A trade school, also called a vocational school is an educational system designed to provide an individual with the set of skills technically required to perform a specific task. Unlike a college degree obtained after a four year duration of academic training in a professional discipline such as Medicine, Law, Business Administration; trade school focuses on providing students with training specific to a particular skilled trade such as Aircraft Maintenance Technician, Automotive Technician and Fashion Designing etc.
High school students have always been encouraged to complete formal education by proceeding to obtain a College degree. This idea has been largely adhered to by our society, so every young student graduating from High school is already dreaming of life in the College. While the thought of another four years of rigorous academic activities scare a lot of them, many remain optimistic and excited to experience a whole new life in College. Many believe that getting a College degree will help them get a big job, make them more financially stable and raise their status in the society as opposed to trade school. Whether or not these feats are achievable in the real world remain a subject of debate. This article seeks to discuss the benefits of a trade school over a College degree.
While on average it takes about two years to obtain a certificate from a trade school and at a lower cost, it takes four years or more to obtain a College degree and at a much higher cost and possibly taking on student debt. Students undertaking a degree program spend quite a lot of money and time taking courses not related to their Major. In trade school however, there are no electives or prerequisite courses rather all resources and time is focused on learning the intended skill. A trade school prepares an individual to hit the workforce and start earning a living in no time! A college student usually graduates college at the age of 22 years old young and has to wait to hopefully start earning wages, whereas a vocational student is already facing the reality of life and earning at a younger age then college graduates.
Cost is a very important factor that favors the existence of trade schools. The cost of obtaining a Bachelor’s degree is estimated to be $30,000 to $70,000 per anum. When multiplied by a four year college duration, it is really an enormous amount. According to Idaho Department of Labor, it costs an estimated $127,000 to get a bachelor’s degree in the United States. Lifestyle and the other cost of living add up to this heavy amount. Noticeably, a huge amount of money can be saved from attending a trade school. Given the stats above, trade school graduates would be saving more than $100,000 by graduation.
Even more disturbing are huge debts incurred by college students from student loans and interest accruing on such loans. It was reported in 2016 that a great percentage of college graduates in that year accumulated debts of over $37,000 from students’ loans. On the contrary it cost much less to learn a skill, for instance it costs about $10,000-$25,000 to obtain an associate degree in auto mechanics which can be completed only in two years. Trade schools were previously underestimated and have not always received much grants and loans, but a lot has changed recently and a lot of attention is shifting towards this direction, partly due to the high cost of obtaining a college degree.
College graduates are thought to earn more than trade school graduates. Indeed, the Center for Educational Statistics estimated that College graduates earn $11,180 more than trade school graduates annually. However, this difference balances out in subsequent years putting into account the two-year working advantage which the trade school graduates have over college graduates. In situations where the later take an extra year and incur huge debts from student loans, it takes even more time before their earning level up with the former.
Trade school still have a lot of advantages to it. Some skilled trade are in very high demand, whereas the number of jobs available for college graduates are declining as more students graduate every year adding to the number of unemployed graduates. A person fully trained in a skill is self-reliant, independent and has higher job security unlike a college degree employee whose job is constantly under threat.
The question now is why spend so much time and money for a college degree in anticipation of a ‘not-very-certain’ white-collar job that is also being constantly threatened by economic forces when one can spend very less in little time for a trade skill and become fully financially independent from an early age?