Headline Roundup • April 4th, 2024
As College Costs Rise, Gen Z Shifts Toward Skilled Trades
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Younger people are increasingly passing up a four-year college education to pursue skilled trades.
The Details: Enrollment in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16% in 2023, hitting its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse started tracking the data in 2018. Median pay for some trades is rising faster than for professional services. Meanwhile, prestigious schools like Tufts, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania expect their attendance costs to surpass $90,000 for the 2024-25 school year. The average cost of a private nonprofit four-year college is $41,540, according to the College Board, up $1,600 from 2022-23.
For Context: Tuition and fees at private universities have risen roughly 40% in the past 20 years, adjusted for inflation, and around 43 million Americans hold a collective $1.3 trillion in student loan debt. As costs have risen, college enrollment has fallen; U.S. higher education enrollment was around 18.7 million in 2021, down from 21 million in 2011. It's fallen every year since 2011.
How the Media Covered It: Some left-rated outlets, like Business Insider (Lean Left bias), highlighted the toll of high college costs, especially for minorities and people in lower income brackets. The Wall Street Journal (Center) framed the news positively, saying "new technologies in fields from welding to machine tooling are giving trade professions a face-lift, helping them shed the image of being dirty, low-end work."
Featured Coverage of this Story
Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
The price of getting a degree has continued to climb at American universities, with the cost of some schools reaching a new threshold. It's leaving many wondering if it's a good investment.
Schools like New York University, Tufts, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale are pegging the total cost of university attendance — which covers tuition, housing, food, supplies, books, and more — for the 2024-25 school year at over $90,000, according to their websites.
NYU, already known for its high fees, estimates the total cost for the next school year will be $93,184,...
America needs more plumbers, and Gen Z is answering the call.
Long beset by a labor crunch, the skilled trades are newly appealing to the youngest cohort of American workers, many of whom are choosing to leave the college path. Rising pay and new technologies in fields from welding to machine tooling are giving trade professions a face-lift, helping them shed the image of being dirty, low-end work. Growing skepticism about the return on a college education, the cost of which has soared in recent decades, is adding to their shine.
Increasing numbers of Generation Z are opting out of college and turning to vocational schools with hopes of higher wages and avoiding student debt, data shows.
Young people who came of age during the pandemic said they have been deterred from four-year universities by high tuition and the prospect of student debt.
Instead, they are attending trade schools and are being enticed by well-paying job opportunities and satisfying work.
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