to deport them. Then we need overhaul the immigration system bit chances for all those unskilled workers coming back is slim to none.
Mike likes to put humor into his work and TV appearances. Dull and boring he is not! He is a very good role model for any young person aspiring to go into the trades. Keep doing what you are doing. You are making a huge impact on our American economy and way of life.
Boys took shop and girls took home economics. I learned to sew and cook as a result….
this is great, wish it would have available when i was in high school. trades are the backbone of our country!
Always loved Mike show. And now he is putting money to good work for young people. SOMEONE HAS TO BUILD AMERICA!!! I was a carpenter for 44 years started working when i was 12 with my fathers remodeling co. in the summers. We had shop classes back then and I took full advantage of that training. I have agreed with Mike ever since he started talking about this lack of opportunity for kids that just don’t care to go to college. You can throw a pile of lumber on the ground and I can build you a house…but don’t ask me how to stop the music on a computer..Any way…La Fhe’ile Pa’draig sona duit !!
Most of my administrative assistant career was spent in Vocational Education. This article is TRUE!!!!!! We can do without that piece of paper saying you have a PhD in philosophy, but we can’t do without a good plumber or heating specialist or car mechanic or builder and roofer. It’s a no brainer what runs this country. It’s TRADE SKILLS!!!! Our students were Juniors and Seniors in High School who took a two-year program and the greater majority of these kids went on to make good money in work they enjoyed. President Trump is an advocate for vocational and technical education skills and I support it 150%…as I watched it happen for over 20 years. The most important thing about it is there is NO DEBT!!!! These kids aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and they are super men and women in the end.
Absolutely love what Mike Rowe is doing!!! I chose not to pursue college and instead learned the trade of commercial refrigeration and enjoyed 30 years + of rewarding work, teaching several others along the way to continue in this field! I have experienced first hand how the education system has failed and is currently failing our young people.
But if the young do not go to college, how will they get their final indoctrination? How will they hear math and science teachers spouting left wing propaganda? Every young adult should be indoctrinated. Oops, I mean get a college education.