27-05-2025
Trade schools allow some high school graduates to make big money instead of racking up college debt
Some high school students are skipping college and learning trades, then graduating with $70,000-a-year job offers.
Marcos Tigreros is still weeks away from graduating high school, but the 18-year-old already has a plan for the future.
'I just got a job at a company called FullTech International and they make nuclear containers,' Tigreros said.
He's one of 24 students in the welding program at Father Judge High School in Philadelphia that are graduating with job offers.
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'In these type of blue collar jobs. All these jobs can generate six figures at a very young age with no college debt,' Welding Director/Instructor Joe Williams said.
'I wasn't the best studier, so it was hard for me to get good grades, and I didn't know how the college route was going to go for me. But when I saw the welding program, I saw an opportunity to be successful like other college students without needing that degree,' Tigreros said.
With one in four adults in the US owing student debt from college, trade programs offer an alternative by giving teens hands-on training outside of traditional classrooms.
'You don't hear kids waking up saying, 'I want to be a longshoreman, I wanna be an electrician, I'm gonna be a welder.' There's definitely a shortage in people going into the trades. So that makes the demand and the pay skyrocket for us,' Williams said.
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Anthony Calabrese, 18, attended the Heavy Metal Summer Experience in Chicago last year.
The free summer program introduces kids around the country to sheet metal, piping, and plumbing trades.
'I actually had no idea about any of the trades before I got into the program. To get hands-on experience in these fields was awesome,' Calabrese said.
Calabrese, now an employee of Sheet Metal Werks and working towards a union apprenticeship, could be earning $60 an hour in just four years.
'It feels nice to know that I'm wanted and that there's a role for me to fill. That I have a unique set of skills that people want and are looking for,' Tigreros said.
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