You can get a good paying job without attending college.
While obtaining a college degree can help you land a higher paying job in the near future, attending a trade school can be a great alternative that you may want to consider. Considering the fact that almost 9% of college graduates between the ages of 21 and 24 were unemployed while 16.8% were underemployed in 2014, and that a bachelor’s degree can cost you $127,000 on the average, completing a trade school program can help you land an awesome job in an industry you love without acquiring a sizeable student loan debt in the process.
Trade schools offer numerous programs covering a wide variety of careers and industries. Thus, it is easy to find programs that interest you in the fields of healthcare, criminal justice, technology, fashion design, web design, culinary arts and automotive repair.
Advantages of Attending a Trade School
It is more economical. A college degree will typically cost you around $127,000 while a trade school degree will only cost you around $33,000. Aside from paying your tuition, you also need to consider other expenses (educational, living and miscellaneous). So, if you are financing your education with student loans, you may end with a significant amount of debt by the time you earn your degree.
In addition, it would only take two years to complete a trade school degree so you would start earning money while others are still working hard to obtain their college diploma.
It provides hands-on learning. Instead of merely seeing or hearing about how to do something, attending a trade school gives you the opportunity to receive practical, hands-on training. It allows you to participate and actually perform the skills using your own hands.
It offers specific career plans. It is not uncommon for students who obtained a general degree to experience difficulties when looking for a job in their chosen field, especially if they cannot translate what they have learned into real-world experience. By attending a trade school, you can be sure that you would not have the same problem since you will be given a job-specific training that will lead you towards a specific career plan.
You can also be sure that you can land a job as soon as you earned your certificate since most trade schools offer job placement services. According to an article published in USA Today, completing short-term degree programs can be the fastest and cheapest way to get a job in an industry you love. In addition, studies show that certificate holders earn 20% more than workers who only managed to finish high school, and may even earn more than some workers who hold bachelor’s degree.
