Why Would Young People Today Prefer College And All Of Its Debt To A Trade School

Why don't more people go to trade school?

I grew up the son of an electrician with a grade 9 education. My father got his GED only so he could write his electrical license. He started working for himself as an electrical contractor at 22, worked hard his entire life, and the last thing he wanted was for any of his sons to work as hard as he did.I grew up playing sports and loving math. I didn’t even know how to change a fuse growing up even though my father was an electrician. I went to university to be a doctor, because that is what you were supposed to do, and ended up dropping out after 4 years with no degree. My father needed someone to work for a couple months so I decided to take the work, and that was 12 years ago. I now find myself a licensed plumber and licensed electrician. Didn’t see that coming!I also took a job after starting my apprenticeship as a “Post Secondary Ambassador”. It was a part-time job I could do while training to be an apprenticeship. My role was to deliver workshops at high schools around my province explaining the different avenues for education after high school. These options were University, Apprenticeship, Community College (where trade courses are often offered) or Private Vocational School (trade schools). It is quite scary how many kids were going to university as the default option!Here are some of the reasons I believe trade schools aren’t always considered as an option:Parents pushing them to universityUniversity is marketed as “higher education” while trade schools have no prestige. Plumbers don’t get as many girls as lawyers and the parties in trade school don’t quite match up to frosh week at university.Everyone is following their friendsThey go to university to figure out what career they want to pursue, where as with most college options they need to choose their occupations right out of high school. Don’t know what you want to do? Spend your future earnings at university!They don’t realize that you can take a 4 to 10 month course and start making money right away, instead of waiting 4 years to get their university degree. You are nearly licensed and set in your career when many people, like I was, are still partying with no plan.Kids are pushed to university if they are “capable” of doing well there, not based on what they want to do. All of the bright kids that are more likely to get post-secondary education are pushed towards university, even if they don’t have any interest in being there.