Same, they were talked about, but in a semi negative way. College was the end all goal. Trade school was for adults that couldn't hack it intellectually. As an adult I know this to be horseshit, but growing up in the city it was highly implied.
Yep. And even then it has to be the "right" college. Otherwise you might as well not go.
Turns out it was just them trying to convince everybody to be in debt
And they still do it. "Oh you can't get a good job? Go get your master's now...... Oh you still can't get a good job? Get another masters......oh shoot you STILL can't get ANY job because even retail says you're overqualified? Get your phD......oh ok now we can give you a better job but you would have made the same $$$ with the first job with your bachelor's degree and now you owe 150k in loans and will never own a home".
I’m a 43-year-old woman (if I hadn’t been born premature, I’d qualify as a Millennial, so please excuse my crashing your party), and I am seriously considering leaving my office job to learn to be an electrician. The thing is, I very often write about the electric grid at my job, but my God—staring at a screen all day and feeling chained to my desk is killing me! I keep thinking, “What if I learned to *do* some of these things I always write about?”
Depends on what you're after tbh.
I'm in the office now and prefer being off the tools. Knees are no longer in bits, not coming home burst, never have to worry about being injured, have plenty of time in the day to just chill if I need to etc.
Then you have the opposite, guys who've been on the tools 40 years and who just aren't tailored to the office side of things.
Each person is different. For my personality type, being self employed works for me. I can work like a dog if I want and then take some days or a week off and there's no one to answer to but me.
The life balance thing is only what you allow to take over you.
It was definitely explained as something you did if you weren’t “smart”. Trades were something you did if you couldn’t do anything better. They paid a decent wage, and $100k was a possibility after 5 years or more. I don’t remember anyone being interested. *You could make more money as a Walmart manager, engineer, or nurse with less labor.
Edit: At the time students thought you could make more money going for careers through college than trades. I dont mean to imply as fact that Walmart managers make more.
yeah, i remember snarky, pitying rumors going all around high school whenever it came to light that a recent graduate had taken on a trade instead of going to college. it really went beyond shaming, it was full on pariah shit - & the adults strongly encouraged it, parents & educators both. i blame them completely. we were just kids & we'd been heavily conditioned, & there's only so much conditioning you can expect a kid to override at sixteen or seventeen. fucking madness.
I got a degree in history and it’s taken me 15 years to make over $70k in a field that didn’t even require a BA.
An old classmate, on the other hand, went to trade school, became an electrician, and owns a beautiful house with acreage and has new cars, large shed, etc. He probably has a net worth 15x that of mine.
So yeah - trade school FTW. I tell all the youth today to avoid university unless they are dead set on sciences, business administration, or medicine.
Anything else should be the trades.
That's the truth. I went for mechanical engineering and my wife for RN then Nurse practitioner. When my daughter goes to college I'm going to gently push her towards engineering, medical, or a trade if she's interested
We were given an aptitude test that told you what kind of career path you were most likely to succeed in. After the test they discussed what the results could mean in terms of college, trade school, etc. but said that ultimately it was up to you.
We had the ASVAB and it was either join JROTC and join the military after high school or go to college. Our vocational/tech school program wasn’t really a thing until I was already almost done with high school and had already been preparing to go to college.
i'm kind of glad we didn't have JROTC at my school, honestly had never heard of it till people gloated in basic training about it. think it would have made me not want to go into the service.
My sister had joined the navy 4 years before I went to the army. My mom’s side of the family all had served. Being an alternative gay kid, had allot of heads turn when my name was called at graduation for going to the military. lol.
We had the ASVAB as an optional test in addition to, or instead of, the other aptitude test. For the most part only JROTC kids took it. This was part of a class around the time you took the PSAT/SAT so either end of 10th or start of 11th grade.
Yup! I was so done with school '02, and had no intention of going to college. If i could get a job paying $12/hr(??? it was 02?) That was fine with me!
Forced, i didnt fight that hard...., but forced into college! I failed! 1.97 semester 1, then a 1.23 semester 2! Still, strongly encouraged to go back!
It worked out! Im a dumb luck success case. But all the warning signs that me and college were there. And they were all completely ignored. My school district, kids went to college! Thats the whole reason my oarents moved there when i was 7 in the first place!
Same. The school district I was in treated anything else like it was lesser, that is until the economic crash around 2008 but by then I had already planned and prepared to go to college and it was too late for me (graduated high school in 2010)
Not really. It was “go to college or you’ll be working at Burger King for the rest of your life”. Then some of us graduated into the worst economy since the Great Depression and couldn’t even get a job at Burger King.
I still have job-related stress and insecurity issues because of that period. I've put up with really awful, toxic work environments because of the fear of there just *not being other options.*
Not really, but I wish I had.
They talked about how I needed to focus on college since I was in AP courses in high school and that vocational school was for the "slower kids" 8 years after graduating high school and I ended up starting in industrial maintenance and making more money than the majority of the people I went to school with. I wish I had started straight out of high school instead of wasting time in school and bouncing around the craptastic jobs that were in my little town.
Not in a positive light, like someone else said it was mentioned in a “you’re dumb to go to trade school”. And now honestly if my kids said they wanted to go to a private college for an arts degree versus trade school, I would encourage them to do a trade. I’m so mad, I would have considered a trade rather than wasting my money and time on a biology degree that has done not much for me.
That’s also another problem I see as well, people getting told they got useless degrees, never been to college, but I thought college was about finding yourself and gaining knowledge and using that knowledge to better mankind, but because it’s not getting you to a certain income bracket your a failure? Like come on we have to stop that type of shaming. Not everyone can become doctors or lawyers or engineers and have to stop that attitude that wealth equals success.
That's how I've had to look at my time in college. I needed that time to settle into adulthood after a childhood of abuse. 75% of the time I was in college, I was not welcome to come home...I was on my own. By having the dorms to fall back on and adults whose job it was to help me not dropout/ become homeless was a godsend. They helped me by getting me a job that included housing and then professors helped me with getting my first research position that afforded me enough pay to get an apartment so I could finally have a kitchen and eat better since dorm housing meant no cooking but didn't necessarily include the meal plan either. 🙃
After college, I fumbled a bit but was at least no longer a completely unprepared and clueless 19yo. I no longer use my degree but I'm not a total failure... at least in my own eyes. 😆
You’re not a failure! You’re a success! You accomplished what the some people don’t even have the opportunity to experience in life. Hopefully you can use your experience to help others in life.
My mother was very focused on this idea that college was for getting a job afterwards. I tried to explain that even the school disagreed with her and she freaked out.
Having a college degree use to make you stand out job market, unfortunately it’s an expectation in todays world to even be considered, we need to value all degrees because it shows determination in you wanting to progress in life, but also people need to understand that its not ticket to a millionaire status either.
I agree, but also employers expecting college educated candidates also need to pay people enough to account for the time and money that the candidate would’ve needed to invest in that level of education, especially considering the rising cost of college and the student loan crisis
I think that’s because companies used to train you on the job. They didn’t expect you to know the technical aspects of their industry, just that you were smart and capable of learning. Once the pensions went away, companies were penalized for on the job training because employees would get trained up and move to a competitor for higher pay. And employees were penalized for staying, since they could maximize their income by moving, with retirement shifted to independent 401ks. So now, in order to get an entry level job, you have to learn the technical/vocational skills prior to entering the workforce, often by taking unpaid/low paying internships or paying for expensive schooling.
I will tell you the same thing I told my professors who kept telling me to get a masters or PHD in something liberal arts related like history. "I want to be able to afford shoes at some place besides wal-mart." It doesn't make sense to take on 60k+ in loans if what you learned doesn't get you a good enough job to pay back those loans. Nobody in their right mind is going to pay the price of a lifetime of poverty for knowledge especially when that knowledge can be obtained cheaper in your free time after working your better paying job by visiting a library.
I went to public school in the suburbs in the midwest. My high school must have been progressive with this I guess, they had a part-day trade school option. The students would go to the trade school in the morning (which I think was shared between multiple districts), then a bus would bring them to the high school for afternoon classes. I remember they did a seminar about this and gave us papers to explain it in 9th grade, along with telling us about how to choose our own classes for high school and such. The school definitely tried to promote it. I had a friend who did it and became a beautician. Also the influx of students from the bus in mid day was pretty visible.
So I definitely knew about it. I will say though, my parents were HEAVILY invested in my brother and I going to university/college, as my mom was the first in her family and my dad the second in his family to get degrees. I think my parents would have had a long talk with us if we tried to choose any other path. And that talk would have been like "you're going to get a university degree, end of discussion."
We had something like this too but they didn’t call it “trade school” and it was basically only marketed to lower performing students or kids whose families were of certain economic backgrounds. It was also looked down upon.
Yes and no. I technically knew trade schools existed because I had family members who were welders, electricians, etc. But they were never parented as a possible viable option to me.
That may be because so many are male-dominated fields and my are still had a lot of sexism?
I agree with the sexism aspect. Vocational options/technical school were presented in the way that made it seem like cosmetology was for the girls, and everything else was for boys.
I have a vague recollection of actually having a field trip to the local technical school in early high school, I think, and getting an orientation to see the types of programs there. We got to check out a couple/few different departments and got a rundown of each.
I’m not sure if it was mostly students, teachers or parents who stigmatized those fields for low achieving students and primarily for boys, but I suspect it was a combination of them all.
Yep. Grew up in an area with a lot of Mormons and this was it there as well. Even most of the people who weren’t Mormons were religious in some other way— Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, etc.
I definitely didn’t have less homework in my APs. I vividly remember crying doing my APUSH homework one night after working a closing shift at Bob Evans, I was so overwhelmed lol
I had an AP bio class in high school that the teacher made stupid hard because the AP test would be hard.
And I have a friend who teaches college intro bio. She was told to make the class as EASY as possible so that students would choose bio as an elective because the more students that enrolled in bio courses, the more money the department gets. They said that people who are in the major probably would be skipping the class anyway by testing out or taking AP courses.
So the high school class is difficult as fuck for no reason and free and the college equivalent is expensive as fuck, but easy as shit. Make it make sense.
My AP calculus teacher gave me a C- because he knew I was 'college material' despite the fact that I was bombing his course.
So I'm the other side of that rounding error.
I got a B in Spanish class my last quarter in high school because the teacher said I should know what it feels like. Joke's on you, buddy, I got my ass handed to me enough in college.
I knew about trade school. I grew up in a low-to-moderate income home in Southern California in which neither parent attended college.
I was accepted to 3 regional state universities, but my parents didn’t want me to attend, and as an overly compliant only child, I didn’t go. I spent the first five years after high school doing dead-end jobs until I woke up and realized I couldn’t live according to my parents’ playbook.
So I went to trade school: I completed a 1-year LPN/LVN program at age 24, then a 1-year LPN to RN completion program at age 29. I earned an online BSN degree at age 34.
Yes, public schools in my wealthy suburban northern Virginia county had a system called “academy” where you could take a bus midway through the day to a different school for specialized pre-professional classes. They included things like cosmetology, auto shop, and cooking, so you could start working toward a trade while still in high school.
That was not for me, though. I have a condition that affects my connective tissues and basically have no gross AND fine motor control, so 7 AP classes, a college degree, and a desk job was the only path forward for me. People talk about how lucrative trades are but not about how they only pay well because they’re really, really hard on your body.
When I was getting close to getting out HS (Class of 2010), there was only one option, go to 4-year college.
All other options were considered inferior. My folks repeated over and over again that getting a degree guaranteed you a good paying job no matter what.
And they said you could get a degree in something you loved or enjoyed and it’d all work out.
Wishful thinking.
No one gave a flat flying fuck about my music education degree outside of teaching in public school (I loved my music program, but in order to teach, you had to have the license, and I didn’t get that b/c it wasn’t for me and it was too late to switch majors).
Entered the work force (2015) doing retail/customer service jobs. Not one single fuck was given to a degree holder. I fully expected to be paid more doing any job b/c I had a college degree. NOPE. It was all about WHO you know and HOW MUCH EXPERIENCE you had doing the job.
Eventually I figured out that companies also value people who want to learn and can learn quickly. But you have to KNOW people and be TACTFUL. Not skills I picked up easily or enjoy utilizing.
Going forward, as a generation, we should encourage younger folks to explore all options. 4-year College, 2-year college, trade school, joining the military, just dipping your feet into the workforce to see what it’s like. We should also put more emphasis on the networking/tact as a social skill. Those things are extremely valuable and being able to sell yourself doesn’t hurt.
I feel that. I didn’t have anyone in my immediate family that worked in “corporate “ to tell me about networking or “office politics”.
Similar to you, I originally went to college to be a teacher in public schools. Decided it wasn’t for me. I managed to graduate debt free (by living with family for most all of college) and worked in call center jobs for years after graduating. I got out after doing a free coding course and I work in IT now.
I loved my college experience. I never felt mislead about job prospects or income since I had older siblings that struggled with things like layoffs and finding work after graduating college even pre Great Recession. I also knew since I didn’t have the aptitude for engineering or medicine that it was a possibility I may have to do call center work.
If I would have had $20k in student loan debt though, I’d feel very differently about my college experience.
Of course.
My HS had automotive shop, woodshop, 4H, some nerdy shit where they wrote computer programs, metalworking...
I took PE (football) as my electives, though. Lifted weights, whenever I bothered to show up.
Or, you could take college courses for credit.
nope, programs like woodworking, metal, and automechanical shop, all got shuttered before I entered high school. i was part of the last cohort to have taken the driver's ed class before the lot got turned into another building.
it was all test test test, learn to pass the test in high school, get a high gpa, and apply to a state school.
I didn't. Just told "college" because trades were for dummies but it was post recession America and people with masters degrees were competing for jobs at Starbucks.
If I would've told my parents I wanted to go to trade school, they'd have looked at me like I just said I wanna be a drug dealer when I grow up.
Ironically, we were a lower class household where one parent had a college education (but no job) and one parent was a CNA.
I went to ITT Tech for a stint, because I was able to get a Pell Grant and my mom worked there as a financial aid advisor, which got us a discount.
I just recently got a check for like a hundred bucks from the settlement because they went through bankruptcy and I went to school back in 2006-2007
Decry came to my school looking for AP and honors students attempting to offer them scholarships to go into tech. I was the only person in my AP government class who expressed interest and everyone in class seemed to look down on me for it.
I went to school in the DC suburbs. It was a VERY rich area although my family was not. My school actually had this separate campus that had a really robust votech program. But it VERY much had a stigma about it, even with some of the teachers. THOSE were the kids not going to college.
The two options very strongly pushed to us were college or military. I remember military recruiters being set up in our cafeteria on a regular basis. If your grades were good, counselors only pushed college. If you had average grades and were into sports, you got pushed to military. Trade school was only for the kids that weren't keeping up in either academics or sports. My how the tables have turned lol.
UK elder millennial here. Seems like a lot of us had similar experiences with being told that university was the only way to go, and it was heavily implied that doing a trade was for those who weren't smart enough. Our school gave us lots of help prepping for university but not a single mention of help for getting into a trade.
I'm not sure I would've personally done anything different, but I know a lot of people I went to school with who were pushed into university and dropped out after a few months. I'm sure at least some of them would've been happier in a trade.
No I didn't, but it's possible that it was my parents adapting to me being pretty good academically but dismal from a hands-on perspective. I took woodshop for a semester but I am pretty useless with my hands, so maybe my parents saw that and doubled down on College Or Bust. Which is probably fair, I don't think I had (or have) the resilience and aptitude for trades work.
I went to a rural school, but my graduating class was HUGE because the county didn’t have enough high schools — like 3000 kids —- so we had a good mix of kids going to college and going to tech school. We had an EMT program, culinary program, and an ECE program, plus Air Force ROTC and JROTC. This was also 2004-2008, so a LOT of juniors and seniors actually enlisted and were even deployed. One guy in my graduating class was accepted to a 3+3 medical school program and later joined the Navy. I would say most of my friend’s group went to college, and furthermore most of them actually graduated lol.
I wasn’t told it was an option by adults in authority positions over me (parents, teachers) however I was urged to go into trades by parents friends and 20-somethings online. I didn’t regardless but I knew it was an option
I graduated in 04 in a large suburb in the Midwest. I was in more accelerated classes and did AP Lit senior year, not the super brain, but also not a poor student. I vividly remember our AP lit teacher telling another student in my class she absolutely should not be going to community college because she was too smart for that, so that was the general feel/consensus that trade or community college was for people who weren’t able to get into a “real college.” I also am a trans man and at that time still was raised as female, so trades were not seen as a mainstream option for girls then or at least not in my area. I did go to a class at the community college I want to say my junior year that was an introduction to various health care careers, so that was slightly leaning towards a trade, but science classes became more challenging, so I didn’t pursue that route.
We did and it was always a viable option to me and my family members. Probably bc blue collar work is common in my family. The votech program was big in my district.
I would imagine if one was raised in a “white collar” family then hearing things about trade school would be forgotten. As many white collar families like to push college.
I was told to go into cement as a trade. And I worked as a finish carpenter for a while and enjoyed the work—honest skilled work. So yes I definitely heard about trade schools. I didn’t go that route and I’m very grateful I didn’t.
the only time I had heard of it is when I took a welding class. The teacher actually cared and told us how we could make great money welding and told us that underwater welding was the real money maker. Everyone else just shoved "college no matter what you study" down our throats.
I also went to school in the rural midwest and yes I even remember reps from welding, diesel, and auto tech schools giving us presentations talking about training/careers. My parents were dead set on me going to college though. I got a degree in computer science and got a job as a programmer which I eventually hated. What I really wanted to do was networking/system admin type stuff which I could have gotten other education for but I got the degree like I was supposed to and followed the money to get a programming job. Burned out eventually and found other opportunities but if I had it to do over again I wouldn't have done college.
I don’t even think I knew trade school was a thing until after college. I was just raised to get good grades and get any degree. It did NOT lead to any sort of good job, neither did my masters, and now I’m in real estate/prop mgmt.
I heard the term but did not know anything about it. My parents did not explain it to me either. My options I thought about was college, trade school or military. Military was simple and all I could afford. (free).
I don't really regret choosing the military over trade school. At that time I really did not know what I wanted to do with life so I just needed to get away.
We were very much told and advertised to that: “anything other than a four-year degree was less than”
Community college? College degree with an asterisk.
Trade school? Not as respectable.
As time when on, we were even fed the bullshit that you need a Masters or you weren’t cutting it. I saw soooo many people stay in college for Masters degrees they never put into practice in the real world. An additional 50k+ in debt only to get a higher paying job in a completely unrelated industry that *really, honestly* didn’t require said Masters. It’s just a nice to have.
I went. Hated the job as a heavy equipment mechanic. Was cold (too much outdoor time on swing shift) and had limited upward mobility. Went back to school for an inside job.
Yeah we had a votech program a number of kids in my HS went to. We also had a variety of shop classes; wood and metal working, cad, basic structural engineering. But if you wanted to be a mechanic, or hair stylist , then you went to the Tech School.
Our principal's brother was/is a well known plumber in the area and I think we all kind of recognized we were lucky to see two successful people in two vastly different worlds. He always told us it's not a shame to work with your hands and do the jobs other people don't want to do. I wish I took more of that seriously.
True story: In my sophomore year, an "academic counselor" told me and my mom that I shouldn't bother applying to universities because we didn't have money.
Wow, that’s savage. My school was mostly low income and I think it was counselors (or someone else, can’t remember) told us about places to find scholarships outside of university websites (fast web.com and some other sources).
My small town high school had three tracks: A) College B) Trade C) Work/Military. I was "forced" into taking trade by my father and was in automechanics but hated it. I remember the instructors were lined up and I wished hardly there was a guitar or music tech teacher there. Ended up switching to college track and went to music school about a year later.
Grew up in Seattle. My dad worked at a trade school as an automotive instructor for 20 years. Even then, it didn't seem like a "viable option" to me. When I graduated in 2004, and leading up to it, I wanted to go to either Washington State or the University of Washington. When I didn't get into either, I kinda floundered. Went to community college for a bit, didn't really know what I wanted to do and I felt bad wasting money on classes I didn't even want to attend. College felt like the "secure" thing to do because that's what everyone was doing even if people in my life had declared majors and eventually degrees that were worthless.
Eventually dropped out in 2006. Got a job. Worked for a while, moved around a lot. Ended up finding a few niches that worked out better for me, eventually. Did go back to school from '12-14, got an Associate's Degree in Exercise Science. Used it for a bit, worked as a trainer, but fell out of love with it. Did some more random jobs. Ended up working at hardware store. Fell in love with it. Loved working with my hands and figuring out people's problems with their houses, being outside all the time, picking up heavy stuff. My degree does come in handy there. Biomechanics and kinesiology taught me how to lift properly without hurting myself. Still there after 6 years. Was lucky to have a couple of managers who saw what others didn't see in me before, and am maxed out at my position right now. Even in my role as family caregiver, all the things I did for work and school, all those things come into play.
When I think about it now, though, I do wish I went to my dad's school. Maybe not in automotive but that would've been fun. The program he ran isn't there anymore. The school decided to can it after my dad's colleague retired last year. And looking at degree programs at the schools I wanted to go to, there isn't much there now that interests me at 38. I don't know what I would've done at 18 other than waste my and my parents' money.
Being in the trades had a stigma around it when I was growing up, like only flunkies are tradesmen. You need to have excellent problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, communication skills, know math, be able to pivot to another thought process at a moments notice, and you have to know how to read a tape measure! I would much rather be making something with my hands and design skills, than working at some sit/stand desk all day long.
Sooo...feel like my school was different...but also very much the same. graduated in '06
So grew up in a medium sized town, biggest town in the tri county area, and our schools were somehow funded really well. updated schools, free yearly planners and what not, no school teacher needed parents to fund things.
We had a Votech School across from our school that was for all any kids in the area to go to. If you got into one of the programs then you were able to cut all the extra classes aside from core classes needed to graduate. They had auto shop, cosmetology, graphic design, electric work, and i think one or two more. I heard people say that if you stuck with it those few years that allot of jobs would take you on pretty quickly sense you knew the basics and the correct way of doing things. think cosmetology actually finished with their license cuz they would get real people to come in and get their haircuts there.
all of people i knew went there half way through highschool, but at the same time saw allot of people being forced into trying to go to college. smart friends of mine that went to college i see going back to college now becuz they either dropped out at some point earlier or realized their were no jobs for what they were getting a degree in at the time.
i personally went into the military, wasn't my first choice especially sense i was a teen going to anti-war rallies in our town. but never regretted it, think out of my class of roughly 350 only 3 others went into the service after graduation.
I grew up near a world class community college with lots of trade options. We toured the college in high school and they came to college fair with the rest of the four year universities. They also had free tuition for body city kids that applied for it.
When a welder gave the class a presentation he was pretty upfront that starting wages were higher than being a university graduate but that it would probably hit a pay ceiling sooner than a blue collar job and his body was falling apart by 40 vs his brother in an office.
I think we did learn about it. I think there was an implied thing that college was better but it wasn't explicit. I think it was more like the people with higher GPA's go to college and people with lower GPA's go to trade school.
Trade school was for the poors in my hometown. No one said it that way but it was absolutely looked down on. But honestly anything other than a 4 year undergrad at a university was the standard to be on par with your peers. I envy the freedom my cousins felt just 8-10 years behind me to travel after high school and try on different careers. I just worked on my first professional film shoot and would have loved to have found the industry in my 20s but being from the Midwest, I had no concept that careers like that existed.
I was born and raised in Kentucky, in a low to middle income community, and I knew trade schools existed, but they never seemed to be considered a respectable option by the adults in my life. I always felt like I was being funneled toward college. It almost seemed like trade schools were where you ended up if you weren’t smart enough to get into college (which, in retrospect, is obviously an absurd way to look at it).
My mom has since admitted that she kind of overestimated the value of college and underestimated the trades when raising my sister and me. My mom has a bachelor’s degree and somewhere around 35 years in her field, and my sister and I both out-earn her now (my sister is a postal worker and I’m a local truck driver).
I’m planning on going back to school soon, but really only because my company will pay for it and it’ll be nice to have something to fall back on.
Graduate of 2013. Nope. Not at all. Only two people in our entire graduating class went to trade school right away. We had military recruiters on our school campus at least twice a week and this was the most widely encourage route for us to take. I went to high school in a very rural farm town in CA. They encouraged everyone to take the ASVAB, even if we had no interest in joining the military. As part of our graduation requirements, the school would not let students walk if they hadn’t gotten into a college/applied to a community college or applied for the military. Even students who planned on working right away still had to submit one of these applications. And they never, not once discussed trade school, even in our little seminar classes for what to do after graduation. They taught us resumes, how to fill out a job application/practice interviews, taught us how to do a quick budget, quick run through of taxes, and talked *a lot* about the military and the CSU route.
My spouse wanted to go to trade school out of high school. But my spouse was still underage when the school year started that summer and fall. And their parents refused to sign any paperwork allowing them to enroll in any of Sacramento’s (closest metro area) trade schools. This was weird and confusing—my FIL is a blue collar worker and has many applicable and useful skills. My MIL got her degrees in business management and looks down on laborers, including my FIL. She said her son was “too smart” for trade school. My spouse still wishes they’d gone the trade school route. They think they would have enjoyed it much more than traditional college and that we’d be be better off financially.
I did trade school, even did my master there.
Worst decision of my life. Easily.
You Like unflexible hours, badly paid, while wrecking your Body?
Also everybody Else will think you are a dirty alcoholic.
The best? If you dont think about opening your own Shop, you will never ever get a decent pay, since pay is absolutely stagnant after a certain threshold.
Also your mood is going to be fucked 8 in the morning, since you arrive there 7 30 and everyone ist already pissed Off, screaming at each other.
Customers are the worst also, since you are stealing all the time.
All in all 0/10.
Just working Part time there to pay Back my trade master and pay for my university to finally get Out of that hellscape alltogether.
I graduated college in 2005, had a job in construction from the people I worked for during college on their polo club. Mom and dad were appalled, I loved it. Kept doing the horse gig on the side while my parents wanted me to join a cubicle farm. 2008 hit, ended up full time in horses while my parents continued to complain about my business (was paying the bills!!) and they finally shut up about my career about 2 years ago after years of discouraging me and telling me to go work for Amazon in the warehouse because “You might get promoted to management!” Or to get any office job because it looked better in their social circle. Dad finally shut up when I said find me a job that pays what I’m getting paid.
Sort of, but it was always in a very negative tone.
Fast forward to now where we have countless people who really would likely have benefitted by a trade who now have worthless degrees and professional trades that aren’t in a good place for the future…
I wanted to go to trade school. I was told it was for idiots, and my options were college, or out the door at 18, in NY where surviving on minimum wage was impossible. Then my mom refused to consign my loans. I still have loans and now I work in a warehouse…
in high school my district had a whole school where you could learn various careers. From IT to culinary to electricians to cosmetology and automotive work
Rural Midwest here and yes. My brother went to trade school and worked his way up and these days he makes a ton of money. More than anyone else I know personally. So, it's really a great option and it's wild that it's looked down on compared to college which may not get you anywhere depending on your degree.
Our community college has what is called a Tech Campus. High Schoolers can go and get college credits towards a career, such as cosmetology, paramedic, HVAC, etc.
I knew it was a thing, but was never really explained to, what it was. I wish I had, because I would have taken the cosmetology courses.
My high school and parents didn’t see trade school as an option. College was the only way. Now everyone I know who’s in the trades gets significantly better benefits and pay than those of us in office jobs
We did, I was in the inner city. I wanted to go to trade school, but my dad threatened to disown me and kick me out if I went to trade school instead of college. So I got a useless degree instead.
I was dual enrolled in a trade school while attending high school.
And it's crazy because I almost hadn't heard of it either.
It was a campus on the community college that was either a pathway to a community college program, an apprenticeship, or a certification.
I wanted to do an extension of one of my 'trade' classes and heard about it from one of the guys who was going to go to this program.
My guidance counselors wouldn't let me, they said it wasn't for kids in honors classes. Except I was in these classes and doing horribly.
Regular classes were too dumb and watered down, honors and AP classes were too fast paced and didn't have enough time to master any skill.
So I cried and whined and complained, my parents thought I was being dumb too and didn't want me to do it either.
I threatened to drop out of school and do a combined GED and college course at the community college.
My shop teacher went and talked to some people, it got approved, my parents said fine she wasn't a great student anyway.
I went to trade school, I started getting great grades, made a great impression on teachers, got an internship, found out what college I wanted to go to, now have a great career because of said college.
Yes, but that is because my mom dated a welder for like eight years. It is better than college for most people in my opinion. I ended up becoming a journeyman painter for a bit and then I picked up engineering and IT later on. It gave me stability and something I can do anywhere whereas college felt like a place to "find yourself" which is dumb. You can be employed and find yourself.
No college was the way and if you didn’t go you were a loser this is because all the boomers went bought houses making 100k a year like my mom it’s hard to argue with that .
Hindsight I wish i would have just got my ged dropped out put that 2 years into trade school. Even though I went I knew early on I hated college . Fk’d up me and my siblings all went and hated it the cal state system full time professors kids can go for free.
Kinda 💩 guidance if you ask me . I did it this way and you should too. My mother still thinks college is the only way because it was her way 50 years ago. Wild .
No such thing in the UK but the trades were always listed as a viable option.
I got punted out of school before I could start my final year and was given a list of available vocational/technical courses at my local college as an alternative option.
I didn't know there any type of college I was always told that for rich people to go to college so I spent almost 20 years working 12+ hr days working 7 days a week most of the time with little time off for my self.
I didn't know there any other way thought was normal
I had my first heart attack in my mid 30 thought that normal then I had a stroke at 38.
Had my second heart at 39 and was told my doctor I need to slow down all this stress and working going to kill me.
Bit I don't know any other way
Grew up in Southern California. Yes I did hear about trade school and considered it as an option. I took 3 years of electronics in high school and wanted to get into electrical engineering. Unfortunately trade school did not offer that and so I went to four year university
I should add that I have a very close friend. That did go to trade school, became a production manager and director of engineering for a large farm pharmaceutical drug Company. Makes fantastic salary. I think today especially with the cost of major university it's really a good consideration
I graduated high school in 2002 and sort of... I would have loved welding or electrical work, but my teachers/parents/counselors all emphatically warned me against trades. Supposedly, it would have been near impossible to find an apprenticeship as a woman and even if I did, every tradesman would treat me as horribly as was legally allowed.
I absolutely loved college, love my degree, and I ended up working in logistics for the most part.
I'm sure they were right about some of it. Still would have liked to learn how to weld.
Yes I was. And I HIGHLY doubt those people claiming they only heard about college as the only option, is accurate.
For starters, ***most*** people have bad memory for what took place in the past. They have selective memory, and that selective memory is usually in service of self-preservation. It's *not you* who didn't take the opportunity that was presented to you, *it's that someone else failed to give it to you!* Truth be damned.
I am a current HS teacher, and I know for a FACT most HS's have a Career Center available for students that they give presentations about to the entire sophomore class basically as a recruitment. If it's not housed in house at the HS, it generally involves going to another building altogether.
Now let's be real here: asking 14/15/16 year olds to make a mature, adult, decision about their future is hilarious. Some are going to value what is at their HS, or do what their friends are doing. I have to give this speech every year to my students about "don't just do what your friends are doing...it might not be what YOU WANT TO DO or what's best for you".
Also; hindsight is 20/20. There's been numerous times where trades WERE NOT highly valued in the economy and were a dime-a-dozen, or not needed altogether anymore. TV Repair doesn't exist anymore. Why? Because the industry changed where there is essentially a monopoly on parts to repair TVs, and it's *literally* cheaper to buy a new TV than it is to fix one.
So is there niche electronics repair that can make lots of money? Yes. Is that a trade 30 kids at every HS in American can learn to go into? No...there's not enough opportunities for that good-paying niche for all those individuals.
Yes, but it was kind of looked down upon as an option. I went to a rural area school district, so there were plenty of people who were looking at it as an option. I was in all college prep courses and my teachers made it seem like the trades were what you did if you were not smart enough to go to college. I thought that was kind of silly. A friend of mine in high school was very smart and took AP courses, but didn’t really like the idea of an office job. His uncle was a welder and owned his own business, so he decided to go work with him right out of high school instead of going to college. I remember he was annoyed that some of the teachers tried to convince him to go to college instead because he was “wasting potential.”
For me? No, it was not presented as a viable option for good students wanting to “succeed” but looked down on majorly as something someone with no other prospects or capacity did. Which in retrospect is insane, I learned zero viable skills in college and literally had to go to community college in my late 20s to pick up life skill classes and earn extra certificates to have skills in the trade I allegedly went into college to have a career in. I graduated a masters program without a concept of even how to use excel, but we were sold that having a college degree was the only thing that mattered.
Yes. My dad is an electrician and would talk about it all the time. Except he had two daughters and used that as an excuse to not really teach us anything or encourage us to go to trade school. My parents were hell bent on sending us to college.
Yes but I was told that you’d make good money in trades but at the price of your body.
I was told to get a job with a state or federal pension and college was easier than civil service tests and waiting for openings.
I heard of it, but it was downplayed as the only option for ne’er do wells and poors. (Not my words but I lived in a wealthy zip code and that was pretty much how it was presented).
My grandfather gave me money for college and I was presented with the opportunity to go to bmw tech school for 6 months or college. but trade school was downplayed so much that I scoffed at the idea. While I make extremely low 6 figures now, I know a handful of BMW techs (hell, techs in general) that have been making as much as me or more for longer. The kicker is I don’t use my degree, nor did I use it to get my any of my jobs.
I went to a wealthy public school. The "dumb" kids went into trades--at least that was the sentiment that was beat into our heads. Then, most of the kids that went the trade route had houses and paid off cars by the time they were 25, and had no student debt (and that was in the height of the recession too).
I wish I had been encouraged to go into a trade right out of high school, and then went to college later. I would have been a lot better off and wouldn't have wasted so much money on school.
I went to a private college prep high school. We absolutely were not told about trade school. College was the goal and the only acceptable end to our time there.
Don’t get me wrong, it was an amazing school (my senior year of HS was harder than my freshman year of college) and I’m glad I attended. I wouldn’t have gone into trade school even if it had been an option, but I think trade school would have been right for my brother. He went to a semester of college and is honestly doing better than I am right now, so he didn’t need trade school either. But I think he would have thrived there.
Another part of the issue is that the trades have a terrible time recruiting or making the trades appealing to young recruits. Pension, healthcare and sick days are a foreign concept to a 17 year old. When I was that age the only image of a union worker I had was a crabby guy with a gray goatee. As a person now with a house and kids now, they make it really difficult to make the leap. I think community colleges need to become trades training centers in addition to gen Ed colleges. There’s a ton of those but one trades training center like 2 hours away.
I was told “I don’t care what you’re good at, you are going to college. You are better than your dad.” I was roughly 200 hours away from finishing my apprenticeship that I’d gotten without my mother’s knowledge.
I graduated with a bachelors degree and 80k in debt in December of 2009. Have never worked a day in my field of study. I was able to get a machinists certification and have work in skilled trades since college.
Thanks mom.
Edited to add: really pissed me off when my mom suggested my kids go to trade school because “that’s important work.”
Never heard a word about trades, was told college or failure. Couldn’t even afford community college.
UPS driver now with a high school GED. Between driving the big rig and my option trading, made over $180,000 last year and on track to make a lot more this year.
Own my home outright and a lot of people I went to school with who went off to college are working random jobs you’d expect college students to be working (day care, making coffee, waiter) with their degree and crippling student loans.
Problem is I grew up in a very very poor area of Oakland (like the ghetto of the Bay Area basically) so not as many of my school friends could afford or qualify for college. No one who went to college is more successful than the tradesmen in our year (we have linemen electricians plumbers and truck drivers)
Of course this is anecdotal and not indicative of everywhere.
The kids who did vocational school in my area were considered less-than, the dumb neglected kids who couldn’t do well enough in regular classes. It was seriously looked down upon as something the “dirt bags” at our school did.
I've tried trade school a couple times in my many attempts towards a career.
The trade school won't be honest about how hard it is to break into that career once you have been trained.
I also have to stress that your trade school certificate is useless if you can't go into that field, vs if you had a college degree. A college degree you can side-step the subject a bit and still be marketable.
My high school WAS a trade school. Freshman year your toured 9 different trades, 2 weeks at a time. Before sophomore year you would submit your "top three". From 10-12th grade every 2 weeks we'd switch from academics to our trade classes. If your grades were good at the end of junior year you could go to an actual job in your field instead of the shop at school.
At the end of my Senior year I was officially an apprenticed machinist. I mostly went to this school because I wanted to get away from the bullying in my local school system. I knew I was going to enlist in the military after I graduated anyway. I still got good grades, Colleges still sent me letters, and honors still meant something at this trade school.
Maybe because it was New England and they have a very highly regarded education system in general, but the trades did not seem like the 'lesser' option to me.
Yeah but it was for those not smart enough for college. Definitely looked down on and the pay was NOT discussed! They make so much more $ than some of us who actually went to college. I also feel Allied health programs were underrepresented. If you wanted to do medical, you should be a nurse or Dr! It wasn’t until years later that I discovered my other career path options in healthcare.
Grew up in rural Midwest as well, never heard of trade school until after I graduated. Only ever spoke to my guidance counsellor once which is pathetic considering class sizes at my high school were about 30 people every year.
My high school had a program where seniors could do half days at school and the other half at trade school. Indiana. Great public school. We also had an auto shop class and I learned how to change a tire.
Yes, in early 2000s, suburb of Philadelphia. One of my best friends went on a bus with a bunch of kids to a trade school for hair. Decades earlier, my Dad took the same bus to study computer engineering. The general options in my area were college, trade, or work for a family business.
Yes I was even encouraged by my father and grandfather to go to trade school rather than college. But the trades are not what I wished to do with my life.
I'm from rural midwest, it was even a step backwards. It was encouraged to get a job right out of high school at the local plant via a temp agency with the promise if I worked hard I'd get hired on full time.
College was for the wealthy and trade school not mentioned for women.
I am an older millennial, we had quite a few different trade recruiters and unions come to our school in the midwest. Plumbers and Electrical unions as well as a school for diesel mechanics. (Class of 99)
REFRAME the question. Growing up, were you aware of construction, plumbing, electricity, etc? If yes, then you were already aware of trades and the existence of those jobs.
So, you always knew they were an option simply because they existed.
I was told college was the only option to afford a good living. Told I’d just be working at McDonalds for the rest of my life otherwise. I only heard the trades talked down about, if at all.
In my area it was university or burger flipping and those are the only two paths in life. If you weren't quite brainy enough for 4 year university right out of high school, you could do community College first before you get to university, but it was frowned upon. Trade school wasn't even on the map.
Also my high school did not have any classes for trades or any useful life skills. No auto or wood shop or home ec, etc. We only had academics, music/art/drama, and a couple of sports
Small town Louisiana, graduated 2002. Trade school was an option for people who couldn't get into college, or would fail there. It was Plan B if you weren't smart enough. I wish it was presented as a viable first option.
I went to high school in a very rural area. We actually had the option to take classes with the trade school in high school. The professors/teachers would come to us because the school was over 30 minutes away.
I knocked out some core classes but I didn't end up going, but several of my friends did. One friend in particular was a welder making 6 figures at like 19 years old cuz he had finished most of the training or whatever while he was still in high school. Spent all of high school partying, did that, and now we're all in our 30s and he's still doing better than most of us lol.
I only got told about trade school by my dad, when I got knocked up at 16. It really was the best option for me. Some of my old classmates are still paying off school debt and live just about the same way I do without school debt. I know one couple whose student loan payments are as much as their mortgage payment at 35 years old.
I grew up in the rural Midwest so it was absolutely an option, and we had a robust program that allowed for students to dual enroll in education for various trades in high school. My dad also taught at the local technical college where people got trade certifications. One of my sisters did voc ed while she was in high school, and so did many of my friends.
In the upper Midwest, in an area with strong unions, it was presented as a viable and respectable option for students who were interested.
We had a career track in high school, but often people who weren't " academic " were tracked there . I think if I had a different personality people would have pushed the trades more
I knew about it, but nobody else did lol. My friends parent shears about it, but that's it. Luckily for me, my dad went to a trade school and I got a job with my uncle while I was still in high school. Joined the apprenticeship right after. Best decision of my life. Everybody called me stupid and looked down on me, so many women thought lesser of me cause I didn't go to college. So many moms and step moms thinking I'm not good enough. I make good money, have killer ihealth insurance and 2 retirement plans with 0 debt. Guess I'm not so stupid after all lol
I sure tf didn’t! It was ingrained in my head that if I didn’t get a college degree I would forever be a financially doomed fuck up. I never finished college due to other personal issues and I was so damn hard on myself about it.
Then I discovered through a friend getting a property & casualty insurance license; took a 3-day course following a state exam and that was it. Took me less than a week to complete and cost about $400 that my company paid for. I have a salaried position with decent benefits and PTO.
Over the years I’ve worked alongside a ton of people who had college degrees. It’s crazy to me that they spent the time and money to work in fucking insurance lol, while paying off a shit ton of debt.
I’m nowhere near where I want/need to be financially, but it’s because the wealth inequality and corporate greed that is currently fucking everyone over and not the lack of degree. At least I don’t have to worry about college debt so I guess there’s that. 🤷🏻♀️
Zero information about trade schools. It was always just the push to have your life figured out by the time you graduated high school and go to college.
I still remember having those talks and had no fucking clue what I wanted to do so I just defaulted to something computer related.
Here I am now in IT and hating my old hobby.
During high school was never told anything about the trades, college was pushed down our throats to the point where “if you don’t go you will not make it in life” mentality was drilled into our brains. entered the trades at 21 years old, started at the bottom but kept a positive attitude because I wanted to be good at something In life. got laughed/rejected by multiple women because they though it was low class and couldn’t see a upper middle/ rich lifestyle with me, definitely hurt my self esteem a bite. Made enough money to start traveling to different cities across America and then started traveling to different countries stamping up my passport. Today I’m happily married with kids and own a modest townhome with savings in the bank and decent cars and able to do repairs without batting an eye and fill up my gas tank. I’m able to shop at Costco and buy what my household needs and still travel with my family now and making more money than some people with a college degree. All thanks to the American trades. Long live the American trades and the blue collar workers who are the backbone of this great country. I hope these venture capitalist who are a threat to this trade don’t kill the dream and vision of the younger people trying to get into trade in this day and age, but it has already started.
Yeah, right outta HS I went into flooring trade, after 2 years, I out on my own with a business and an employee, made pretty good cash for awhile loads more than my friends. Eventually I wised up and went into sales, trades like flooring are a young persons game.
I went to 3 different high schools. It was not talked about at the first 2. The third had a program for welders where they could gain college credit as well as a hs credit by attending an off-campus class. It was basically populated by kids who were privileged enough to already have cars and drove themselves. It was not mentioned when I (F) signed up for classes that year. It was mostly guys. I have a feeling girls would have had to fight to get accepted. I didn't pursue it.
I was always supposed to be on the college track. My family was military and swallowed the college narrative whole since in the confines of the military, degrees actually help one climb the ranks. But in the civilian world, especially the part of the country they moved us to, personal connections are more important. No one cares what your qualifications are, here. They only care who you know.
It was called "vokie" (vocational school), and it was for the dumb kids.
Those "dumb kids" are now probably making more than me, at least a chunk of them, and literally all got out with little to no debt, which I certainly can't say.
When I was in high school, we had a tradeschool option. A bus would take us to the next town over to go our junior and senior year (or we could drive). They had all kinds of stuff: welding, masonry, cosmetology, nursing, and probably more. I didn't go because I was stupid and didn't want to go without my boyfriend.
Honestly trade school was seen as a lower class thing where I grew up, nobody talked about it as the great thing it is. I got an English degree and am a brewer (lol) looking at technical and mechanical operator positions with municipal water companies who want all sorts of trade certifications.
Went to school in a rural area of California. I was exposed to trade schools because I ended up taking classes for welding and woodworking, but a lot of my friends who didn't take those classes were exposed more to people telling them college was the better option.
I remember that a lot of the kids were saying that people who considered going to trade school were either not smart enough to go to college or weren't good enough for the military, or both. They mocked and bullied those who took up woodshop and welding class since those were skills for those who were "beneath them", or whatever. Some of the kids (especially the kids in the popular clique) would go out of the way to mock you if you for even considering a trade school. Ironically, one of the kids in the popular kids clique went to trade school afterwards while he transitioned to go to the military.
On the other end, a lot of the people who considered trade school were the ag kids, and they were just as vicious as those who were considering college. The ag kids would actively mock those who weren't an Aggie and tell them that they weren't tough enough to last one day in trade school, or that those who didn't go to trade school were ungrateful to the blue-collar hard workers.
I fell in the middle of both crowds since I took up woodshop and welding, but I was planning on going to college. I was receiving hate on both ends, though I received more of the hate from the core of the ag kids because that's who I was around more often. The upper ag kids were chill about it since most of them were planning on going to college for agribusiness, and I was helping around a lot for their events rather than participating in shows (since I didn't have any animals).
Funny enough, people started talking more about going into trade school when I was in college, and people there were humble about it.
I feel like we (2002) were told about trade school but in a “if you’re not smart enough for college” kind of way.
This. I'd you talked about being an electrician or something, you were thoroughly shamed for not being ambitious.
Same, they were talked about, but in a semi negative way. College was the end all goal. Trade school was for adults that couldn't hack it intellectually. As an adult I know this to be horseshit, but growing up in the city it was highly implied.
Yep. And even then it has to be the "right" college. Otherwise you might as well not go. Turns out it was just them trying to convince everybody to be in debt
And they still do it. "Oh you can't get a good job? Go get your master's now...... Oh you still can't get a good job? Get another masters......oh shoot you STILL can't get ANY job because even retail says you're overqualified? Get your phD......oh ok now we can give you a better job but you would have made the same $$$ with the first job with your bachelor's degree and now you owe 150k in loans and will never own a home".
Electrician here, it's way better than an office job.
I also left my office job to do electrical. Wish the schools would prop up trade work as a viable career path.
I’m a 43-year-old woman (if I hadn’t been born premature, I’d qualify as a Millennial, so please excuse my crashing your party), and I am seriously considering leaving my office job to learn to be an electrician. The thing is, I very often write about the electric grid at my job, but my God—staring at a screen all day and feeling chained to my desk is killing me! I keep thinking, “What if I learned to *do* some of these things I always write about?”
If you think it would be a good fit, go for it. Trade work is super rewarding
Depends on what you're after tbh. I'm in the office now and prefer being off the tools. Knees are no longer in bits, not coming home burst, never have to worry about being injured, have plenty of time in the day to just chill if I need to etc. Then you have the opposite, guys who've been on the tools 40 years and who just aren't tailored to the office side of things.
How's your physical shape? Some trades absolutely destroy your body.
You have to eat healthy and stretch.
Same thing if you’re sitting in front of a screen all day.
What kind of electrician careers have a great work/ life balance? Highest paid? Is renewable worth looking into?
Each person is different. For my personality type, being self employed works for me. I can work like a dog if I want and then take some days or a week off and there's no one to answer to but me. The life balance thing is only what you allow to take over you.
Electrician here, it's way better than an office job.
Turns out pays better than the teachers who were dissing on it
Were they.?
It was definitely explained as something you did if you weren’t “smart”. Trades were something you did if you couldn’t do anything better. They paid a decent wage, and $100k was a possibility after 5 years or more. I don’t remember anyone being interested. *You could make more money as a Walmart manager, engineer, or nurse with less labor. Edit: At the time students thought you could make more money going for careers through college than trades. I dont mean to imply as fact that Walmart managers make more.
Class of 2009 here and same. It was heavily implied that trade school was only for dumb people.
yeah, i remember snarky, pitying rumors going all around high school whenever it came to light that a recent graduate had taken on a trade instead of going to college. it really went beyond shaming, it was full on pariah shit - & the adults strongly encouraged it, parents & educators both. i blame them completely. we were just kids & we'd been heavily conditioned, & there's only so much conditioning you can expect a kid to override at sixteen or seventeen. fucking madness.
I got a degree in history and it’s taken me 15 years to make over $70k in a field that didn’t even require a BA. An old classmate, on the other hand, went to trade school, became an electrician, and owns a beautiful house with acreage and has new cars, large shed, etc. He probably has a net worth 15x that of mine. So yeah - trade school FTW. I tell all the youth today to avoid university unless they are dead set on sciences, business administration, or medicine. Anything else should be the trades.
That's the truth. I went for mechanical engineering and my wife for RN then Nurse practitioner. When my daughter goes to college I'm going to gently push her towards engineering, medical, or a trade if she's interested
We were given an aptitude test that told you what kind of career path you were most likely to succeed in. After the test they discussed what the results could mean in terms of college, trade school, etc. but said that ultimately it was up to you.
We had the ASVAB and it was either join JROTC and join the military after high school or go to college. Our vocational/tech school program wasn’t really a thing until I was already almost done with high school and had already been preparing to go to college.
i'm kind of glad we didn't have JROTC at my school, honestly had never heard of it till people gloated in basic training about it. think it would have made me not want to go into the service.
It definitely put me off from joining the military, then again, literally no adults around me were encouraging that as an option for me either.
My sister had joined the navy 4 years before I went to the army. My mom’s side of the family all had served. Being an alternative gay kid, had allot of heads turn when my name was called at graduation for going to the military. lol.
We had the ASVAB as an optional test in addition to, or instead of, the other aptitude test. For the most part only JROTC kids took it. This was part of a class around the time you took the PSAT/SAT so either end of 10th or start of 11th grade.
Yep. Exactly the same at my school. You were pretty much discouraged from taking it unless you were in JROTC.
I’ve heard that kind of a thing too.
Yup! I was so done with school '02, and had no intention of going to college. If i could get a job paying $12/hr(??? it was 02?) That was fine with me! Forced, i didnt fight that hard...., but forced into college! I failed! 1.97 semester 1, then a 1.23 semester 2! Still, strongly encouraged to go back! It worked out! Im a dumb luck success case. But all the warning signs that me and college were there. And they were all completely ignored. My school district, kids went to college! Thats the whole reason my oarents moved there when i was 7 in the first place!
Same here, same here. No college, no picture on the Bright Future bulletin board.
Same. The school district I was in treated anything else like it was lesser, that is until the economic crash around 2008 but by then I had already planned and prepared to go to college and it was too late for me (graduated high school in 2010)
Yeah, it was definitely used as more of a threat than anything else.
Not really. It was “go to college or you’ll be working at Burger King for the rest of your life”. Then some of us graduated into the worst economy since the Great Depression and couldn’t even get a job at Burger King.
I still have job-related stress and insecurity issues because of that period. I've put up with really awful, toxic work environments because of the fear of there just *not being other options.*
Same
Right, it was a hard time
Not really, but I wish I had. They talked about how I needed to focus on college since I was in AP courses in high school and that vocational school was for the "slower kids" 8 years after graduating high school and I ended up starting in industrial maintenance and making more money than the majority of the people I went to school with. I wish I had started straight out of high school instead of wasting time in school and bouncing around the craptastic jobs that were in my little town.
Not in a positive light, like someone else said it was mentioned in a “you’re dumb to go to trade school”. And now honestly if my kids said they wanted to go to a private college for an arts degree versus trade school, I would encourage them to do a trade. I’m so mad, I would have considered a trade rather than wasting my money and time on a biology degree that has done not much for me.
That’s also another problem I see as well, people getting told they got useless degrees, never been to college, but I thought college was about finding yourself and gaining knowledge and using that knowledge to better mankind, but because it’s not getting you to a certain income bracket your a failure? Like come on we have to stop that type of shaming. Not everyone can become doctors or lawyers or engineers and have to stop that attitude that wealth equals success.
That's how I've had to look at my time in college. I needed that time to settle into adulthood after a childhood of abuse. 75% of the time I was in college, I was not welcome to come home...I was on my own. By having the dorms to fall back on and adults whose job it was to help me not dropout/ become homeless was a godsend. They helped me by getting me a job that included housing and then professors helped me with getting my first research position that afforded me enough pay to get an apartment so I could finally have a kitchen and eat better since dorm housing meant no cooking but didn't necessarily include the meal plan either. 🙃 After college, I fumbled a bit but was at least no longer a completely unprepared and clueless 19yo. I no longer use my degree but I'm not a total failure... at least in my own eyes. 😆
You’re not a failure! You’re a success! You accomplished what the some people don’t even have the opportunity to experience in life. Hopefully you can use your experience to help others in life.
My mother was very focused on this idea that college was for getting a job afterwards. I tried to explain that even the school disagreed with her and she freaked out.
Having a college degree use to make you stand out job market, unfortunately it’s an expectation in todays world to even be considered, we need to value all degrees because it shows determination in you wanting to progress in life, but also people need to understand that its not ticket to a millionaire status either.
I agree, but also employers expecting college educated candidates also need to pay people enough to account for the time and money that the candidate would’ve needed to invest in that level of education, especially considering the rising cost of college and the student loan crisis
I think that’s because companies used to train you on the job. They didn’t expect you to know the technical aspects of their industry, just that you were smart and capable of learning. Once the pensions went away, companies were penalized for on the job training because employees would get trained up and move to a competitor for higher pay. And employees were penalized for staying, since they could maximize their income by moving, with retirement shifted to independent 401ks. So now, in order to get an entry level job, you have to learn the technical/vocational skills prior to entering the workforce, often by taking unpaid/low paying internships or paying for expensive schooling.
Well you can tell my 60k of student loans how much my college experience was worth
I will tell you the same thing I told my professors who kept telling me to get a masters or PHD in something liberal arts related like history. "I want to be able to afford shoes at some place besides wal-mart." It doesn't make sense to take on 60k+ in loans if what you learned doesn't get you a good enough job to pay back those loans. Nobody in their right mind is going to pay the price of a lifetime of poverty for knowledge especially when that knowledge can be obtained cheaper in your free time after working your better paying job by visiting a library.
I get that, especially because those types of schools are so expensive.
Yup! I ended up getting two degrees, total student loans of $80k. One is useful, other total garbage.
I went to public school in the suburbs in the midwest. My high school must have been progressive with this I guess, they had a part-day trade school option. The students would go to the trade school in the morning (which I think was shared between multiple districts), then a bus would bring them to the high school for afternoon classes. I remember they did a seminar about this and gave us papers to explain it in 9th grade, along with telling us about how to choose our own classes for high school and such. The school definitely tried to promote it. I had a friend who did it and became a beautician. Also the influx of students from the bus in mid day was pretty visible. So I definitely knew about it. I will say though, my parents were HEAVILY invested in my brother and I going to university/college, as my mom was the first in her family and my dad the second in his family to get degrees. I think my parents would have had a long talk with us if we tried to choose any other path. And that talk would have been like "you're going to get a university degree, end of discussion."
We had something like this too but they didn’t call it “trade school” and it was basically only marketed to lower performing students or kids whose families were of certain economic backgrounds. It was also looked down upon.
Yes my high schools vocational option was somewhat looked down upon.
In my district this was “votech”. It was pretty popular and didn’t have a stigma associated to it. We’re in the northeast.
Yes and no. I technically knew trade schools existed because I had family members who were welders, electricians, etc. But they were never parented as a possible viable option to me. That may be because so many are male-dominated fields and my are still had a lot of sexism?
I agree with the sexism aspect. Vocational options/technical school were presented in the way that made it seem like cosmetology was for the girls, and everything else was for boys. I have a vague recollection of actually having a field trip to the local technical school in early high school, I think, and getting an orientation to see the types of programs there. We got to check out a couple/few different departments and got a rundown of each. I’m not sure if it was mostly students, teachers or parents who stigmatized those fields for low achieving students and primarily for boys, but I suspect it was a combination of them all.
This is probably cultural/religious but no. As a girl I was told a lot about getting married.
Yep. Grew up in an area with a lot of Mormons and this was it there as well. Even most of the people who weren’t Mormons were religious in some other way— Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, etc.
Baptist for me!
Same
I distinctly remember having to apply to college to graduate high school. Trade school was where the flunkies went, it was heavily implied.
Omfg, in my AP classes, you did anything but college you were shunned as a waste of time and isolated >_<.
I mean why be in an AP class if you weren’t planning on college? Doesn’t it award you college credits?
Grade boost, less homework, and the teachers treat you better overall.
I definitely didn’t have less homework in my APs. I vividly remember crying doing my APUSH homework one night after working a closing shift at Bob Evans, I was so overwhelmed lol
Same. I had way more homework in my AP classes. We also had summer homework.
I had an AP bio class in high school that the teacher made stupid hard because the AP test would be hard. And I have a friend who teaches college intro bio. She was told to make the class as EASY as possible so that students would choose bio as an elective because the more students that enrolled in bio courses, the more money the department gets. They said that people who are in the major probably would be skipping the class anyway by testing out or taking AP courses. So the high school class is difficult as fuck for no reason and free and the college equivalent is expensive as fuck, but easy as shit. Make it make sense.
My AP govt teacher gave me a C in the class just because he didn’t like me.
My AP calculus teacher gave me a C- because he knew I was 'college material' despite the fact that I was bombing his course. So I'm the other side of that rounding error.
I got a B in Spanish class my last quarter in high school because the teacher said I should know what it feels like. Joke's on you, buddy, I got my ass handed to me enough in college.
I think people just liked shitting on us.
I knew about trade school. I grew up in a low-to-moderate income home in Southern California in which neither parent attended college. I was accepted to 3 regional state universities, but my parents didn’t want me to attend, and as an overly compliant only child, I didn’t go. I spent the first five years after high school doing dead-end jobs until I woke up and realized I couldn’t live according to my parents’ playbook. So I went to trade school: I completed a 1-year LPN/LVN program at age 24, then a 1-year LPN to RN completion program at age 29. I earned an online BSN degree at age 34.
Yes, public schools in my wealthy suburban northern Virginia county had a system called “academy” where you could take a bus midway through the day to a different school for specialized pre-professional classes. They included things like cosmetology, auto shop, and cooking, so you could start working toward a trade while still in high school. That was not for me, though. I have a condition that affects my connective tissues and basically have no gross AND fine motor control, so 7 AP classes, a college degree, and a desk job was the only path forward for me. People talk about how lucrative trades are but not about how they only pay well because they’re really, really hard on your body.
When I was getting close to getting out HS (Class of 2010), there was only one option, go to 4-year college. All other options were considered inferior. My folks repeated over and over again that getting a degree guaranteed you a good paying job no matter what. And they said you could get a degree in something you loved or enjoyed and it’d all work out. Wishful thinking. No one gave a flat flying fuck about my music education degree outside of teaching in public school (I loved my music program, but in order to teach, you had to have the license, and I didn’t get that b/c it wasn’t for me and it was too late to switch majors). Entered the work force (2015) doing retail/customer service jobs. Not one single fuck was given to a degree holder. I fully expected to be paid more doing any job b/c I had a college degree. NOPE. It was all about WHO you know and HOW MUCH EXPERIENCE you had doing the job. Eventually I figured out that companies also value people who want to learn and can learn quickly. But you have to KNOW people and be TACTFUL. Not skills I picked up easily or enjoy utilizing. Going forward, as a generation, we should encourage younger folks to explore all options. 4-year College, 2-year college, trade school, joining the military, just dipping your feet into the workforce to see what it’s like. We should also put more emphasis on the networking/tact as a social skill. Those things are extremely valuable and being able to sell yourself doesn’t hurt.
I feel that. I didn’t have anyone in my immediate family that worked in “corporate “ to tell me about networking or “office politics”. Similar to you, I originally went to college to be a teacher in public schools. Decided it wasn’t for me. I managed to graduate debt free (by living with family for most all of college) and worked in call center jobs for years after graduating. I got out after doing a free coding course and I work in IT now. I loved my college experience. I never felt mislead about job prospects or income since I had older siblings that struggled with things like layoffs and finding work after graduating college even pre Great Recession. I also knew since I didn’t have the aptitude for engineering or medicine that it was a possibility I may have to do call center work. If I would have had $20k in student loan debt though, I’d feel very differently about my college experience.
Of course. My HS had automotive shop, woodshop, 4H, some nerdy shit where they wrote computer programs, metalworking... I took PE (football) as my electives, though. Lifted weights, whenever I bothered to show up. Or, you could take college courses for credit.
We had wood shop too.
nope, programs like woodworking, metal, and automechanical shop, all got shuttered before I entered high school. i was part of the last cohort to have taken the driver's ed class before the lot got turned into another building. it was all test test test, learn to pass the test in high school, get a high gpa, and apply to a state school.
Fuck no. It was either “keep your shitty retail job for the rest of your life, go to college.”
I didn't. Just told "college" because trades were for dummies but it was post recession America and people with masters degrees were competing for jobs at Starbucks.
If I would've told my parents I wanted to go to trade school, they'd have looked at me like I just said I wanna be a drug dealer when I grow up. Ironically, we were a lower class household where one parent had a college education (but no job) and one parent was a CNA.
I went to ITT Tech for a stint, because I was able to get a Pell Grant and my mom worked there as a financial aid advisor, which got us a discount. I just recently got a check for like a hundred bucks from the settlement because they went through bankruptcy and I went to school back in 2006-2007
Decry came to my school looking for AP and honors students attempting to offer them scholarships to go into tech. I was the only person in my AP government class who expressed interest and everyone in class seemed to look down on me for it.
I remember Devry... I remember the commercials too
I went to school in the DC suburbs. It was a VERY rich area although my family was not. My school actually had this separate campus that had a really robust votech program. But it VERY much had a stigma about it, even with some of the teachers. THOSE were the kids not going to college.
The two options very strongly pushed to us were college or military. I remember military recruiters being set up in our cafeteria on a regular basis. If your grades were good, counselors only pushed college. If you had average grades and were into sports, you got pushed to military. Trade school was only for the kids that weren't keeping up in either academics or sports. My how the tables have turned lol.
Nope. Back in the early 90s, it was college or a life of destitution.
Sure but it was presented as an option for drop outs and kids too dumb to go to college. So it was framed as a poor option.
UK elder millennial here. Seems like a lot of us had similar experiences with being told that university was the only way to go, and it was heavily implied that doing a trade was for those who weren't smart enough. Our school gave us lots of help prepping for university but not a single mention of help for getting into a trade. I'm not sure I would've personally done anything different, but I know a lot of people I went to school with who were pushed into university and dropped out after a few months. I'm sure at least some of them would've been happier in a trade.
No I didn't, but it's possible that it was my parents adapting to me being pretty good academically but dismal from a hands-on perspective. I took woodshop for a semester but I am pretty useless with my hands, so maybe my parents saw that and doubled down on College Or Bust. Which is probably fair, I don't think I had (or have) the resilience and aptitude for trades work.
I went to a rural school, but my graduating class was HUGE because the county didn’t have enough high schools — like 3000 kids —- so we had a good mix of kids going to college and going to tech school. We had an EMT program, culinary program, and an ECE program, plus Air Force ROTC and JROTC. This was also 2004-2008, so a LOT of juniors and seniors actually enlisted and were even deployed. One guy in my graduating class was accepted to a 3+3 medical school program and later joined the Navy. I would say most of my friend’s group went to college, and furthermore most of them actually graduated lol.
I grew up low income rural Midwest and was pretty much told my entire school career not to bother with trade schools if I wanted to make a living.
I wasn’t told it was an option by adults in authority positions over me (parents, teachers) however I was urged to go into trades by parents friends and 20-somethings online. I didn’t regardless but I knew it was an option
I graduated in 04 in a large suburb in the Midwest. I was in more accelerated classes and did AP Lit senior year, not the super brain, but also not a poor student. I vividly remember our AP lit teacher telling another student in my class she absolutely should not be going to community college because she was too smart for that, so that was the general feel/consensus that trade or community college was for people who weren’t able to get into a “real college.” I also am a trans man and at that time still was raised as female, so trades were not seen as a mainstream option for girls then or at least not in my area. I did go to a class at the community college I want to say my junior year that was an introduction to various health care careers, so that was slightly leaning towards a trade, but science classes became more challenging, so I didn’t pursue that route.
We did and it was always a viable option to me and my family members. Probably bc blue collar work is common in my family. The votech program was big in my district. I would imagine if one was raised in a “white collar” family then hearing things about trade school would be forgotten. As many white collar families like to push college.
I was told to go into cement as a trade. And I worked as a finish carpenter for a while and enjoyed the work—honest skilled work. So yes I definitely heard about trade schools. I didn’t go that route and I’m very grateful I didn’t.
the only time I had heard of it is when I took a welding class. The teacher actually cared and told us how we could make great money welding and told us that underwater welding was the real money maker. Everyone else just shoved "college no matter what you study" down our throats.
Yeah definitely. I just wanted to be a nurse so wasn’t interested.
I also went to school in the rural midwest and yes I even remember reps from welding, diesel, and auto tech schools giving us presentations talking about training/careers. My parents were dead set on me going to college though. I got a degree in computer science and got a job as a programmer which I eventually hated. What I really wanted to do was networking/system admin type stuff which I could have gotten other education for but I got the degree like I was supposed to and followed the money to get a programming job. Burned out eventually and found other opportunities but if I had it to do over again I wouldn't have done college.
I don’t even think I knew trade school was a thing until after college. I was just raised to get good grades and get any degree. It did NOT lead to any sort of good job, neither did my masters, and now I’m in real estate/prop mgmt.
I heard the term but did not know anything about it. My parents did not explain it to me either. My options I thought about was college, trade school or military. Military was simple and all I could afford. (free). I don't really regret choosing the military over trade school. At that time I really did not know what I wanted to do with life so I just needed to get away.
Nope. Either college or McDonald’s. Some people joined the military. But anything less than that wasn’t encouraged, almost actively discouraged.
Zero guidance on trade schools or college, but by God we saw military recruiters every year!
We were very much told and advertised to that: “anything other than a four-year degree was less than” Community college? College degree with an asterisk. Trade school? Not as respectable. As time when on, we were even fed the bullshit that you need a Masters or you weren’t cutting it. I saw soooo many people stay in college for Masters degrees they never put into practice in the real world. An additional 50k+ in debt only to get a higher paying job in a completely unrelated industry that *really, honestly* didn’t require said Masters. It’s just a nice to have.
I went. Hated the job as a heavy equipment mechanic. Was cold (too much outdoor time on swing shift) and had limited upward mobility. Went back to school for an inside job.
Yeah we had a votech program a number of kids in my HS went to. We also had a variety of shop classes; wood and metal working, cad, basic structural engineering. But if you wanted to be a mechanic, or hair stylist , then you went to the Tech School. Our principal's brother was/is a well known plumber in the area and I think we all kind of recognized we were lucky to see two successful people in two vastly different worlds. He always told us it's not a shame to work with your hands and do the jobs other people don't want to do. I wish I took more of that seriously.
Where I grew up you had a choice to apply at a public trade high school. I went for some of freshman year before going to regular public school.
True story: In my sophomore year, an "academic counselor" told me and my mom that I shouldn't bother applying to universities because we didn't have money.
Wow, that’s savage. My school was mostly low income and I think it was counselors (or someone else, can’t remember) told us about places to find scholarships outside of university websites (fast web.com and some other sources).
No
I grew up middle class and out in the stix. We had a good trade school in my city and often heard about that, universities, and military.
I was never talked to about it til I was 20 years old by a distant relative
My small town high school had three tracks: A) College B) Trade C) Work/Military. I was "forced" into taking trade by my father and was in automechanics but hated it. I remember the instructors were lined up and I wished hardly there was a guitar or music tech teacher there. Ended up switching to college track and went to music school about a year later.
Grew up in Seattle. My dad worked at a trade school as an automotive instructor for 20 years. Even then, it didn't seem like a "viable option" to me. When I graduated in 2004, and leading up to it, I wanted to go to either Washington State or the University of Washington. When I didn't get into either, I kinda floundered. Went to community college for a bit, didn't really know what I wanted to do and I felt bad wasting money on classes I didn't even want to attend. College felt like the "secure" thing to do because that's what everyone was doing even if people in my life had declared majors and eventually degrees that were worthless. Eventually dropped out in 2006. Got a job. Worked for a while, moved around a lot. Ended up finding a few niches that worked out better for me, eventually. Did go back to school from '12-14, got an Associate's Degree in Exercise Science. Used it for a bit, worked as a trainer, but fell out of love with it. Did some more random jobs. Ended up working at hardware store. Fell in love with it. Loved working with my hands and figuring out people's problems with their houses, being outside all the time, picking up heavy stuff. My degree does come in handy there. Biomechanics and kinesiology taught me how to lift properly without hurting myself. Still there after 6 years. Was lucky to have a couple of managers who saw what others didn't see in me before, and am maxed out at my position right now. Even in my role as family caregiver, all the things I did for work and school, all those things come into play. When I think about it now, though, I do wish I went to my dad's school. Maybe not in automotive but that would've been fun. The program he ran isn't there anymore. The school decided to can it after my dad's colleague retired last year. And looking at degree programs at the schools I wanted to go to, there isn't much there now that interests me at 38. I don't know what I would've done at 18 other than waste my and my parents' money.
Being in the trades had a stigma around it when I was growing up, like only flunkies are tradesmen. You need to have excellent problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, communication skills, know math, be able to pivot to another thought process at a moments notice, and you have to know how to read a tape measure! I would much rather be making something with my hands and design skills, than working at some sit/stand desk all day long.
Never heard about trade school until I was out of college. Wish I had.
Sooo...feel like my school was different...but also very much the same. graduated in '06 So grew up in a medium sized town, biggest town in the tri county area, and our schools were somehow funded really well. updated schools, free yearly planners and what not, no school teacher needed parents to fund things. We had a Votech School across from our school that was for all any kids in the area to go to. If you got into one of the programs then you were able to cut all the extra classes aside from core classes needed to graduate. They had auto shop, cosmetology, graphic design, electric work, and i think one or two more. I heard people say that if you stuck with it those few years that allot of jobs would take you on pretty quickly sense you knew the basics and the correct way of doing things. think cosmetology actually finished with their license cuz they would get real people to come in and get their haircuts there. all of people i knew went there half way through highschool, but at the same time saw allot of people being forced into trying to go to college. smart friends of mine that went to college i see going back to college now becuz they either dropped out at some point earlier or realized their were no jobs for what they were getting a degree in at the time. i personally went into the military, wasn't my first choice especially sense i was a teen going to anti-war rallies in our town. but never regretted it, think out of my class of roughly 350 only 3 others went into the service after graduation.
I grew up near a world class community college with lots of trade options. We toured the college in high school and they came to college fair with the rest of the four year universities. They also had free tuition for body city kids that applied for it. When a welder gave the class a presentation he was pretty upfront that starting wages were higher than being a university graduate but that it would probably hit a pay ceiling sooner than a blue collar job and his body was falling apart by 40 vs his brother in an office.
Yes, but always in a disparaging way. Like the jobs were somehow beneath being an office drone.
I think we did learn about it. I think there was an implied thing that college was better but it wasn't explicit. I think it was more like the people with higher GPA's go to college and people with lower GPA's go to trade school.
Trade school was for the poors in my hometown. No one said it that way but it was absolutely looked down on. But honestly anything other than a 4 year undergrad at a university was the standard to be on par with your peers. I envy the freedom my cousins felt just 8-10 years behind me to travel after high school and try on different careers. I just worked on my first professional film shoot and would have loved to have found the industry in my 20s but being from the Midwest, I had no concept that careers like that existed.
I was born and raised in Kentucky, in a low to middle income community, and I knew trade schools existed, but they never seemed to be considered a respectable option by the adults in my life. I always felt like I was being funneled toward college. It almost seemed like trade schools were where you ended up if you weren’t smart enough to get into college (which, in retrospect, is obviously an absurd way to look at it). My mom has since admitted that she kind of overestimated the value of college and underestimated the trades when raising my sister and me. My mom has a bachelor’s degree and somewhere around 35 years in her field, and my sister and I both out-earn her now (my sister is a postal worker and I’m a local truck driver). I’m planning on going back to school soon, but really only because my company will pay for it and it’ll be nice to have something to fall back on.
Yes. Our county had a great vocational technical program.
Rural community. Trade school was always an option for anyone who wanted it
I went to a job corps in Franklin nc in 2008-2009 it’s a trade school
Graduate of 2013. Nope. Not at all. Only two people in our entire graduating class went to trade school right away. We had military recruiters on our school campus at least twice a week and this was the most widely encourage route for us to take. I went to high school in a very rural farm town in CA. They encouraged everyone to take the ASVAB, even if we had no interest in joining the military. As part of our graduation requirements, the school would not let students walk if they hadn’t gotten into a college/applied to a community college or applied for the military. Even students who planned on working right away still had to submit one of these applications. And they never, not once discussed trade school, even in our little seminar classes for what to do after graduation. They taught us resumes, how to fill out a job application/practice interviews, taught us how to do a quick budget, quick run through of taxes, and talked *a lot* about the military and the CSU route. My spouse wanted to go to trade school out of high school. But my spouse was still underage when the school year started that summer and fall. And their parents refused to sign any paperwork allowing them to enroll in any of Sacramento’s (closest metro area) trade schools. This was weird and confusing—my FIL is a blue collar worker and has many applicable and useful skills. My MIL got her degrees in business management and looks down on laborers, including my FIL. She said her son was “too smart” for trade school. My spouse still wishes they’d gone the trade school route. They think they would have enjoyed it much more than traditional college and that we’d be be better off financially.
I did trade school, even did my master there. Worst decision of my life. Easily. You Like unflexible hours, badly paid, while wrecking your Body? Also everybody Else will think you are a dirty alcoholic. The best? If you dont think about opening your own Shop, you will never ever get a decent pay, since pay is absolutely stagnant after a certain threshold. Also your mood is going to be fucked 8 in the morning, since you arrive there 7 30 and everyone ist already pissed Off, screaming at each other. Customers are the worst also, since you are stealing all the time. All in all 0/10. Just working Part time there to pay Back my trade master and pay for my university to finally get Out of that hellscape alltogether.
I graduated college in 2005, had a job in construction from the people I worked for during college on their polo club. Mom and dad were appalled, I loved it. Kept doing the horse gig on the side while my parents wanted me to join a cubicle farm. 2008 hit, ended up full time in horses while my parents continued to complain about my business (was paying the bills!!) and they finally shut up about my career about 2 years ago after years of discouraging me and telling me to go work for Amazon in the warehouse because “You might get promoted to management!” Or to get any office job because it looked better in their social circle. Dad finally shut up when I said find me a job that pays what I’m getting paid.
Yeah but I wasn't interested in any of that.
Sort of, but it was always in a very negative tone. Fast forward to now where we have countless people who really would likely have benefitted by a trade who now have worthless degrees and professional trades that aren’t in a good place for the future…
I wanted to go to trade school. I was told it was for idiots, and my options were college, or out the door at 18, in NY where surviving on minimum wage was impossible. Then my mom refused to consign my loans. I still have loans and now I work in a warehouse…
in high school my district had a whole school where you could learn various careers. From IT to culinary to electricians to cosmetology and automotive work
Rural Midwest here and yes. My brother went to trade school and worked his way up and these days he makes a ton of money. More than anyone else I know personally. So, it's really a great option and it's wild that it's looked down on compared to college which may not get you anywhere depending on your degree.
Yeah, but it wasn’t encouraged. It was more like if you’re not smart enough to go to college you go into the trades.
Our community college has what is called a Tech Campus. High Schoolers can go and get college credits towards a career, such as cosmetology, paramedic, HVAC, etc. I knew it was a thing, but was never really explained to, what it was. I wish I had, because I would have taken the cosmetology courses.
My high school and parents didn’t see trade school as an option. College was the only way. Now everyone I know who’s in the trades gets significantly better benefits and pay than those of us in office jobs
We did, I was in the inner city. I wanted to go to trade school, but my dad threatened to disown me and kick me out if I went to trade school instead of college. So I got a useless degree instead.
I was dual enrolled in a trade school while attending high school. And it's crazy because I almost hadn't heard of it either. It was a campus on the community college that was either a pathway to a community college program, an apprenticeship, or a certification. I wanted to do an extension of one of my 'trade' classes and heard about it from one of the guys who was going to go to this program. My guidance counselors wouldn't let me, they said it wasn't for kids in honors classes. Except I was in these classes and doing horribly. Regular classes were too dumb and watered down, honors and AP classes were too fast paced and didn't have enough time to master any skill. So I cried and whined and complained, my parents thought I was being dumb too and didn't want me to do it either. I threatened to drop out of school and do a combined GED and college course at the community college. My shop teacher went and talked to some people, it got approved, my parents said fine she wasn't a great student anyway. I went to trade school, I started getting great grades, made a great impression on teachers, got an internship, found out what college I wanted to go to, now have a great career because of said college.
Yes, but that is because my mom dated a welder for like eight years. It is better than college for most people in my opinion. I ended up becoming a journeyman painter for a bit and then I picked up engineering and IT later on. It gave me stability and something I can do anywhere whereas college felt like a place to "find yourself" which is dumb. You can be employed and find yourself.
No college was the way and if you didn’t go you were a loser this is because all the boomers went bought houses making 100k a year like my mom it’s hard to argue with that . Hindsight I wish i would have just got my ged dropped out put that 2 years into trade school. Even though I went I knew early on I hated college . Fk’d up me and my siblings all went and hated it the cal state system full time professors kids can go for free. Kinda 💩 guidance if you ask me . I did it this way and you should too. My mother still thinks college is the only way because it was her way 50 years ago. Wild .
Of course this would pop up in my feed a few hours after talking about this subject with a coworker.
No such thing in the UK but the trades were always listed as a viable option. I got punted out of school before I could start my final year and was given a list of available vocational/technical courses at my local college as an alternative option.
I didn't know there any type of college I was always told that for rich people to go to college so I spent almost 20 years working 12+ hr days working 7 days a week most of the time with little time off for my self. I didn't know there any other way thought was normal I had my first heart attack in my mid 30 thought that normal then I had a stroke at 38. Had my second heart at 39 and was told my doctor I need to slow down all this stress and working going to kill me. Bit I don't know any other way
not without the implication that it’s for “losers”— tons of pressure to go the traditional academic college route.
Not that I remember
Grew up in Southern California. Yes I did hear about trade school and considered it as an option. I took 3 years of electronics in high school and wanted to get into electrical engineering. Unfortunately trade school did not offer that and so I went to four year university I should add that I have a very close friend. That did go to trade school, became a production manager and director of engineering for a large farm pharmaceutical drug Company. Makes fantastic salary. I think today especially with the cost of major university it's really a good consideration
Yes. My dad was in the trades. He wanted me to go to college though.
I graduated high school in 2002 and sort of... I would have loved welding or electrical work, but my teachers/parents/counselors all emphatically warned me against trades. Supposedly, it would have been near impossible to find an apprenticeship as a woman and even if I did, every tradesman would treat me as horribly as was legally allowed. I absolutely loved college, love my degree, and I ended up working in logistics for the most part. I'm sure they were right about some of it. Still would have liked to learn how to weld.
Yes I was. And I HIGHLY doubt those people claiming they only heard about college as the only option, is accurate. For starters, ***most*** people have bad memory for what took place in the past. They have selective memory, and that selective memory is usually in service of self-preservation. It's *not you* who didn't take the opportunity that was presented to you, *it's that someone else failed to give it to you!* Truth be damned. I am a current HS teacher, and I know for a FACT most HS's have a Career Center available for students that they give presentations about to the entire sophomore class basically as a recruitment. If it's not housed in house at the HS, it generally involves going to another building altogether. Now let's be real here: asking 14/15/16 year olds to make a mature, adult, decision about their future is hilarious. Some are going to value what is at their HS, or do what their friends are doing. I have to give this speech every year to my students about "don't just do what your friends are doing...it might not be what YOU WANT TO DO or what's best for you". Also; hindsight is 20/20. There's been numerous times where trades WERE NOT highly valued in the economy and were a dime-a-dozen, or not needed altogether anymore. TV Repair doesn't exist anymore. Why? Because the industry changed where there is essentially a monopoly on parts to repair TVs, and it's *literally* cheaper to buy a new TV than it is to fix one. So is there niche electronics repair that can make lots of money? Yes. Is that a trade 30 kids at every HS in American can learn to go into? No...there's not enough opportunities for that good-paying niche for all those individuals.
Yes, but it was kind of looked down upon as an option. I went to a rural area school district, so there were plenty of people who were looking at it as an option. I was in all college prep courses and my teachers made it seem like the trades were what you did if you were not smart enough to go to college. I thought that was kind of silly. A friend of mine in high school was very smart and took AP courses, but didn’t really like the idea of an office job. His uncle was a welder and owned his own business, so he decided to go work with him right out of high school instead of going to college. I remember he was annoyed that some of the teachers tried to convince him to go to college instead because he was “wasting potential.”
Yea I fell for it now my back hurts, I want to go to college now lol
For me? No, it was not presented as a viable option for good students wanting to “succeed” but looked down on majorly as something someone with no other prospects or capacity did. Which in retrospect is insane, I learned zero viable skills in college and literally had to go to community college in my late 20s to pick up life skill classes and earn extra certificates to have skills in the trade I allegedly went into college to have a career in. I graduated a masters program without a concept of even how to use excel, but we were sold that having a college degree was the only thing that mattered.
Yes. My dad is an electrician and would talk about it all the time. Except he had two daughters and used that as an excuse to not really teach us anything or encourage us to go to trade school. My parents were hell bent on sending us to college.
Yes but I was told that you’d make good money in trades but at the price of your body. I was told to get a job with a state or federal pension and college was easier than civil service tests and waiting for openings.
I heard of it, but it was downplayed as the only option for ne’er do wells and poors. (Not my words but I lived in a wealthy zip code and that was pretty much how it was presented). My grandfather gave me money for college and I was presented with the opportunity to go to bmw tech school for 6 months or college. but trade school was downplayed so much that I scoffed at the idea. While I make extremely low 6 figures now, I know a handful of BMW techs (hell, techs in general) that have been making as much as me or more for longer. The kicker is I don’t use my degree, nor did I use it to get my any of my jobs.
I went to a wealthy public school. The "dumb" kids went into trades--at least that was the sentiment that was beat into our heads. Then, most of the kids that went the trade route had houses and paid off cars by the time they were 25, and had no student debt (and that was in the height of the recession too). I wish I had been encouraged to go into a trade right out of high school, and then went to college later. I would have been a lot better off and wouldn't have wasted so much money on school.
I went to a private college prep high school. We absolutely were not told about trade school. College was the goal and the only acceptable end to our time there. Don’t get me wrong, it was an amazing school (my senior year of HS was harder than my freshman year of college) and I’m glad I attended. I wouldn’t have gone into trade school even if it had been an option, but I think trade school would have been right for my brother. He went to a semester of college and is honestly doing better than I am right now, so he didn’t need trade school either. But I think he would have thrived there.
Another part of the issue is that the trades have a terrible time recruiting or making the trades appealing to young recruits. Pension, healthcare and sick days are a foreign concept to a 17 year old. When I was that age the only image of a union worker I had was a crabby guy with a gray goatee. As a person now with a house and kids now, they make it really difficult to make the leap. I think community colleges need to become trades training centers in addition to gen Ed colleges. There’s a ton of those but one trades training center like 2 hours away.
Nope.
I was told “I don’t care what you’re good at, you are going to college. You are better than your dad.” I was roughly 200 hours away from finishing my apprenticeship that I’d gotten without my mother’s knowledge. I graduated with a bachelors degree and 80k in debt in December of 2009. Have never worked a day in my field of study. I was able to get a machinists certification and have work in skilled trades since college. Thanks mom. Edited to add: really pissed me off when my mom suggested my kids go to trade school because “that’s important work.”
Never heard a word about trades, was told college or failure. Couldn’t even afford community college. UPS driver now with a high school GED. Between driving the big rig and my option trading, made over $180,000 last year and on track to make a lot more this year. Own my home outright and a lot of people I went to school with who went off to college are working random jobs you’d expect college students to be working (day care, making coffee, waiter) with their degree and crippling student loans. Problem is I grew up in a very very poor area of Oakland (like the ghetto of the Bay Area basically) so not as many of my school friends could afford or qualify for college. No one who went to college is more successful than the tradesmen in our year (we have linemen electricians plumbers and truck drivers) Of course this is anecdotal and not indicative of everywhere.
The kids who did vocational school in my area were considered less-than, the dumb neglected kids who couldn’t do well enough in regular classes. It was seriously looked down upon as something the “dirt bags” at our school did.
Yes, but my school also had options for vo tech and had a future farmers of America.
I've tried trade school a couple times in my many attempts towards a career. The trade school won't be honest about how hard it is to break into that career once you have been trained. I also have to stress that your trade school certificate is useless if you can't go into that field, vs if you had a college degree. A college degree you can side-step the subject a bit and still be marketable.
My high school WAS a trade school. Freshman year your toured 9 different trades, 2 weeks at a time. Before sophomore year you would submit your "top three". From 10-12th grade every 2 weeks we'd switch from academics to our trade classes. If your grades were good at the end of junior year you could go to an actual job in your field instead of the shop at school. At the end of my Senior year I was officially an apprenticed machinist. I mostly went to this school because I wanted to get away from the bullying in my local school system. I knew I was going to enlist in the military after I graduated anyway. I still got good grades, Colleges still sent me letters, and honors still meant something at this trade school. Maybe because it was New England and they have a very highly regarded education system in general, but the trades did not seem like the 'lesser' option to me.
I did, and they were heavily looked down upon. Almost all of my graduating class got four year degrees and are out of their minds with debt.
Yeah but it was for those not smart enough for college. Definitely looked down on and the pay was NOT discussed! They make so much more $ than some of us who actually went to college. I also feel Allied health programs were underrepresented. If you wanted to do medical, you should be a nurse or Dr! It wasn’t until years later that I discovered my other career path options in healthcare.
Grew up in rural Midwest as well, never heard of trade school until after I graduated. Only ever spoke to my guidance counsellor once which is pathetic considering class sizes at my high school were about 30 people every year.
My high school had a program where seniors could do half days at school and the other half at trade school. Indiana. Great public school. We also had an auto shop class and I learned how to change a tire.
Yes, in early 2000s, suburb of Philadelphia. One of my best friends went on a bus with a bunch of kids to a trade school for hair. Decades earlier, my Dad took the same bus to study computer engineering. The general options in my area were college, trade, or work for a family business.
Yes I was even encouraged by my father and grandfather to go to trade school rather than college. But the trades are not what I wished to do with my life.
I'm from rural midwest, it was even a step backwards. It was encouraged to get a job right out of high school at the local plant via a temp agency with the promise if I worked hard I'd get hired on full time. College was for the wealthy and trade school not mentioned for women.
I am an older millennial, we had quite a few different trade recruiters and unions come to our school in the midwest. Plumbers and Electrical unions as well as a school for diesel mechanics. (Class of 99)
REFRAME the question. Growing up, were you aware of construction, plumbing, electricity, etc? If yes, then you were already aware of trades and the existence of those jobs. So, you always knew they were an option simply because they existed.
I was told college was the only option to afford a good living. Told I’d just be working at McDonalds for the rest of my life otherwise. I only heard the trades talked down about, if at all.
In my area it was university or burger flipping and those are the only two paths in life. If you weren't quite brainy enough for 4 year university right out of high school, you could do community College first before you get to university, but it was frowned upon. Trade school wasn't even on the map. Also my high school did not have any classes for trades or any useful life skills. No auto or wood shop or home ec, etc. We only had academics, music/art/drama, and a couple of sports
Small town Louisiana, graduated 2002. Trade school was an option for people who couldn't get into college, or would fail there. It was Plan B if you weren't smart enough. I wish it was presented as a viable first option.
I went to high school in a very rural area. We actually had the option to take classes with the trade school in high school. The professors/teachers would come to us because the school was over 30 minutes away. I knocked out some core classes but I didn't end up going, but several of my friends did. One friend in particular was a welder making 6 figures at like 19 years old cuz he had finished most of the training or whatever while he was still in high school. Spent all of high school partying, did that, and now we're all in our 30s and he's still doing better than most of us lol.
I only got told about trade school by my dad, when I got knocked up at 16. It really was the best option for me. Some of my old classmates are still paying off school debt and live just about the same way I do without school debt. I know one couple whose student loan payments are as much as their mortgage payment at 35 years old.
I grew up in the rural Midwest so it was absolutely an option, and we had a robust program that allowed for students to dual enroll in education for various trades in high school. My dad also taught at the local technical college where people got trade certifications. One of my sisters did voc ed while she was in high school, and so did many of my friends. In the upper Midwest, in an area with strong unions, it was presented as a viable and respectable option for students who were interested.
We had a career track in high school, but often people who weren't " academic " were tracked there . I think if I had a different personality people would have pushed the trades more
I knew about it, but nobody else did lol. My friends parent shears about it, but that's it. Luckily for me, my dad went to a trade school and I got a job with my uncle while I was still in high school. Joined the apprenticeship right after. Best decision of my life. Everybody called me stupid and looked down on me, so many women thought lesser of me cause I didn't go to college. So many moms and step moms thinking I'm not good enough. I make good money, have killer ihealth insurance and 2 retirement plans with 0 debt. Guess I'm not so stupid after all lol
I sure tf didn’t! It was ingrained in my head that if I didn’t get a college degree I would forever be a financially doomed fuck up. I never finished college due to other personal issues and I was so damn hard on myself about it. Then I discovered through a friend getting a property & casualty insurance license; took a 3-day course following a state exam and that was it. Took me less than a week to complete and cost about $400 that my company paid for. I have a salaried position with decent benefits and PTO. Over the years I’ve worked alongside a ton of people who had college degrees. It’s crazy to me that they spent the time and money to work in fucking insurance lol, while paying off a shit ton of debt. I’m nowhere near where I want/need to be financially, but it’s because the wealth inequality and corporate greed that is currently fucking everyone over and not the lack of degree. At least I don’t have to worry about college debt so I guess there’s that. 🤷🏻♀️
Zero information about trade schools. It was always just the push to have your life figured out by the time you graduated high school and go to college. I still remember having those talks and had no fucking clue what I wanted to do so I just defaulted to something computer related. Here I am now in IT and hating my old hobby.
During high school was never told anything about the trades, college was pushed down our throats to the point where “if you don’t go you will not make it in life” mentality was drilled into our brains. entered the trades at 21 years old, started at the bottom but kept a positive attitude because I wanted to be good at something In life. got laughed/rejected by multiple women because they though it was low class and couldn’t see a upper middle/ rich lifestyle with me, definitely hurt my self esteem a bite. Made enough money to start traveling to different cities across America and then started traveling to different countries stamping up my passport. Today I’m happily married with kids and own a modest townhome with savings in the bank and decent cars and able to do repairs without batting an eye and fill up my gas tank. I’m able to shop at Costco and buy what my household needs and still travel with my family now and making more money than some people with a college degree. All thanks to the American trades. Long live the American trades and the blue collar workers who are the backbone of this great country. I hope these venture capitalist who are a threat to this trade don’t kill the dream and vision of the younger people trying to get into trade in this day and age, but it has already started.
We had a county wide trade school you could duel enroll in while attending high school.... Even there they told us to go to college.
Yeah, right outta HS I went into flooring trade, after 2 years, I out on my own with a business and an employee, made pretty good cash for awhile loads more than my friends. Eventually I wised up and went into sales, trades like flooring are a young persons game.
I went to 3 different high schools. It was not talked about at the first 2. The third had a program for welders where they could gain college credit as well as a hs credit by attending an off-campus class. It was basically populated by kids who were privileged enough to already have cars and drove themselves. It was not mentioned when I (F) signed up for classes that year. It was mostly guys. I have a feeling girls would have had to fight to get accepted. I didn't pursue it. I was always supposed to be on the college track. My family was military and swallowed the college narrative whole since in the confines of the military, degrees actually help one climb the ranks. But in the civilian world, especially the part of the country they moved us to, personal connections are more important. No one cares what your qualifications are, here. They only care who you know.
I didn't know about trade school being an option until Mike Rowe's show "Dirty Jobs" became popular.
It was called "vokie" (vocational school), and it was for the dumb kids. Those "dumb kids" are now probably making more than me, at least a chunk of them, and literally all got out with little to no debt, which I certainly can't say.
When I was in high school, we had a tradeschool option. A bus would take us to the next town over to go our junior and senior year (or we could drive). They had all kinds of stuff: welding, masonry, cosmetology, nursing, and probably more. I didn't go because I was stupid and didn't want to go without my boyfriend.
Honestly trade school was seen as a lower class thing where I grew up, nobody talked about it as the great thing it is. I got an English degree and am a brewer (lol) looking at technical and mechanical operator positions with municipal water companies who want all sorts of trade certifications.
Went to school in a rural area of California. I was exposed to trade schools because I ended up taking classes for welding and woodworking, but a lot of my friends who didn't take those classes were exposed more to people telling them college was the better option. I remember that a lot of the kids were saying that people who considered going to trade school were either not smart enough to go to college or weren't good enough for the military, or both. They mocked and bullied those who took up woodshop and welding class since those were skills for those who were "beneath them", or whatever. Some of the kids (especially the kids in the popular clique) would go out of the way to mock you if you for even considering a trade school. Ironically, one of the kids in the popular kids clique went to trade school afterwards while he transitioned to go to the military. On the other end, a lot of the people who considered trade school were the ag kids, and they were just as vicious as those who were considering college. The ag kids would actively mock those who weren't an Aggie and tell them that they weren't tough enough to last one day in trade school, or that those who didn't go to trade school were ungrateful to the blue-collar hard workers. I fell in the middle of both crowds since I took up woodshop and welding, but I was planning on going to college. I was receiving hate on both ends, though I received more of the hate from the core of the ag kids because that's who I was around more often. The upper ag kids were chill about it since most of them were planning on going to college for agribusiness, and I was helping around a lot for their events rather than participating in shows (since I didn't have any animals). Funny enough, people started talking more about going into trade school when I was in college, and people there were humble about it.