Do you ever wonder, with all the emphasis on the critical need for students to go to college after graduating from high school, whether college is really the right path to take? Will you be disciplined enough to be successful when parents and teachers are not keeping close track of a student’s attendance and study habits? Are you more interested in a targeted education geared to creating and making things and seeing the tangible results of your efforts than receiving a broad education that you will then need to apply in a variety of ways to a variety of careers? With national statistics that say that only 56% of the students who go to four year colleges graduate within six years, and less than thirty percent of the students who go to community college graduate with an associate’s degree within three years, do you worry about the possibility that going to college is not the right answer for you and about you will end up owing a large sum of money through borrowing for a college education you will never complete? Do you wonder if this is the only acceptable route for you to take to obtain a well-paying job that will enable you to receive a solid to upper middle class income? Nationally, out of 100 students who graduate from high school, 29 will graduate from a four year college within six years, 18 will graduate from a community college in three years, and 53 (some after attending a college for awhile) will proceed into jobs for which a college degree is not required. Will there be a solid paying job for these 53 students that will enable them to live in the middle class or higher?

In 1973, 32% of all jobs were held by high school dropouts, 40% by high school graduates, 12% by those who graduated from a community college, 9% by those who graduated from a four year college, and 7% by those with a Masters Degree (two additional years of college). By 2007, these statistics had changed dramatically. 11% of all jobs were held by high school dropouts, 30% by high school graduates, 17% by those with at least some college experience but with no degree, 10% by those who graduated from community college, 21% by those who graduated from a four year college, and 11% by those who graduated with a Masters Degree. What do these statistics reveal? They show that the world of work is changing, that fewer jobs are available for those with a high school education or less. So, getting back to the national statistics mentioned above, what are the prospects for the 53 out of 100 students who eventually seek to go into the workplace without graduating from any college? They may appear, for most of these, bleak.

However, there is another route for students to take to be successful and make very good money. This route is through apprenticeships.

To quote one apprenticeship organization, “The purpose of (learning about apprenticeships) is not to dissuade students from the pursuit of a college education. But rather to make students and parents aware of a pathway that young people can take from high school to adulthood with a rewarding career.” In addition, apprenticeships may be the best route of all the college and non-college routes for students who would like to own businesses themselves.

What are apprenticeships? Apprenticeships generally involve hands-on jobs, such a working with sheet metal, electrical systems, wine making, machines, and heating and cooling systems. (For a complete list) Think these jobs are low tech? Let’s look at the Sheet Metal apprenticeship as an example. Sheet Metal Industry apprenticeships can become Architectural Technicians (where they might design and install a tin roof to weatherproof a church), Commercial HVAC technician (where they might install heating and air conditioning equipment), Industrial Welding Technician (where they work in commercial construction), Testing, Adjusting, and Balancing Technician (where they analyze, adjust, and balance HVAC systems), Service/Refrigeration Technician (where they analyze the performance of cooling and refrigeration systems and make repairs and enhancements), or a roofing technician (where they apply roofing materials on commercial or institutional structures). Think these sound like low-paying jobs? Get accepted into the apprenticeship program, and a student will start at $43,000/year. If a student is successful, he/she will receive automatic pay increases every six months. Within six months of starting, he/she will receive $46,000, $57,000 within a year and a half, $60,000 within two years, $65,000 within three years, and $77,000 within four years. At the end of the apprenticeship, students will be licensed. Many will be in a position to own their own businesses. “27% of people with post-professional licenses or certificates, credentials short of an associate’s degree, earn more than the average bachelor’s degree recipient,” according to a Harvard Graduate School of Education study. Many of these were apprentices.

So we return to our question: what will become of the 53 out of every 100 students who graduate from high school but do not graduate from college? The apprenticeship program might very well be for many of these students. Some of those who go the apprenticeship route will go immediately from high school without going to college, others will go to the community college, discover it is not for them, and go into the apprenticeship route, and others will go to a four year college, discover it is not for them, and move into the apprenticeship program. The important thing is all students and parents (even for those whose children plan to go to college) need to become aware of the apprenticeship track so that they can choose to look into it when it is appropriate to do so.