mikeroweWORKS $10M/year scholarships
The mikeroweWORKS Foundation now awards $10 million per year in work ethic scholarships to people pursuing skilled trades.
Snapshot · The Shawn Ryan Show
#319 Mike Rowe - What Happened to the American Dream?
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Jul 6, 2026
Where this was said
The Skills Gap: 18 Years of Beating the Drum
At 55:55 · chapter starts 51:20
At the height of Dirty Jobs' success in 2008, Rowe began noticing a jarring disconnect: help-wanted signs everywhere on set, while the news screamed about 10–12 million unemployed. At the time, there were 2.3 million open jobs requiring no degree. After every shoot, he'd ask business owners their biggest challenge — and the answer was always the same: finding someone willing to master a skill. mikeroweWORKS was born from this, building an online trade resource center with zip-code-level job matching. Today the data is even starker: 7.5 million open jobs, 6.9 million non-working men, $1.7 trillion in student debt — and America still tells every kid the best path is the most expensive one. Rowe calls it 'bananas. Stupid.' [1] — Mike Rowe "We're still telling kids that the best path for the most people is the most expensive path. And we're lending money we don't have to these …" 1:02:25
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