Have you heard about the Human Library? If you haven’t, I strongly recommend you check it out. Whether you participate online or at a local popup, it’s about engaging in conversation with people you might otherwise never meet and might well have something intriguing and thought provoking to share with you. It’s kind of like a speed date format where you are the reader, and there is a library of human “books” you can check out for 30 minutes of one-on-one time.To get back to the connection to economic development: This month I attended a session in person in Dublin. One of the “books” on offer was called “Welder”. You don’t see the person in advance, but I was curious about the career path of a welder here as well as the family and social support (or not) that was available.
The person that came out from behind the curtain was Polly. Polly came to Ireland from the UK in the 1970s and found no one would take her on as an apprentice, even though the programs were pretty robust. She found machine operator and welding courses instead, subsidized by the State to the extent that she could study full time. Did I mention she showed up in Ireland with only 70 pounds in her pocket? Over the years, she achieved a number of firsts, including being the first woman in Ireland to pass the pipe welding exam.
She has passed on her knowledge as a teacher (the job she first qualified for “just in case”) and shared her talents as an artist.
I asked her what made things different for her in Ireland, and she said that as long as she could show she could do the job, no one ever held her back for lack of formal credentials.
Her path was certainly not without challenges, but think about what it also included. Free training with cost of living support. Mastery of the task instead of credentials as the threshold.