“Parents are waking up. College doesn’t carry the same [return on investment] it once did because the cost is outrageous, and the outcome is uncertain,” Trevor Houston, a career strategist at ClearPath Wealth Strategies, told Fortune. “Students now face the highest amount of debt ever recorded, but job security after graduation doesn’t really exist.”
Many parents are realizing that while the traditional career path—high school to college to a job—has worked for some, others are looking for something that better suits their career aspirations, Julie Lammers, executive vice president at American Student Assistance, told Fortune.
“Many students today are looking for faster, more affordable routes to the workforce,” Lammers said. “We need to do more to better support and validate those goals.”
Career paths that don’t require a college degree
While it used to feel as though college was the only mainstream option after high school, there are multiple pathways to career success, Lammers said. This can include skilled trades, apprenticeships, career-training programs, bootcamps, industry certifications, and occupation licenses.
Trade jobs are also an interesting and lucrative opportunity for recent high-school grads. These encompass many jobs and different kinds of opportunities, Lammers said, from the construction or the growing energy market to the agriculture and transportation fields.
“The skilled trades may be a more attractive option for a student who prefers hands-on learning or wants to enter the job market sooner than a traditional college degree would allow,” Lammers said.
The good news is the demand for these jobs will only continue to grow, Lammers said.
“An aging workforce in the trades and a surge in demand to meet infrastructure needs, ever-growing real estate demands, and changes to U.S. energy production mean that there are considerably more job openings than skilled workers to fill the need,” she said.
The time is now for students to start thinking about their future career paths, Houston said. It’s important for them to start exploring what their jobs could look like—but there’s no pressure to pick a permanent path.
“Their current stage of life gives them the opportunity to identify what they love while they are free from major responsibilities,” he said. “Experimentation at an early stage will prepare them to build a life based on their true desires instead of following paths set by others.”
