Trade school enrollments boom as high school grads shun costly four-year degrees

Vince Gregg, principal of Blue Ridge Technical Center in Front Royal, Virginia, says he learned the hard way about the costs of accumulating four years of college debt.

Mr. Gregg graduated from the University of Virginia in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in government. But he couldn't repay his $60,000 in student loan debt until he got a master’s in education and a teaching license.

Now he trains 600 students from two public high schools in Warren County to become cooks, auto mechanics, electricians, biomedical technicians and police officers instead of pursuing a four-year humanities program that might not pay their bills.

“More students are gravitating towards the trades because it’s hands-on and you can make a lucrative career for yourself right out of high school without financing $150,000 of debt to attend a four-year college,” Mr. Gregg told The Washington Times. "If the job you want requires a college degree, obviously you have to do that, but I think education needs to be about getting a livable wage in the kind of job you want."

Blue Ridge is one of the many high school, community college and trade group vocational-technical programs that have reported enrollment growth since the pandemic as the cost of four-year programs soars and employers eliminate college degree requirements.

While some teenagers take dual-enrolled courses at local colleges to get certified in a trade at graduation, most enroll in trade programs after high school.

In Florida, Pinellas Technical College’s Clearwater campus has experienced a 4% annual enrollment increase for the last two years, despite expecting a 15% to 20% decline as unemployment rates fell. During the 2023-24 academic year, the school enrolled 1,500 full-time students in seven apprenticeships and 30 certificate programs, most at full capacity.

“The focus on ‘essential workers’ during COVID-19 drove up salaries for tradesmen and made people reevaluate their career plans," said Jakub Prokop, director of the Clearwater campus. “Historically, technical colleges experience an enrollment decline in times of low unemployment, but we’re seeing the opposite for the first time in at least 30 years,”

Mr. Prokop said the average age of his students has dropped from 28 to 22 years old over the past six years. He noted that most go from earning $18 to $25 per hour as a plumber, electrician, HVAC technician, computer technician, or construction worker within two years of graduation.

"It’s more attractive than working in retail, custodial work or at the local Circle K [convenience store],” he added.

Advocates say trade schools offer a better return on investment to many students than four-year liberal arts colleges, with starting salaries averaging $50,000 per year for apprentice graduates.

In Florida, sponsoring employers pay the entire tuition, which ranges from one year of coursework for certifications to five years for apprenticeships.

In Maryland, where trade school tuition ranges from $6,000 to $31,000 a year, students can pay some of the cost through government reimbursement programs.

Lou Spencer, assistant business manager at the UA Local No. 5 Plumbers and Gasfitters in the Washington, D.C., metro area, said interest in apprenticing has reached a 40-year high among high school students since the pandemic. The union trains gasfitters, journeymen plumbers, core drillers, metal tradesmen and contractors to work in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia.

"Our apprentices participate in a five-year apprenticeship; they 'earn while they learn' by working full-time for a signatory contractor and attending related training classes at our training facility,” Mr. Spencer said. "Right now, our contractors have more than a fair amount of work and backlog."

As both the Biden and Trump campaigns promote workforce development heading into November’s election, enrollment in vocational/technical training programs has outpaced four-year programs.

Workforce experts predict the trend will grow as more employers eliminate college degree requirements.

In May, a report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce said colleges in half of the nation's labor markets are unprepared to fill 30% of annual job openings through 2031 that will go to workers with "an associate’s degree, a certificate, or some college credit but no degree."

According to the latest figures from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, enrollment in public two-year colleges surged by 4.7% from 4.2 million students in spring 2023 to 4.4 million in spring 2024, driven by an uptick in students seeking trade credentials.

Over the same period, enrollment at public four-year colleges grew by 1.5% from 7.1 million students to 7.2 million, reversing several years of decline as undergraduate certificate programs likewise grew.

“There could be several reasons why trade programs are seeing a higher rate of growth, but the growth has been steadily rising in recent years after the initial shock of the pandemic,” Jennifer Causey, a senior research associate at the nonprofit research center, told The Washington Times.

The clearinghouse noted explosive growth in mechanical, repair, construction and culinary programs from spring 2023 to spring 2024:

• Mechanic and repair trade programs saw an enrollment surge of 14.9% from 96,289 to 109,932 students

• In the construction trades, enrollment jumped by 8.1% from 66,214 to 71,585 students.

• Enrollment increased by 7.7% in culinary programs, from 54,437 to 58,644 students.

According to federal statistics, many skilled trades have surpassed their pre-pandemic labor numbers, even as the food service and hospitality industries have remained shorthanded.

In the construction industry, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that employment rose from 8.3 million workers in 2019 to 8.5 million in 2023. Meanwhile, the average age of construction workers dropped from 42.4 in 2022 to 41.9 in 2023.

"The surge in interest in the trades during and after the pandemic could have stemmed from … the designation of construction as 'essential,' heightened positive exposure of the trades, advancements in technology, fewer barriers to entry for a fulfilling career, minimal educational debt and a straightforward pathway to employment filled with opportunity,” said Greg Sizemore, a vice president at Associated Buildings and Contractors, a construction trade group.

Mr. Sizemore credited an "emphasis on clean and sustainable energy construction, a thriving industrial sector and the undertaking of megaprojects" as factors attracting new workers to his industry.

In an email to The Times, a Department of Education spokesperson pointed to the Biden administration's efforts to increase federal funding for college workforce training programs and "free college."

“The Biden-Harris Administration has done more to advance workforce development than any administration,” the spokesperson said. "We also persist in our support for postsecondary access and success through various initiatives, as well as calling on Congress to make the first two years of postsecondary education free for Americans."

As living costs rise, money has become a bigger concern for U.S. families, with the average federal student loan debt rising to $37,850 in March.

In a survey released May 23, the Pew Research Center found that 22% of adults said a four-year degree is worth the investment even if a student has to take out federal loans, but 45% said the benefits outweigh the costs only if a student doesn’t have to borrow money to pay for it.

Another 29% of adults said the cost of getting a four-year college degree today is “not worth it” either way.

Pew also found that just one in four adults said a four-year diploma was important to finding a job in today’s economy.

Andrew Crapuchettes, CEO of Idaho-based jobs board RedBalloon, said more and more high school students have reached the same conclusion after doing a “rational” cost-benefit analysis of the labor market.

"Colleges charge too much and deliver a product that employers no longer value,” Mr. Crapuchettes said. "At the same time, skilled tradespeople are in high demand, driving up wages. So, new high school grads are asking themselves why they would incur huge college debt for something that won’t benefit their career."