When longtime welding instructor Jaime Shewbridge teaches a class, she often meets students who believe they would not have gone into the trades if they had earned higher grades or done better in school.
She tells them they are smarter than most people she knows.
"I remind them of the hard work and skill their work requires to take something annihilated and make it functional and safe for a family to get into it," she said.
To help educate others about the trades, Shewbridge wrote a children's book titled "Levi Doesn't Know Yet: A What Will Levi Be? Story." The chapter book, written for fourth-grade students, introduces readers to the range of jobs available in the trades.
"We go on these adventures and we meet actual people who work with each of the trade jobs," she explained.
The book is dedicated to Shewbridge's children and grandchildren, as well as to the people who work in the trades.
She was also motivated by the realization that she didn't want her grandchildren to grow up thinking they are less important than someone who goes to college if they choose a different path.
"I want them to feel like they didn't settle for something that's not as good as somebody else," she said.
Levi's grandmother turns out to be a welder
The main character, 9-year-old Levi, is named after one of Shewbridge's young grandsons.
In the book, Levi is asked at school what he wants to be when he grows up. He doesn't know how to answer and is stressed about it. After school, he talks the dilemma over with his grandmother, Mom-Mom.
Shewbridge described Mom-Mom as a little sarcastic and always cutting to the chase, much like herself.
"It makes people laugh because you can relate," she said.
One of Shewbridge's favorite parts of the book comes when Levi spots Mom-Mom's welding helmet on a garage shelf and asks about it. When he learns she is a welding teacher, he says, "But you're a girl."
Shewbridge can relate. When she started in the automotive industry at 16, few girls were doing anything similar. Even today, she noted, only a handful of women teach welding for I-CAR worldwide.
"A little girl in fourth grade might not even think that a welding job could ever be for her," Shewbridge said. "I know in fourth grade I certainly didn't think that."
As a result, the book makes clear that there are no "boy" or "girl" jobs in the trades.
"Tools don't care what anatomy you have," she said. "They just want you to use them correctly."
The stigma around the trades persists
Throughout her career, Shewbridge has seen a stigma attached to people who choose the trades.
She doesn't believe there is anything wrong with a college degree, and she has one herself, but she acknowledged that college isn't for everyone.
"We shouldn't discount someone or look at them in a different light just because they chose a different path than what somebody else did," she said.
She and her fiancé, Patrick, have a blended family of eight daughters. When Shewbridge's daughter Catherine was about 10, she took an interest in helping her mother organize paperwork for SkillsUSA.
"She fell in love with the industry and she wanted to be a painter," Shewbridge recalled. "She's very smart."
When Catherine, a member of the National Honor Society, told her counselor she wanted to attend the vocational-technical program at the Center of Applied Technology North, the counselor replied, "You have a 4.25 GPA. You don't belong in vo-tech."
Catherine graduated from the program in 2019. She won a SkillsUSA gold medal in automotive refinishing as a junior and competed at nationals. As a senior, she won gold in damage appraisal.
Shewbridge said perceptions of the trades have not improved enough. Students still tell her they enrolled because they didn't do well in school.
She tells them they are there because they like working with their hands, have strong problem-solving skills, and are talented at what they do.
To change those perceptions, Shewbridge said the industry needs to reach students well before middle and high school.
Kids are asked from a very young age what they want to be when they grow up, she said, and are pushed toward college.
"College is just hammered into them that this is what you have to do," she said. "There are so many other doors."
Future books will introduce more trades
Shewbridge noticed that professions tend to promote only their own trade, so she plans for the What Will Levi Be? series to cover a wide variety of options.
"Levi will meet a real technician, ask lots of questions, and learn what their job is like, how they got there and what the future looks like for that trade," Shewbridge explained.
Upcoming chapter books will feature welders, automotive refinishers, fabricators, plumbers, collision repair technicians, equipment technicians, electricians, HVAC technicians, automotive mechanics, and more.
"It's bringing all these good careers to light and all of the hard work that they've done," she said.
The characters will be based on real people who share their stories, many of whom Shewbridge has known for years.
"Each future book will introduce a different trade inspired by the story of someone working in that field," she said.
Shewbridge said most adults couldn't explain what a machinist does.
"They might not even know that there's a real job called a machinist but they're pretty important people in the big scheme of making things work," she said.
She also wants to show readers the different roles within each trade. A collision repair shop, for example, employs not only technicians but also estimators, paint technicians, managers, and owners.
When a reader finds a job interesting, Shewbridge wants them to understand there is a path from fourth grade to that career. The stories will show how each character got there, whether through on-the-job training, trade school, a mentor, or some combination.
"You can't dream about a job that you don't know exists," she said.
Each book will include companion student and teacher guides with questions, answers, and puzzles. Shewbridge would eventually like to offer the guides free with each book so they can be used for homeschooling. She also hopes collision repair businesses will sponsor books for classrooms during career weeks.
Beyond the first series, Shewbridge plans to write picture books about the trades for kindergarten and first-grade students. The main character, Hudson, is named after another of her grandsons.
Her long-term vision includes a high school edition that lets readers reconnect with familiar characters, meet new ones, and explore careers in greater depth. Companion YouTube videos are also planned.
Shewbridge said writing the first book has brought her a lot of joy.
"I'm excited that a little girl will be able to read this book and think, 'I can do this because it has already been done,'" she said.
The book is available on Amazon, where it is free to read with Kindle+, and in paperback through BookSpace.
Shewbridge is looking for people in other skilled trades, such as RV repair, carpentry, and HVAC, who can explain why they love their jobs.
Shewbridge is teaching welding classes at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nov. 3–5. Details are available on the SEMA Show education schedule.
Stacey Phillips Ronak