Many high school graduates are choosing vocational training for trades that pay well and don't require 4-year degrees

Trade education is less expensive and offers good wages.
(Photo by Robert Lambert, Unsplash)

For decades, U.S. high school graduates who wanted to make a decent living went to college, but as skilled labor numbers have dwindled and higher education costs have soared, Generation Z is donning tool belts and embracing the trades, reports Te-Ping Chen of The Wall Street Journal. "Skilled trades are newly appealing to the youngest cohort of American workers. . . Rising pay and new technologies in fields from welding to machine tooling are giving trade professions a face-lift, helping them shed the image of being dirty, low-end work."

The cost of a college degree has made it less appealing to some high school graduates. "Enrollment in vocational training programs is surging as overall enrollment in community colleges and four-year institutions has fallen," Chen writes. "The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16% last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018."

For some potential students, work that means sitting at a computer all day isn't appealing, but learning a hands-on trade for good pay seems to offer more rewards. "'Not everyone needs a degree, and it takes the value out of a degree if everyone has it,' says George Belcher, 18, a high school senior in Texas. Belcher long assumed he'd go to college, but. . . he grew curious about life in the oil industry," Chen reports. "This fall, he'll enroll in trade school for $14,000 for a two-year degree and plans to work on an offshore oil rig. 'I love the ocean,' he says. He also likes the idea of working for weeks, then resting for weeks, a schedule typical with such roles."

Overall, many trade-oriented employers see their labor pipelines refilling. "At energy service company Lantern Energy, in Glastonbury, Conn., CEO Peter Callan says in the past year, he has seen more people applying for technician jobs who were on a college track and decided it wasn't ultimately for them," Chen adds. "The overall number of applications the company receives has roughly tripled in the past five years."