Ashburnham Businessman Promoting Trades as a Career Path with New Book

By DANIELLE RAY | dray@sentinelandenterprise.com | Sentinel & Enterprise

August 27, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

ASHBURNHAM — Joshua Page is the first to admit he wasn’t a very good student, so much so that he opted to go to a trade school because he thought it would be easier than going the more traditional high school route.

“I went to Monty Tech because I hated school and was never any good and knew I only had to go to school two weeks out of the month and the other two were in a trade,” Page recalled.

He remembers struggling throughout his years of learning, but enrolling at Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School would prove to be a life-changing decision.

“I was not great at school, but the trades really saved me,” Page said of the educational institution where he was a “C and D” grades student in the electrical shop. He graduated in 2002.

Twenty years later the successful businessman is spreading the word about the benefits of a trade education, opting for the no-college path and how those choices helped get him to where he is today.

He was inspired to cull from his personal experience and write a children’s book, “What Does Your Daddy Do?,” which tells the story of a young boy whose teacher starts a discussion about career week, prompting him to go home and ask his electrician dad about what he does.

“Ashton could have never imagined all the really cool things that his dad gets to do every day and all the really cool tools he gets to use,” the book description says.

“This is the first book of its kind and I believe this is truly going to ignite the conversations at home and plant the seed in a young mind about other options,” Page said.

He started his own business, JP Electric and Son Inc., in the basement of his Templeton house in 2011 and the business is now headquartered in Fitchburg.

“My goal was to change the way homeowners view contractors,” Page said. “As an industry we have a bad stigma of not picking up after ourselves, not answering the phones, doing bad work. So, my mission has always been to provide our customers with the best electrical experience possible, from the first phone call to when the job is complete. Communication is huge for me and taking care of the customer is our job.”

He has been a public speaker for the past five years, sharing his own firsthand experience with forgoing college in favor of jumping into the workforce and putting his trade skills to good use.

“After a few years speaking at career days in area high schools I felt that I wasn’t making a big enough impact and I wanted a way to inspire many more people,” he said.

The Templeton native hatched the idea for the book two years ago with the goal “to educate the next generations that college is not the only option.”

“My thought process was to plant the seed in a younger mind about all the cool things tradespeople do and hopefully influence and inspire the next generations about the trades,” Page said.

His own children — sons Ashton, 13, the main character in the book, and Brody, 8, and his 17-year-old niece Hanna, who he and his wife Lindsey took guardianship of in 2020, played a role when it came to coming up with the concept for the book, and Page said the inspiration behind it comes from his wife.

“She is the owner of Little Explorers Daycare in Templeton and when I knew I needed to make a bigger impact I realized I needed to influence the younger generations, an age between her daycare and high school,” Page said, adding he thought kids in grades three through six “would be an ideal audience.”

“She has already read the book to her pre-K class, and they loved it, so it’s really made for all ages,” he said. “My thought process was to plant the seed in a younger mind about all the cool things tradespeople do and hopefully influence and inspire the next generations about the trades.”

He dedicated “What Does Your Daddy Do?” to his “two boys and all the future tradespeople in the world” and had a book signing, reading and speaking engagement at the Leominster Barnes & Noble bookstore on Aug. 14.

“Book-signing went really great,” Page said. “We sold over 30 books and had a lot of foot traffic. Barnes & Noble will be carrying a few of our books on the shelf and hopefully they get into the right hands and inspire and influence at least one child about the trades.”

The book, which is also available on Amazon, is the first in a series he plans to continue.

“My next book will be about a plumber, then carpenter, welder, then cosmetologist,” Page said. “Then as long as its successful, the same series but ‘What Does Your Mommy Do?’”

John Drinkwater works with unions all over the state as the workforce development specialist for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and said he has made concerted efforts through his role to make trades more accessible to girls and women.

The Lowell city councilor thinks Page’s book is a great way to encourage young people to get into trade fields such as plumbing, electrical and other trades, sectors facing personnel deficiencies due to “a lot of workers reaching retirement age soon.”

“I think it’s a great message to get out there and a great career pathway to consider, but it’s not something you walk into,” Drinkwater said. “It takes a lot of hard work to get there, so while there are trade careers that can sustain a family it is important to know that it takes some time to not only become experienced in a trade but to sometimes even get your foot in the door. But for those who want it, those doors will open.”

Page noted that the average age of an electrician in Massachusetts is 55 and a plumber is 57. He spoke about how hard it is to get into Monty Tech these days, with the popularity of the school skyrocketing in recent years leading to competition in acquiring a coveted spot.

“I believe that a kid like me that wasn’t very good in school and didn’t have good grades but needed some direction would not be accepted into Monty Tech right now and that’s pretty sad,” he said. “The boys and girls that excel in the trades might not fit the mold, but they are so desperately needed in the field right now.”

That’s why it’s important to him to get the message out about trade careers, especially in the face of trade industries that can be quite lucrative facing significant worker shortages.

“College is not the only option and I think parents, educators and our school systems need to understand this and stop with the stigma that a trade is dirty or not cool,” he said. “Working in a trade is a great way to make a living but also the feeling of creating something with your hands and your brain is incredible. I am very kinesthetic and visual, once I see something or touch it I know how to build it. I think a lot of us in the trades are the same way. This is why traditional teaching doesn’t really work for us because sitting in a classroom listening to the teacher talk is hard. But when we are able to put our hands on it and visually see things working, we learn much faster.”

In addition to JP, the motivated businessman owns Ruel Electric, “a company that has been a staple in Fitchburg and Leominster since 1954,” and Patriot Electric out of Concord, which was started in 1983. Like any good business owner, Page gives a lot of credit for his success to his dedicated staff.

“I couldn’t do what I do without my team of phenomenal office staff, electricians and future electricians. They are the backbone of the company and am so proud of what they accomplish every day.”

He realizes that Monty Tech helped set him up for his thriving career and the opportunities it has brought him and is grateful for that.

“Monty Tech gave me the experience, the knowledge and the confidence that I could become an electrician,” Page said. “The younger generations need to understand that it’s OK to not attend college and that you don’t need a four-year degree to be successful in life. You need to find your passion, take massive action, and never look back.”

Ashburnham businessman, public speaker, and author Joshua Page at the Aug. 14 book signing at Barnes & Noble in Leominster for his new release focusing on trades as a career path, “What Does Your Daddy Do?” (COURTESY JOSHUA PAGE)

Ashburnham electrician Joshua Page, a business owner and public speaker, recently published a book, “What Does Your Daddy Do?”, which highlights trades as a viable and successful career path (COURTESY JOSHUA PAGE)

Ashburnham electrician Joshua Page recently published a book, “What Does Your Daddy Do?”, which highlights trades as a viable and successful career path. (COURTESY JOSHUA PAGE)