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What is the future of locksmithing?


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Our son has the opportunity to be apprenticed in the locksmithing trade should he so desire. The locksmith he would work with is an older, local, established fellow who does a pretty good business (a lot of re-keying for rentals and unlocking car doors for people locked out). Do you have any thoughts/opinions on the future of this trade? I know things will become more and more digital -- will it be a different trade that needs to fix/change these digital locks? Re-program them? Or will it be something easy that anyone could do? Or will there still be locks/keys for the foreseeable future? Just trying to think through if this would be a good move for him.

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Our son has the opportunity to be apprenticed in the locksmithing trade should he so desire. The locksmith he would work with is an older, local, established fellow who does a pretty good business (a lot of re-keying for rentals and unlocking car doors for people locked out). Do you have any thoughts/opinions on the future of this trade? I know things will become more and more digital -- will it be a different trade that needs to fix/change these digital locks? Re-program them? Or will it be something easy that anyone could do? Or will there still be locks/keys for the foreseeable future? Just trying to think through if this would be a good move for him.

 

Hmmm, interesting. I would guess that he would be secure for at least 10-15 years. Over time I do see things changing, but I suspect that he would also have enough down time to keep upgrading his education to either keep up with the times, or to enter into a new field later in life (since it is common for people to burn out on any job-I don't know that this would be bad anyways.)

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...I suspect that he would also have enough down time to keep upgrading his education to either keep up with the times, or to enter into a new field later in life ....

 

That's true, isn't it? Good point. I know he wants to get married (no bride picked out quite yet, he's 17), probably sooner rather than later given the choice, and so locksmithing would have to provide for his wife/family. That's where my mind is thinking right now, but you're right: things could always change in the future, and that would be okay too. And he could spend time preparing for something else (or saving up to start something else).

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Wow. I think that's pretty cool. Your son must have made an impression on this gentleman for him to consider offering an apprenticeship in locksmithing. It's a trade that epitomizes trust!

 

If it were my son, I'd tell him to go for it, if he was interested. I googled "future of locksmithing" (because I was genuinely interested :D) and found this article. I would think he could make a living, continue his education, and have something to put on his resume that tells employers he is trustworthy in the future, should he decide locksmithing is not for him.

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Locksmithing is not a huge trade. It is not always easy to find a locksmith. So that alone would mean if he is working in an established business, and it sounds like he would be, he could be successful because of limited competition.

 

While in the future it is likely that homes could move to a key-card type lock or other technology, I doubt that it will happen very quickly. People will still need keys and locks, and will still lock themselves out of their cars and homes and need assistance.

 

So while he learns this trade, he can keep up on new technology and bring that into his locksmith business, learning whatever is needed to serve both traditional key and lock customers and whatever new key card (or whatever) technology may be developed for home and auto use. Then he can do both.

 

If he wants to learn this trade, I would support him.

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I think what the other posters have said makes a lot of sense. In addition, I would think a locksmith would do a fair amount of emergency work, so those rates would probably be pretty decent. (We locked ourselves out of a car a few years ago while on vacation, and the locksmith charged a large, but fair, given that he drove 30 minutes to meet us, fee.)

 

However, I guess my question would be: how long would the apprenticeship take, and could he also be pursuing something else, like a college degree (maybe online?) at the same time? That way he'd have more options, as well as a skill, so that if things really changed in the world, he would not be stuck. (And possibly, he could remain an emergency locksmith for evenings and weekends or something, for a little extra cash.)

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  • 3 months later...

This thread is 3 mos. old, but thought I'd update -- we (well, he) decided to go for it and is now apprenticing with the locksmith about three days a week. I think it's a great move for him. He'll still be able to do classwork in the mornings (he's doing Running Start through the local university this fall) with work in the afternoons. We'll see how it plays out! Thanks to you all for your thoughts and advice.

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  • 1 month later...

Locksmiths are ♥ love ♥ :lol:I have locked myself out of my house and the car. Even DH has locked himself out of both and he never does that kind of thing. xD so yes I think your son will have a future. There are tons of people who would rather not rely on batteries or the electricty to keep their house safe. It will be a long time before everyone switches over to a new system.

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  • 3 years later...

 

Caterpiller says:

There are tons of people who would rather not rely on batteries or the electricty to keep their house safe. It will be a long time before everyone switches over to a new system.

Even electronic locks often have mechanical keys, too.

 

Loverboy's last apartment before moving in with me had mechanical locks AND a keypad at the front door of the building.  He went outside (without his key) to watch a tornado go by.   (Yeah, it's Iowa).  The tornado knocked out the power for that end of town, and he couldn't get back into the building because he didn't have his mechanical key!  :laugh:

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We recently had the 'opportunity' to pay a young locksmith $120 to cut us a new key when our keys were stolen at a waterpark! The locksmith was friendly and professional, but we waited 4 hours for him to arrive because, apparently, there are very few people in the locksmithing trade these days, so he was quite busy on a Saturday. Based on that single experience, I would say there is a need for more trained locksmiths!

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If you are in the USA there is a huge shortage of people there who know how to make or fix things. Probably a majority of the people who can do that  are people who came from other countries. I am amazed at the things we can get made or fixed here in Colombia. If your son learns how to do something that few others can do that will give him an opportunity to earn money that others can't.     And, if he later decides to go to university, he can work as a locksmith part time. There are companies in the USA who are desperate to hire well qualified welders and people in other trades.   I believe it will be a *long* time before the old fashion keys are replaced by digital locks.     Thank you for reminding me that I need to take 2 keys and have copies made...  

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Even though I guess it was a spammer made this come up again now, I am glad to see it. I appreciate being reminded of the many routes that a child could take that I would not otherwise think of, that are not in any of my careers to consider type books.

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  • 2 years later...

YES, I KNOWINGLY RESURRECTED A ZOMBIE THREAD. Explanation below.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Um (shyly) -- I see some of you bid me to come by a couple of years ago and I missed it.  My apologies! I actually just googled "job outlook locksmith" and this five-year old thread came up.  :D  So since you asked about how things turned out in this thread, I'm going to resurrect the zombie thread in case some of you are still following, haha. 

 

I googled those search terms because my husband is actually starting to apprentice with this same fellow from our church and is pretty enthusiastic about it. He was recently laid off, and we aren't in dire straits, so he has time to ponder what he wants to do -- and this is what he says he thinks he wants to do.  ;) So I thought I'd google the job outlook. 

 

Reading back through the thread, I see that at one point I updated that our son decided to go for it.  It must have been short-lived because I don't remember him doing so!  He must not have liked it after some months in training because he didn't stick with it and is in a different field now.  But my husband, now maybe he'll be the locksmith of the family.  I guess I'll have to update in another five years.  :D

Edited by milovany
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