The following report is by Fortune:
Gen Z has a bad reputation for being work-shy. But new research shows that couldn’t be further from the truth—the youth of today just don’t want a desk job.
That’s because the youngest generation of workers is shunning college (and with it, the prospect of a corporate career) to take up traditional trades like welding, plumbing, and carpentry.
Enrollment in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16% last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018.
What’s more, the same data shows a 23% surge in students studying construction trades in 2023 compared to the year before, and a 7% increase in HVAC and vehicle maintenance and repair programs.
Why the shift? “People are starting to pay attention,” Mike Rowe, the CEO of MikeRoweWorks Foundation, a charity that challenges stigma and stereotypes against no-degree jobs, told Fox Business.
“Parents and kids alike are starting to get the message that trade school is an amazing opportunity with just a fraction of the debt—if any at all—and a clear path to something that looks a lot like prosperity.”
Students Were ‘Sold A Lie’
With college setting students back an average of $36,436 per year, young people today are questioning the return on investment they’ll get on the qualification.
“People are starting to smell a rat,” Rowe quipped, adding that blue-collar jobs “are a straight path to a six-figure job” without the burden of debt.
If you want proof, look no further than the fastest-growing job in the U.S. right now—wind turbine service technician—which pays up to $103,000 a year and doesn’t require a college degree.
What’s more, the median pay for new construction hires was $48,089 last year, compared to $39,520 for professional services new hires, according to data from payroll services provider ADP.
“Gen Z is just starting to realize they’ve been pushed in a direction that frankly doesn’t lead to a place they want to go,” Rowe said.
It’s no wonder that trust in universities has sunk to an all-time low. Meanwhile, millennials (who are the most educated generation in history) feel like they’ve been “sold a lie,” and 24% of Americans with student loan debt say it’s their biggest financial regret.
“What’s sh-tty is, we’re holding up our end of the deal,” 27-year-old Robbie Scott cried in a viral TikTok video that struck a chord with many young people. “We’re staying in school. We’re going to college. We’ve been working since we were 15, 16 years old…doing everything that y’all told us to do so that we can what? Still be living in our parents’ homes in our late twenties?”
So it’s hardly surprising that Gen Z feels disenfranchised with the American dream of working hard at a soulless desk for the next 50-plus years, after wasting their youth studying for what seems like little gain.
Read the rest of the report here.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
The report, however, goes on to still shill for colleges, claiming, “Still, although it may be tempting to “work hard, play hard” straight out of high school, reams of research show that those who want to earn the big bucks need a ritzy college degree.”
There is a whole lot I could say about this, and I can’t cover everything, but I will try to keep it succinct.
I think hopefully the notion that Gen-Z as a whole is “lazy” is simply just a fallacy. I’ve alluded to before that Gen-Z is not lazy, by and large, but rather they see and feel the brunt of all the years of corruption coming to pass, and the breakdown of the system, and how people keep laboring for pennies just to make the 1 and 2% richer, and the failure of their parents to properly prepare, nurture, and instruct them – and therefore lack any real incentivization to keep perpetuating the broken, crooked system. This is not true for all of Gen-Z of course, but the stereotype that they are all lazy is just simply not true. There are some REALLY stupid and entitled idiots in these super progressive cities, but that is not at all indicative of the whole generation.
Though profane, the core of what that one guy in the TikTok video said is true. Gen-Z has exposed the scam that was set up many-many years ago, and now that they are checking out of the humdrum corporate workplace and forging their own paths, and so many out of touch and arrogant “boomers” are freaking out because the Ponzi/pyramid scheme is collapsing. SEE: New Survey Suggests 30% Of Adult Gen-Z’ers Identify With LGBTQIA+, Less Religious, And Unprepared For The Workforce
I’ve shared this video before but it encapsulates how so many Gen-Z’ers are feeling right now.
More Gen-Z’ers are quickly realizing that college is a total scam, and now some of them, thankfully, are breaking the mold and learning how to do more practical skills. I touched on this in my report, “The Collapse Of Credentialism And Higher Academic Prestige, And Appeal To Authority.” People are finally realizing that getting a 4-year degree at some school someplace is a scam in the strong majority of cases, and the debts take forever to payoff, and most of them don’t even land them the job that they got their degree for. Plus, you have to consider the schools and universities have become so ultra-progressive at this point the younger folks are sick of it.
I could say a whole lot more of the economics and societal divide that’s been created, but I’ll save that rant for another day.
[10] And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more; [11] And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; [12] That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. 1 Thessalonians 4:10-12
I never attended trade school, but before I did The WinePress fulltime I was in construction doing drywall (hang, finish, paint), and I had taken some woodworking classes in high school, among a collection of miscellaneous things I’ve studied and know how to do.
I just spoke recently that building skillsets will be tantamount in the times to come, I believe, and learning hands skills, whatever they maybe, maybe of some sure use down the road. The country is going to collapse in short order: that’s a lock and you can expect it, but building up knowledge and skills now I believe will payoff later. SEE: The Wisest Thing You Can Do With Your Money – Growing Knowledge And Gaining Skills
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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This is wonderful news! Good on Gen Z, they see the writing on the wall left by the millennials (I being one – and a college dropout with no degree glory to God) the boomers and by Gen X. College is a scam, a bigger scam than the lottery. 90 percent of them graduating with degrees as useless as a cup holder on a skateboard, five figures of debt, living in squalor some of them, and working at McDonald’s, Baskin Robbins, Chick-fil-A, or waiting tables at Olive Garden.
Gen Z, you are doing the right thing! Go to trade school, get some skills, work hard, and/or start a business.
I guess this verse applies:
25) As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
Proverbs 25:25
When I was coming up, many adults told us white collar jobs were best. Thus, many went to college versus trade schools. Now, all my blue collar friends have long ago paid off homes, live well, while my friends that drank the Kool-aid, professionals, i.e., Dentists and the like, are retirement age, but can’t retire because they owe ~500,000! They will die on their feet.
Yes – blue collar is the way to go.
Trades is where it is at
I have a very successful landscaping business and been in horticulture industry for many decades and never went to college for but rather reading and going to a trade school ready me for a career that i love.