Heh - I love it
When we were at the Blacksmithing conference in Rapid City, South Dakota this summer, we visited the nearby South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. They are one of the seven colleges in the US to have a full metallurgy program and are well funded both by government grants for pure research and private industry for targeted problem solving.
On a tour, we were told that they had a very high employment for graduates. Little did I realize just how high...
From
Bloomberg:
Harvard Losing Out to South Dakota in Graduate Pay: Commodities
Harvard University�s graduates are earning less than those from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology after a decade-long commodity bull market created shortages of workers as well as minerals.
Those leaving the college of 2,300 students this year got paid a median salary of $56,700, according to PayScale Inc., which tracks employee compensation data from surveys (PDF). At Harvard, where tuition fees are almost four times higher, they got $54,100. Those scheduled to leave the campus in Rapid City, South Dakota, in May are already getting offers, at a time when about one in 10 recent U.S. college graduates is out of work.
�It doesn�t seem to be too hard to get a job in mining,� said Jaymie Trask, a 22-year-old chemical-engineering major who was offered a post paying more than $60,000 a year at Freeport- McMoRan (FCX) Copper & Gold Inc. �If you work hard in school for four or five years, you�re pretty much set.�
Some more:
As many as 78,000 additional U.S. workers will be needed by 2019 to replace retirees, the Society of Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration said in a report in January. In Australia, the largest shipper of coal and iron ore, there will be a shortfall of 1,700 mine engineers, 3,000 geoscientists and 36,000 other workers in the five years ending in 2015, the report said.
Demand for mining-school graduates is exceptional in the U.S., where the unemployment rate for 20-to-24 year olds with Bachelor�s degrees was 11.8 percent in July. The jobless rate across the economy held above 8 percent for a 43rd month in August, government data show.
Universities trimmed courses in earth sciences, mineral geology and mine engineering when the industry contracted in the 1980s and 1990s, said Diana Stewart, the marketing director at Hampshire, U.K.-based jobs4mining.com, a message board that links recruiters and prospective workers worldwide. Shortages in mine engineering and project management are acute, she said.
Suck it up Ivy League -- people who work in real jobs rock this world!!!
Posted by DaveH at September 18, 2012 4:29 PM