Pretty remarkable numbers being quoted lately about post-secondary enrollment trends with Gen-Z’s different take on education and making money in the spotlight again.
We’ve already covered how they’re becoming known as The Toolbelt Generation and a new article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch shares some interesting statistics on how this impacts what student do after high school.
Trades & Enrollment Stats
In her article, “Skilled Trades on the Rise as College Enrollment Sags. ‘Ticket to the Middle Class,’” Colleen Schrappen shares some informative statistics:
- Four-year school enrollment has flatlined.
- Vocation-focused community college enrollment is up 16%
- Students studying construction has climbed 15% in the past 5 years.
- The number of trades registered apprenticeships in Missourri has increased by 150% over the past 10 years.
- More than a third of tradespeople are over 50.
What’s Driving the Numbers?
An Affordable Path
Schrappen summarizes: “In the St. Louis area, employers are partnering with high schools to grab the attention of teenagers early. Community colleges and trade schools are offering new certifications and building new facilities. Young adults are being pulled onto a cheaper, quicker path to the workforce. No debt, no delays.”
A program called Missouri Works is partnering with Boys & Girls Clubs on the STEP program (Skilled Trades Exploration Program).
Boeing has a pre-employment program focused on sheet metal assembly for second-semester seniors.
Local college are recognizing that robotics and coding camps are helping destigmatize trades jobs for high schoolers.
One graduate of the program already works at a fabricator and is interviewing to work at Boeing itself already.
Outside Funding for Programs
A number of students were interviewed for the article. One is completing his electrical apprenticeship under the guidance of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Boeing additionally has a program for adults called pathways that partners with St. Louis Community College to train and recruit assembly mechanics from the area.
Seyer Industries pays for a program in partnership with Southwestern Illinois College that teaches precision machining with a path to a job in their aerospace business.
Better Wages Sooner
In addition to entering the workforce without debt, the article cites a number of students who earn while they learn and upon graduation.
An HVAC student is making $20/hour and that will go to $30/hour upon completion of a certificate.
The aerospace student makes $23/hour and that will go to $30/hour upon graduation.
High Employment Rates
Ranken Technical College has been expanding rapidly with satellites added in 2013, 2017, and 2022, with space for high school programs included.
VP of Education Sharon Brueggemann shares her take: “Everyone needed tradespeople during COVID.” She shared that Ranken has a 98% job placement rate with many students securing jobs before they graduate: “By the time they graduate, it’s too late for employers.”
GoSprout’s Take
We love to see articles like this.
The case for employers is laid out clearly.
The benefits of apprenticeships for students and especially Gen-Z (part of The Deskless Worker Movement) is also crystal clear.
And this article was syndicated and picked up across the nation. Love it!
While we loved how much coverage this article placed on high school involvement, we would have loved to have seen pre-apprenticeships mentioned by name.
As with registered apprenticeships, hiring and education executives are starting to catch up, but these concepts are new for lots of companies and schools.
Based on our own community’s comments, we know that a lot of the reason for the lack of programs has been that apprenticeships were written off as high-cost and only really possible for larger, more sophisticated organizations but that’s no longer the case.
We’re proud to see companies both big and small leveraging our apprenticeship management software to streamline existing programs and launch new tracks or even whole programs more efficiently and profitably than ever before.
