As the job market tightens for recent college graduates, more Americans are exploring other types of learning opportunities. In fact, they are so eager for alternatives that it sometimes takes no more than a social media video to inspire a cross-country move to a trade school.
That’s the journey New Yorker Dylan Healy and his friends took after seeing a post from Southeast Lineman Training Center in Georgia. “We’d rewatch that video over and over because it got us excited to go to trade school,” Healy, 20, told The Washington Post.
Healy is now documenting his time at the school on TikTok.
Plurality of Americans recommend trade school over traditional college
“Social media is increasingly becoming a destination for a new generation to learn about skilled trades — at a time when many have grown skeptical about the cost of college and the promise of white-collar jobs,” wrote The Post.
The newspaper noted that, in 2024, the share of people ages 17 to 21 with two-year vocational degrees hit its highest level since data collection started in 1992. Enrollment in these programs has roughly doubled since 2000.
Other research shows trade schools may now exceed traditional four-year institutions in terms of popularity. This summer, the American Staffing Association released a poll that found a greater percentage of U.S. adults (33 percent) would recommend vocational or trade schools over four-year colleges for high school graduates. (Only 28 percent of individuals polled said they would recommend a four-year college.) Thirteen percent recommended high school graduates go right into the workforce while 11 percent recommended internships.
HVAC: One student’s path to the American Dream
Spencer McDonald, 23, also opted against a four-year college degree. His reason for doing so: cost. “It was a no-brainer for me,” he told Scripps News Service. “It was well more than half the price.” Instead, McDonald attended a two-year trade school and found a job as soon as he graduated. “When they say the sky is the limit, they truly mean the sky is the limit,” he told Scripps. “I’ve met guys making $250 an hour for running wire.”
McDonald noted his chosen path may allow him to retire earlier than many of his college-educated peers. He contributes to his 401k, invests a percentage of each paycheck, and is saving to buy a home and rental properties. “My goal is to be retired by between 47- 53,” he said.
There’s another reason these learning options are popular: the work that flows from them offers Americans the chance to do work that matters. Take McDonald’s job in HVAC. As Julian Scadden, president and CEO of Nexstar Network, an organization that serves hundreds of companies in the industry, recently wrote in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, these firms “don’t just keep our homes running [they] keep our communities safe, comfortable, and efficient.”