The Trade UP!

That time of year again – when parents and students commit to huge debt

Filed under Career Advice, Skilled Trades

So this is the time of year when high school seniors and their parents are filling out applications for colleges and universities. So my question to everyone of them is, how are you going to afford it? Seriously? I know that I was once a young kid applying for university because I thought – as everyone told me – that university was the place to go. University was your ticket to an easier, better life. Well, it has been – but it was not a cheap ticket and it was probably not the only way to get there.

Granted, I chose Arts and that’s always a hard sell. But even if you choose one of the more ‘practical’ tracks such as engineering or computer science, these still don’t teach you much if any in the way of hands-on knowledge. Universities continue to focus on theory and continue to say things like “we teach people to think.” Fortunately, I eventually wound up at a university that had some co-op courses but even after that I had to work – and I’ll admit, worry – my a** off to acquire marketable skills in things like web code (html, php, etc.), search marketing and otehr more practical skills.

In these days, it’s an increasingly viable choice to choose trade school. Why? Not because trades are anything new, certainly. Precisely the opposite. Many, many people are choosing sexier careers in new fields like technology and computer related fields but trades are tried and true. Are we going to stop using plumbing any time soon? Stop needing new houses or fixes to old ones?

Trade schools still cost money but the money is a much shorter term, smaller commitment – and they are simply not as big a risk. Because fewer people are going into them, the demand and shortage of workers is well documented.

If you are one of those people who has skills that could lead to university or trade school and you are not sure which career track to pick, I know which one I’d pick. And I’m not sure which one I’d pick if I had the choice to do over again, either. Paying off those wicked ‘higher education” loans and taking so freaking long to break into a career that actually works for me and in which I can actually make a good living took too long and was too much of an uphill climb compared to people I know who jumped into their own business three years out of high school.

Got a choice? Choose a trade, I would say. It may be ‘practical’ in more ways than one.