trade school instead of a bachelor's degree

[sanantone]

The author is misinformed. The trades are viable options for decent-paying jobs, but the author could have made this argument without focusing so much on outliers. Most plumbers are not making $90k. There are K-12 teachers making close to six figures, and there is a severe shortage of teachers, but you have to be realistic. Most teachers won't make that much.

On the other forum, I posted an article on a study done on black youth attending trade programs in Baltimore. Most of them chose to attend for-profit trade schools. The percentage who earned certifications was only 31%. The percentage who earned certifications at community colleges was even lower. However, the for-profit students ended up in so much debt for these less than 1 to 2-year programs that they would have been better off just going to a nonprofit college or no college at all. It's a fallacy that trade students don't accumulate debt; they have some of the highest student loan default rates.

The two main reasons why students weren't finishing were that they learned they didn't like the occupation and that they found out that they weren't qualified. There are various reasons why someone wouldn't be qualified for an occupation. A major one is criminal record. Another one is aptitude. Not everyone has the aptitude to repair airplanes. Many people fail to realize that many of the trades require average to above average skills in mathematics and mechanics. If you have low spatial intelligence, you probably aren't going to do well.