College isn’t for everyone. And that appears to be increasingly true for GenZ. Whether it’s because of a lack of interest or a lack of cash, a wide swath of GenZ is skipping college in favor of getting paid to learn a trade.
It’s a smart move, says Lisa Countryman-Quiroz, CEO of Jewish Vocational Services, a non-profit that helps low-income kids learn trades. Not only does college cost some $100,000 – $250,000 in tuition and fees, it requires four years of your life. In the meantime, GenZ can get paid to learn a trade from the moment they’re out of high school — or even before.
“For years, the message has been ‘you have to go to college, you have to go to college,’” Countryman-Quiroz says. “But now we see higher levels of unemployment for college graduates than the rest of the population. You have to ask whether that expensive college degree is going to pay off.”
Running the numbers
Meanwhile, the economic argument for getting paid to learn a trade — vs spending four years in college — is compelling. However, it may be counter-intuitive for a generation that’s been sold on the idea that you’ll earn way more if you finish college. Let’s walk through the numbers to explain.
While the average college graduate earns $24,000 more annually than the average high school graduate, the college graduate starts working at least four years later. Worse, the four years that they spent in college likely cost $100,000 – $250,000 in room, board, tuition and fees.
So, to just break even, the college grad needs to pay off the college bills, plus the cost of not working for four years. We’ll estimate that cost at $319,000. That’s a $175,000 estimate of the cost of college, plus the average high school graduate’s annual earnings of $36,000 ($18 per hour) multiplied by 4.
If you do some simple division and assume the college cost was paid out of pocket, rather than paid via loans, you’ll see that it takes more than 13 years for the average college graduate to break even. If the college student borrowed to pay for school, the break-even point moves back several years because of the cost of interest on the college graduate’s student loans.
Rising wages
But, it may take even longer for college grads to break even when they compare their fortune to someone who took up a skilled trade. That’s because wages in skilled trades are rising considerably faster than the rate of inflation, according to Gusto, a payroll service for small businesses. Already, average wages for machinists, welders and electricians range from $45,000 to more than $100,000, according to Davron, an executive recruiting company.
That’s likely to continue because there’s critical demand for workers in all aspects of skilled trade — plumbers, electricians, carpenters, heating & air experts, mechanics, glaziers, welders, iron workers, solar installers, machine operators, according to McKinsey & Co., an international consulting firm.
In fact, if you check the rates charged by contractors on Taskrabbit, a site that connects independent contractors with clients, you’ll see that many tradespeople charge between $50 and $100 per hour for everything from furniture assembly to fixing electrical or plumbing problems.
(Notably, you can offer services on this site without any sort of certification. So, if you have gained skills simply through life experience, you can create a profile on Taskrabbit. You determine what you can do, how much to charge and when you’re available to do the work.)
Getting trained
But, if you don’t have the personal experience to know who to ply a skilled trade, how do you get paid to learn?
Start by deciding what you want to do. Then seek out paid apprenticeship programs, Countryman-Quiroz suggests. If you’re in California, JVA may be able to help by providing free training through partnerships with companies that need workers. The site partners with water districts, hospital systems and others that pay workers to learn on the job.
The federal government also offers a free apprenticeship locator at Apprenticeship.gov. Most states have apprenticeship boards, as well. A quick review of the apprenticeships offered through these sites found hundreds of jobs that offered to train, while paying an average of $18 to $25 per hour.
Job search sites
Meanwhile, you can also find apprentice positions through major job boards, such as Indeed and ZipRecruiter. Likewise, a search on these sites for apprenticeships found dozens of positions paying between $36,000 and $50,000 per year. These spanned multiple industries, from mechanics to medical technicians.
In some cases, however, job applicants need to complete certification programs before they can apply. There are a number of places where you can get these certifications, including community colleges and non-profits like JVA, Countryman-Quiroz notes.
Shop around
Be sure to shop around. Certification programs can vary widely in cost. Some offered through for-profit colleges can cost almost as much as a college degree. Others are free or very low cost — setting you back just hundreds, not thousands, of dollars, she adds. And still others are done in conjunction with employers, who pay you to learn on the job.
“You have to be your own advocate,” Countryman-Quiroz says. “Don’t be afraid of asking questions and admitting what you don’t know.”
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