by Elliott Inscho, Shaler Area HS
When thinking about next steps after graduation, many people just assume that college is the next logical step. While colleges and universities have many benefits, there is another option that can be overlooked: trade school.
Last month, students from Mr. Brian Marree and Mr. Craig Wells’ classes took a field trip to explore the advantages of pursuing a trade upon graduation. The classes visited local electrician and sheet metal worker unions, where former SAHS students gave them insight into their fields.
“We have students in just about every single trade that’s out there,” Mr. Marree said. “It’s cool when our students can talk to former students. It brings it a little closer to home. Sometimes you read the pamphlet and it doesn’t mean a whole lot, but when you talk to somebody that graduated here five or ten years ago that’s doing extremely well, it’s pretty cool for the kids to see that.”
The Pittsburgh region has around 15 different trade unions. Each union specializes in a different trade and offers a training program called an apprenticeship.
“The apprenticeship program is a four to five year training program that the students would attend,” Marree said. “They get paid while they work, they get paid while they attend class. Once they graduate from the apprenticeship program, they become what’s called a journeyman.”
There is a financial upside to these programs. While the traditional college degree can cost upwards of $100,000 or more, students involved in a trade school can get their education without the worry of taking on student debt. In many cases, students even end up getting a degree to go with their trade education.
“The best part about it is that it doesn’t cost a dollar,” Mr. Marree said. “It’s literally free. They’re actually counting [the apprenticeship programs] as CCAC credits, so most of the students basically get handed an associates degree because all their apprenticeship classes add to the amount of courses you would take for an associates degree at CCAC.”
It’s no secret that college is expensive, but prices for a degree are higher than ever. That can become an issue for students when their starting salaries aren’t rising at the same rate.
“If I was to go back to CalU to be a Tech Ed teacher, I’m probably looking around the $80,000 mark,” Marree said. “Your starting salary in Western PA is somewhere between $45,000 and $50,000. So the tuition has almost doubled, but the pay hasn’t really followed that.”
Not only is there no cost to attend the programs, but students are also paid to work as an apprentice. Students can expect to have an initial wage around $20 per hour, which could become $35 to $50 per hour after the completion of their apprenticeship. These competitive wages come as trade workers are in higher demand than ever before.
“There’s been a lot of retirements in the trades recently. Right now they physically don’t have enough people to fill the positions to cover the retirees,” Mr. Maree said. “It’s to the point now where they’re pulling people out of retirement that have retired from the trades, and they’re bringing them back as superintendents to run big projects. The need is there for skilled workers to fill the positions of the people that are going to retire, and eventually move up in the hierarchy.”
There aren’t many fields that can offer the benefits that a trade apprenticeship program can. When looking at education after high school, the trades prove to be an overlooked option that can set students up for success.
“You can walk in, get four to five years of training for free, make money, and four to five years out of high school, you’re making $80,000 to $100,000 a year,” Marree said. “That rate is not gonna go down. That’s only gonna go up.”
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