Shift in values: high school graduates flock to trade schools as confidence in traditional degrees wanes

National correspondent Dan Grossman looks at the advantages those alternative schools can offer. John Turkower is in his third semester at Rankin Technical College in St. Louis, MO. A former high school football standout, Turkower says he turned down college football opportunities. I didn't think college was worth it. The most colleges, they're like, they're not going to settle the job and likewise spend 4 years taking a bunch of the classes and I can do 2 years, have a whole job already set up, make more money in less time. Undergraduate enrollment grew 2 1/2% in spring of 2024 compared to the previous year, marking the 2nd semester of enrollment growth since the decline of the pandemic. But research shows most of the increase is from Community College growth. This is a really old part, right? Don Pole, the president of Rankin Technical College, says he knows first hand that not everyone wants or needs a typical college experience. So I was always familiar with ranking growing up. Decide I want to get into the technical careers, so came here, was a student, I graduated, ended up getting a real job. After working in the computer industry, Paul came back to Rankin to 1st teach, then lead. Many students at the school say they share the same sentiments as both Pole and Turkow the need to work with their hands and the value of getting into the workforce without the debt of a traditional degree. 98% of our graduates are working within their chosen career field. The Pew Research finding that only one in four American adults who believe a college degree is valuable also says that roughly half of those people say it's less important to have a four year college degree today in order to get a well paying job than it was 20 years ago. We have 4% unemployment. That's, you know, nationally, that's a pretty tight labor market. Employers have had to raise wages in order to attract workers. You know, if we continue in that vein, yes, I think that creates a good opportunities for technical colleges and sort of skilled trades. Frye, one of the authors of the research, says as long as the economy holds where it is now, skilled trade should be safe. However, he says be leery of another recession. You know the the Great Recession officially ended in 2009, but labor market wise it took years to recover. So it really wasn't around again till about 2014 that things really started to look up for less educated young adults. As for Cherkauer, he's confident that with his education and experience, he'll thrive in a field that is always in demand. Then going to a trade score, especially like ranking, they get you set with a career and the trades are always going to be needed. That was going to be someone to work on cars, do plumbing, construction, anything with trades really. Dan Grossman, Scripps News.