The future of trades is at a crossroads, and Manja Horner is at the forefront of the solution.
The trades are standing on the edge of the biggest turnover they’ve ever seen. One in four tradespeople are retiring. Some reports suggest that for every seven who leave, only one enters the workforce. When knowledge leaves the site, it’s gone for good — unless systems are built to keep it.
Workers are retiring and owners are closing businesses, taking a world of experience with them. For decades, trades and blue-collar work were under-promoted as a last-choice career. The result: a skilled worker shortage with steep cost consequences.
Horner’s new book, Pass the Torch: A Rallying Call to Rescue the Future of Trades, is a roadmap for leaders in skilled trades and manufacturing who want to be part of the solution. She delivers practical frameworks for construction, manufacturing, and other companies to become an employer of choice, capture retiring knowledge, turn hands-on expertise into scalable training, cut apprentice ramp-up time, build workplaces rooted in respect, and develop supervisors who can keep people.
“Change is expensive. The only thing more costly is doing nothing.”
Pass the Torch is available now in paperback, hardcover, and ebook at passthetorchbook.com.
