After high school, many people take the familiar route of enrolling in a four-year college, a path long viewed in America as the gold standard for higher education. For years, it was widely believed that earning a college degree guaranteed a successful career, a belief that later expanded to include the need for a master’s degree for greater opportunities. However, when planning for the future, it’s crucial to consider another valuable and often overlooked option— trade schools, also known as vocational programs, which offer practical paths to rewarding careers.
Trade schools offer alternative postsecondary education paths, ideal for young adults with different plans or those still exploring their career options. While traditional degree programs have their advantages, trade schools are perfect for individuals with specific talents, like those interested in electronics, who aim to excel in fields such as electrical work. These programs provide a direct route into fulfilling careers in their chosen fields, often more quickly than traditional college degrees.
What, Exactly, Is a Trade School?
Trade schools, also known as vocational schools or technical schools, provide hands-on training in specific fields, focusing on developing skills and knowledge necessary for various occupations. Examples of trade schools include those specializing in construction, culinary arts, internet security, and the medical field.
Skilled trades encompass occupations that require specific skill sets, knowledge, and abilities, and can be found across various career clusters. These jobs offer opportunities for entry-level positions, allowing individuals to build a rewarding career without the need for a college degree.
How Does Trade School Compare to College?
There are a lot of jobs that require a bachelor's degree. These jobs will certainly pay better than the work that somebody is likely to find with a high school diploma alone. Trade school careers are kind of like finding the middle ground of where your education meets opportunity.
If you're interested in a trade, you can invest some of your time and money enrolling in a trade school program, where you will study that trade. In weeks or months, you'll likely be awarded a certificate or diploma showing that you've satisfied the requirements of the program. It's just like graduating high school, except oftentimes there's a job waiting for you when you finish.
A lot of times, college teachers are people that never really leave the classroom. They know a ton of stuff but are also limited because their worlds never really leave the books from which they're teaching. The instructors at trade schools are usually professionals in a given field before they started teaching. This means that the plumbing instructor was probably a professionally licensed plumber for decades and has seen every type of issue that you can think of. Now he shares his wisdom with students because he wants them to succeed.
Like colleges, trade schools cost money, though the differences are staggering. The average price for a four-year college education is about $40,000, while the average price for a trade school ranges from about $5,000 to $15,000. While the average college experience lasts for four years, the trade school experience can be measured in weeks and months. While there is no guarantee of graduating from college and finding a job, trade schools often guarantee their students the opportunity for gainful employment upon graduation.
When somebody graduates from a 4-year college, they get a degree that shows that they have learned something. It's like the school is telling the world that the student has completed the necessary requirements and is ready to get a job. The same is true when a student finishes a trade school program. They are awarded a diploma or certificate that signifies that they have learned a skill.
Why Is a Trade School Relevant to Your Future?
Trade school careers can unlock a person's future for them. While they are far less daunting, in terms of time and money spent than college degree programs, they offer huge opportunities to find good work quickly. Some programs actually guarantee lifelong employment upon completion of particular courses.
Investing in a trade school is the equivalent of investing in yourself because it means that you took the time to consider your future and then took the concrete steps to make that future a reality. A huge benefit of the trade school is how quickly it can get you there.
What Are the Fields That Trade School Prepares You For?
From the highest-paying trade jobs, like aircraft mechanic or electrician, to jobs that are vital but don't offer the highest wages, there's a trade school program for just about every major field. Indeed, trade schools cover a wide variety of careers and subjects.
Mechanical Contracting
Mechanical contracting can be found in almost every industry and these folks are generally in charge of installing, maintaining and repairing mechanical systems, including plumbing, HVAC, piping, refrigeration and more.
It takes about seven months to complete an HVAC trade course that will lead to a national certification. There are courses that last longer, in which you can earn an associate degree. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the HVAC industry is expected to grow at least through 2026. The diversity of job opportunities and advancement in systems makes this industry an attractive and rewarding career.
Becoming a master plumber might take a little bit longer, but it starts in the same way. Upon completion of high school or GED equivalency, you can matriculate through a plumbing trade school, garner your certificate and continue generating the thousands of hours of apprenticeship that you'll need to become a professional.
The Medical Field
There are enough jobs in the medical field to make your head spin and most of them do not require you to be a doctor. A phlebotomist is the person in the medical setting who draws blood for a variety of purposes, such as tests, transfusions and donations. They prepare patients for blood draws by verifying the information, explaining the process and helping them to feel calm.
Possibly there is no better illustration of how important hands-on training is to your on-the-job comfort level than sticking needles under people's skin to take blood out. To be a relaxed professional who combines an unhurried bedside manner with a strong skill set that includes working with medical equipment and paperwork, trade school is essential. The average phlebotomy course usually runs from four to eight months. Upon completion, students are awarded a certificate, which prepares them to work with patients in different settings, such as labs, blood banks and hospitals.
An MRI technologist specializes in working with magnetic resonance imaging scanners. They inject patients with contrast media, such as dye, so that the images will show up on the scanner. Like phlebotomists, MRI technologists must learn about the medical equipment while also paying attention to things like customer records and customer care.
In order to be properly certified, new MRI techs should expect to complete a rigorous one to two-year training program with an accredited organization. The coursework generally includes classroom, clinical and hands-on training, which includes shadowing seasoned veterans in the field.
Respiratory therapists work under the direction of doctors and specialists to help patients who are having difficulty with their breathing. It takes about two years to become a respiratory therapist, at which point you'll complete an associate degree program in respiratory care, as well as the other requirements for licensure. Respiratory therapists can earn about $61,000 per year and the projected growth rate for the field is 14 percent.
A diagnostic medical sonographer uses imaging equipment and soundwaves to form images of many parts of the body, which are known as ultrasounds. The most common way to become a sonographer is to matriculate through a 2-year associate degree program, though there are one-year certification programs available for those who are already trained in another healthcare field. Sonographers earn about $75,000 per year and the projected growth rate for the field is ten percent.
The Tech Field
You can have just as important an impact in the tech field by simply earning a 2-year associate degree. A web developer, for example, creates and maintains websites. They are also responsible for the site's technical aspects, such as its performance and capacity, which are measures of a website's speed and how much traffic the site can handle. They sometimes also create content for the site. The average salary for a web developer is about $78,000 and the field, of course, is booming. The projected growth rate through the next few years is 14 percent. This job can be yours with a two-year associate degree.
The tech field highlights an important aspect of a trade school education. Graduating from trade schools gives you something valuable that you can build on. You could become a successful web developer with an associate degree but can, if and when you decide, continue with your formal education, picking up coursework to complete a 4-year degree or earning more certifications through other trade school ventures.
Other Fields
Air traffic controllers work at airports to coordinate approaching and departing aircraft. It can be a wildly stressful job and candidates are screened in many ways to make sure that they have not just the hands-on training with the equipment, but the psychological chops, as well, to be able to handle stress when so much is at stake.
In a job where speed and precision are at a premium, trade schools can put you in authentic scenarios that will challenge these skills. The FAA has many training requirements, which the right trade school program will apply to its curriculum so as to better prepare its students. Air traffic controllers can earn up to $53,000 per year and there will be jobs available for as long as there's air travel.
A commercial diver works underwater to complete jobs, like installing structures and making repairs through welding. They most commonly work for the oil industry. This is a good example of a job in which two skill sets can be combined to maximize income. You can get yourself certified through trade school to be a commercial diver, which will make you valuable. If you already hold a certification in one or more areas of welding, you'll increase your value.
What Are the Highest-Paying Trade School Jobs?
You might be surprised at how well you can do with a high school diploma and the right trade school program. You may also be surprised at the range of skills at play. Aircraft mechanics earn an average of $67,000 per year while plumbers earn about $56,000 per year. Fiber optics technicians, which speak to another skillset that's in high demand, can earn about $62,000 and real-estate appraisers make an average of $59,000 per year.
Depending on how often you find yourself in an elevator, you might be surprised to know that with a diploma from a trade school, an elevator installer and repairer can earn around $98,000 per year. Radiation therapists can earn up to $83,000 while web developers can earn about $78,000.
Folks with credentials dealing with HVAC, electrical, plumbing or building carry with them specialized knowledge that makes them invaluable in many situations. Whether they're involved in new construction, administering changes to existing elements or addressing an emergency or other issue, the folks in these lines of work.
It's not just the volume of work that makes these jobs high-paying. The average hourly rate for a plumber in the United States is around $31. That means that if the job was simple and required a few inexpensive parts and only a few minutes, the plumber still gets $31 for labor. Other jobs, though, can be complicated and those hours add up quickly into tidy sums. Welders can earn up to $30 per hour while power plant operators can earn up to $85,000 per year. The electric linemen that keep those power lines maintained can earn up to $75,000 per year.
How Do You Choose the Most Lucrative Trade?
There are a few ways to define the word lucrative. If you're talking strictly financially, you can do a simple Google search to see which industries are dominating the marketplace and then invest in learning the skillset you'll need to get into one of those industries.
According to a US News and World Report, careers in computer science, the health field and construction are all blossoming right now. This means that there are loads of skilled trades, offered by thousands of trade schools, that can gain you entry into one of these fields.
If, on the other hand, financial gains are not your primary concern and you're looking to enter into the workforce by choosing something that you enjoy or are predisposed to do well, you will find trade schools to be lucrative in this regard, as well. This is because there are so many options that your choice exists somewhere therein.
However, you define lucrative, one way to investigate the trends of the future so that you can have a better idea of what fields will be thriving for the next decade or so is to pay attention to the projected job growth rate. On the one hand, the traveling knife sharpener career has been on a steep decline for many, many years. On the other, the projected job growth for wind turbine technicians is 44 percent through 2031. Some other big projections include:
- Web developer, 23%
- Respiratory therapist, 14%
- Diagnostic medical sonographer, 10%
Who Is the Right Candidate to Attend a Trade School?
If you have a career in mind and are looking for the shortest route possible to getting there, a trade school might be the right move. If you know that you want to engage with the world on a professional level, but aren't interested in obtaining a college degree, there is likely a trade school that can help you to accomplish this. There are vocational programs that suit just about every interest and personality out there, waiting to be investigated.
