Skip to content
‹ Back to IndustriesEngineering & Construction

A Skilled Trades Career Provides a Future-Proof Path

Host Greg Crumpton and HVAC industry leader Nicole Bass discuss the growing appeal of skilled trades careers, particularly among Gen Z workers reconsidering traditional four-year college paths. Bass highlights her outreach efforts through social media and her educational platform jointhetrades.com to attract younger and more diverse talent. The conversation underscores the economic stability, entrepreneurial opportunity, and essential nature of skilled trades in today's economy.

This story was produced through MarketScale. See how Engineering & Construction teams put it to work with Partner & Channel Enablement.

Promoted content from Straight Outta Crumpton on MarketScale.

By Greg Crumpton · · Commercial HvacGreg CrumptonJointhetrades.comNicole Bass
Share

Key takeaways

01

Younger generations, especially Gen Z, are increasingly choosing skilled trades and apprenticeship programs over traditional college degrees.

02

Nicole Bass is leveraging TikTok and jointhetrades.com to modernize recruitment and promote HVAC careers to a broader, more diverse audience.

03

Advocates are pushing for greater inclusion of women in skilled trades, emphasizing the analytical and problem-solving skills they bring to the field.

Free workspace

Turn your Engineering & Construction expertise into content.

Record interviews, organize footage, and write with AI on a free trial of the MarketScale platform for qualifying companies. No demo required, no credit card.

Try it Free

In today's rapidly changing job market, a skilled trades career offers a viable and attractive option, especially for the younger generations exploring alternatives to traditional college education. Recent trends indicate a significant shift in interest in these hands-on professions.

On Straight Outta Crumpton, host Greg Crumpton engages in a lively conversation with Nicole Bass, an HVAC Industry Leader. They discuss the evolving landscape of skilled trades and the increasing interest among younger generations, particularly Gen Z, in pursuing careers that offer stability and fulfillment.

Bass shares her journey in the commercial, industrial HVAC sector, highlighting her efforts to attract younger generations through platforms like TikTok and her educational initiative, jointhetrades.com. She emphasizes the importance of skilled trades and how they provide a rewarding career path and essential services that keep the modern world functioning.

Skilled trades provide a rewarding career path and essential services that keep the modern world functioning.

Key Points from the Episode:

  • The growing awareness and interest in skilled trades among young people and the re-evaluation of the traditional push towards college have led many opting for technical training and apprenticeship programs that lead directly to employment
  • The generational shift in attitudes towards education and careers
  • Inspiring success stories, such as a young entrepreneur who started a mobile car detailing business and transitioned into an HVAC apprenticeship, showcasing the entrepreneurial spirit and resourcefulness of today's youth
  • Advocating for greater inclusion of women in skilled trades through initiatives like Women in HVAC and highlighting the analytical and problem-solving skills women bring to these professions
  • The challenges of marketing skilled trades to younger generations and the need for employers to modernize their recruitment strategies to attract a diverse workforce
  • Future directions for promoting skilled trades, including better educational programs, employer support for training, and more effective communication of the benefits of these careers

The conversation between Crumpton and Bass underscores the vital role of a skilled trades career in today's economy and the promising opportunities it offers. As awareness grows and more young people consider these career paths, the skilled trades sector stands poised for a renaissance, driven by a new generation eager to build and maintain the infrastructure of the future.

Straight Outta Crumpton

Part of this channel

Straight Outta Crumpton

Greg Crumpton on why relationships are the foundation of business

Visit the channel

Your experts belong here

Every story in MarketScale Engineering & Construction starts with a company putting its project engineers, superintendents, and estimators on the record. Buyers are already reading this topic. The only question is whose experts they find.

Owners shortlist firms they already trust, and your field leaders become the reason your name is on that list.

Book DemoSee how it works15 minutes, straight to a calendar.

About the author

Greg Crumpton
Greg CrumptonVice President

Straight Outta Crumpton Greg's personal & professional goals are to serve the people that he am working with and/or for. He carries this mantra in his professional life and his home life. Having 40+ years as a full-service mechanical and mission critical environments contractor with a heavy emphasis on service, maintenance and repair. Greg specialize in mission critical cooling (Heat Rejection) and electrical infrastructures, as well as the comfort cooling surrounding them. As a continual entrepreneur, several markets strike him as interesting. As varied as you could imagine, they range from Coffee with my bud's at www.CommonPlaceCoffee.com, all the way to serving as an adviser for several start-ups in the emerging technology world via www.aGlobalVenture.com & www.AtomPower.com and others. Giving back to his community is of equal importance to him, www.apparo.org and Animal Welfare are just a couple ways of doing just that.

B2B Weekly

The week in Engineering & Construction, and sixteen other industries, every Monday.

Ten stories, one-line takes, five minutes. Free.

Engineering & Construction: are you visible to AI?

Before they reach out, Engineering & Construction buyers ask AI engines which vendors to trust. Explore how your experts, customers, and partners can become useful content for buyers and AI search.

Free Trial

You just read one Engineering & Construction expert. Your company is full of them.

This article was produced through MarketScale. The same platform turns your project engineers, superintendents, and estimators into the articles, video, and social content Engineering & Construction buyers are searching for. Start a free trial and see it with your own people. For qualifying companies, no credit card, no demo required.

NPS +73 · 1,000+ creators · 38+ countries

What your free trial includes

Hands-on access to the MarketScale platform
Media requests to your crowd, remote recording, AI writing tools
No demo required. No credit card.
For qualifying companies. Company confirmation required.

More Engineering & Construction Insights

Jemal and DivcoWest plan 323 apartments inside a 1982 DC office building

Jemal and DivcoWest plan 323 apartments inside a 1982 DC office building

Jemal Real Estate Strategies and DivcoWest plan to convert 1255 23rd Street NW, a 342,000-square-foot Washington, D.C. office building, into about 323 apartments. Madison Realty Capital lent $40 million for acquisition and predevelopment. DivcoWest is the current owner of the property and will retain an equity interest.

  • 01About 323 apartments at 1255 23rd Street NW would come close to the nearly 350 units Jemal Real Estate Strategies has created across its Syracuse and Richmond conversions combined, in a single building.
  • 02DivcoWest is selling into the venture but keeping an equity stake alongside Jemal.

Oct 12, 2026

Why a clean-looking aerospace part can still fail a residue test

Why a clean-looking aerospace part can still fail a residue test

Element Materials Technology explains NVR and gravimetric cleanliness testing for aerospace, defense and medical parts in a webinar featuring its Hartford and Los Angeles labs. Joe Moore and Katie Legowski show how a blank analysis, a solvent rinse and a weighed filter patch turn invisible residue into a number against IEST-STD-CC1246 levels, and how AMS 2700 F changed the passivation acid default in 2018.

  • 01Nonvolatile residue testing weighs what a solvent rinse removes from a part, so a film the eye cannot see becomes a pass or fail figure against the drawing.
  • 02IEST-STD-CC1246E, the document that replaced MIL-STD-1246 in 2002, sets residue limits from 10 nanograms to 25 milligrams per 0.1 square meter, and its particle levels count down to 5 microns, far below the 100 micron width of a hair.

Oct 12, 2026

Bain Capital's reported $250M minority investment values construction platform Kahua above $1B

Bain Capital's reported $250M minority investment values construction platform Kahua above $1B

Bain Capital's Tech Opportunities fund is putting a reported $250 million into Kahua at a valuation above $1 billion. The deal follows what Kahua says is $100 million in annualized revenue. The bet rests on owner-side program data, with AI features the next sign to watch for hospitals, ports and school builders.

  • 01Kahua is selling AI on the strength of the governed data owners already keep in it. That makes data quality and permissions the place to test any new AI feature it ships.

Oct 1, 2026

Explore More Engineering & Construction Insights

Read more expert perspectives from across Engineering & Construction.

Browse Engineering & Construction Hub

About the Experts

Greg Crumpton, host of Straight Outta Crumpton
Greg Crumpton

Host, Straight Outta Crumpton

Greg Crumpton is the host of Straight Outta Crumpton, a podcast focused on the art of networking and relationship-building in business services. He is a skilled trades advocate who works to connect industry leaders and promote careers in commercial HVAC and related fields. Crumpton operates under the mantra that relationships drive business.

NB
Nicole Bass

HVAC Industry Leader

jointhetrades.com

Nicole Bass is a commercial and industrial HVAC professional and advocate for skilled trades education. She runs jointhetrades.com, an educational initiative aimed at attracting younger generations to skilled trade careers. Bass also uses platforms like TikTok to promote awareness of HVAC and other trades, with a focus on inclusion of women in the industry.

For B2B teams

Your experts could be publishing here

Stories like this one run on content MarketScale captures from real practitioners. See how your team's expertise becomes coverage in Engineering & Construction and beyond.

Book a Demo

Or call us. No forms required. We pick up. 214-945-2512