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 obtained a master’s degree 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 four-year college programs that may 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.”

Enrollment has grown at Blue Ridge and similar programs as the costs of four-year programs soar and employers eliminate college degree requirements.

Some students take dual-enrolled courses at local colleges to become certified upon graduation, but most enroll in trade programs after high school.

Pinellas Technical College’s Clearwater campus in Florida has reported a 4% annual enrollment increase for the past two years. During the 2023-2024 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 over the past six years. He noted that most raise their earnings from $18 to $25 per hour as plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, computer technicians or construction workers within two years of graduation.

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

Advocates say trade schools offer better returns 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, ranging 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 yearly, government reimbursement programs can pay some of the costs.

Lou Spencer, assistant business manager at the UA Local No. 5 Plumbers and Gasfitters in the Washington metropolitan area, said interest in apprenticing has reached a 40-year high among high school students since the onset of the COVID-19 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 the Biden and Trump campaigns promote workforce development ahead of the November presidential election, enrollment in vocational/technical training programs has outpaced enrollment in four-year college programs.

Workforce experts predict that more employers will eliminate college degree requirements.

In May, a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce said colleges in half the nation’s labor markets will produce graduates unprepared to fill 30% of annual job openings through 2031. The jobs 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 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 to 7.2 million students, 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 from spring 2023 to spring 2024 in:

• Mechanic and repair, where program enrollment surged 14.9% from 96,289 to 109,932.

• Construction, with an 8.1% jump in enrollments from 66,214 to 71,585.

• Culinary programs, which increased 7.7% from 54,437 to 58,644 students.

Federal statistics show that many skilled trades have surpassed pre-pandemic labor numbers as the food service and hospitality industries remain shorthanded.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that employment in the construction industry rose from 8.3 million 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 [health emergency] 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 Builders 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 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 become bigger concerns for U.S. families, the average federal student loan debt has risen to $37,850 as of 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 with federal loans, but 45% said the benefits outweigh the costs only if a student doesn’t have to borrow money to pay for college.

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

Pew found that just 1 in 4 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 an increasing number of high school students have reached the same conclusion after conducting 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.”