By Shawn Smith
If you are young and still undecided on a career there is another option besides going the college route says HGTV’s Ben Napier.
“People in their 20s and 30s who don’t know what to do with their life, go to trade school,” Napier told viewers on Sadie Robertson Huff’s “Whoa That’s Good” podcast. “Every plumber, every electrician, every carpenter, everybody on all of our crews are like, we can’t find anybody to work.”
The HOMETOWN star shared that one of his carpenters on his show started out as a chef but went into his current field of work when the restaurant closed.
“He came and he had never done any sort of construction work whatsoever, and he got a job, and it pays really well, and …like he’s figuring it out,” the woodworker and entrepreneur stated. “And if he wants to go back to a restaurant, he can, he can still do that.”
Related: Mike Rowe Announces High School Curriculum Focused on Work Ethic
“It’s an interesting time in world history, or in American history right now, where even if you can’t figure it out, there is a way that you can do something until you figure it out,” he added.
Huff echoed those sentiments saying, “the world is big enough for all of the giftings God gave every single person” even if that means going against societal pressures to get the traditional college degree.
“I sat with two moms last week who have college-aged …kids, and they both talked about how hard it is because both of their sons want to kind of just go to trade school, but they feel that intimidation of their friends around them because they’re going to colleges,” she recalled.
Yes, because the mom was like …’ I don’t want him to feel that it matters, like it doesn’t matter.’ But that’s such a real thing.” Huff continued.
Apparently, more GenZers are choosing skilled trade jobs over college.
Enrollment in trade school has increased 20% since 2020 reported NBC News, and the number of 17- to 21-year-olds in vocational training is at its highest since the early ‘90s. A major reason is rising cost of college. Such was the case for electrician intern Mary Millican.
“I started out at a university. They shut down; cost was too much, wasn’t worth it, “she said. “I wanted an essential job, like most Gen z’s, I’m assuming, [and] transitioned into trade school.”
Mike Rowe of the hit show DIRTY JOBS— an ode to blue-collar workers— through his mikeroweWORKS Foundation recently announced that it gave 526 students, totaling over $5 million, work ethic scholarships to pay towards trade school.
“Today, our country is desperate for men and women who got their toolbox together, who are willing to show up early and stay late, who are willing to climb the ladder and build something great for themselves, for their companies and for the country,” Rowe said at a conference, stating that the energy industry alone is needing 3- to 500,000 workers.
As Sadie Robertson Huff pointed out, ultimately, it is about what God has placed on one’s heart whether it’s trade school or a university.
“The plan He actually has is so much bigger than the box that we put Him in sometimes,” Huff said.
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