American colleges are facing a crisis as young people turn to trades

College-schmollage.American colleges are facing an enrollment crisis as more young people opt for vocational schools and trade jobs — drawn by steadier career prospects, higher relative pay and less debt.The number of high school grads enrolling in traditional colleges could decline 13% over the next 15 years, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education predicts.Part of that is due to a decline in birth rates, meaning fewer Americans will be turning 18 in the coming years.However, more and more students are choosing trades and vocational programs over traditional four-year degrees that might end with a mountain of student debt and no high-paying job.“People always ask me, ‘Should I go to barber school?’ And I always tell them to go for it.It’s the best career decision I ever made,” said Benjamin Davis of Los Angeles, who decided to learn to cut hair instead of earning a traditional college degree.He now has a steady job at Floyd’s Barbershop and can find work anywhere he goes — more than can be said for many college graduates stuck with degrees that are more impressive than their real-world job prospects.Unemployment and underemployment among recent college graduates — which had rebounded after the pandemic — has steadily risen in the last four years, according to recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.Meanwhile, enrollment in two-year vocational programs has risen around 20% since 2020, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

“[Trade school] is very direct,” said Cynthia Moreno, 50, who manages a hair salon in California and teaches cosmetology at Pasadena City College.She said her students are attracted to clear, straightforward job prospects in a steady industry — and have none of the stress of huge student debt coupled with the prospect of breaking into the corporate world.Her own son majored in communications (a field with a 52% underemployment rate and median early-career wage of onl...