How to Jumpstart Your Career by Attending Trade School

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If you are a recent high school graduate, or simply looking to start a new career, trade school may be something you want to consider. Trade school can arm you with the right skills, and put you on the fast track to a lucrative career as a welder, pipefitter or other type of skilled tradesperson. Vocational trade schools are excellent options to explore for several reasons.

  • They are less expensive than four-year institutions, so you get out of school with less student loan debt hanging over your head.
  • It often only takes 6.5 to 14 months to finish your education, so you can get started on your career much sooner. Each person and every program is different, so the actual time it takes you to finish will depend on how you work and your program of study.
  • You can skip unnecessary courses and jump right into the hands-on training you need to thrive at your chosen trade.
  • Many skilled trade workers are in demand, so employers are willing to pay above average wages when they hire them.

In Demand

Apparently, skilled trades workers don’t come a dime a dozen anymore. An article published in Bloomberg Businessweek suggests that there is a shortage of welders and other skilled trade workers in the United States. For instance, statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that there are less than 360,000 welders in the United States. This is a significant drop from the 570,000 welders who ruled the industry in the late 1980s.

The Businessweek article also states that the average age for welders is 55. These stats are not just confined to welders. Many occupations that require a high level of theoretical and practical knowledge are finding themselves shorthanded because people just do not have the skills necessary to fill available positions.

Jumping Right into a Career

An article published by CNN Money suggests the nationwide uptick in factory jobs has made skilled laborers a hot commodity.

While a trade school education may not be “prized” in society, people who go this route position themselves for lifelong opportunities to work at above average rates of pay. Another reason is that many employers looking to fill open positions keep tabs on tech school grads so they can snatch them up before other companies do. In some instances, employers line up to claim workers before they even graduate.

Have You Considered a Career in the Skilled Trades?

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Many skilled laborers are offered jobs with salaries that rival or exceed peers with Bachelor’s degrees. For instance, the median pay for a pipefitter, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is slightly higher than $49,000 annually. This is often not the case for those graduating with, for example, a liberal arts education.

If you are looking for a way to jumpstart a career, consider going to trade school. The skills you will learn can help you land a job in a relatively short time-span. Because people are not beating down the door (yet) to acquire manual labor jobs, the field is wide open for those who want the opportunity to earn good money and work consistently.

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