Young Americans success hides in plain sight not college, but the trades

Jacob Palmer, age 23, is debt-free, fully independent and running his own electrical business in North Carolina.Palmer began as a $15-an-hour apprentice and spent his first years out of high school accumulating the hours needed for a North Carolina electrical contractor license.At 21, he passed the state licensing exam and opened Palmer Electrical one month later.His one-man operation grossed $175,000 last year. “I don’t owe anybody anything,” Palmer told Fortune.Like Palmer, Tanner Burgess questioned whether the college-and-desk-job route was his only option.He chose welding instead — and after completing a nine-month training program, was helping install pipes for a new hospital in San Diego by age 20.He expects to earn six figures after five years in the trade.“It feels good at the end of the day,” Burgess told The Wall Street Journal.“I’m physically doing something, and there’s a sense of completion.”Palmer and Burgess chose a different path from the four-year college track we’ve sold to most young Americans as the only way to build a good life.In fact, many college graduates are now buried in debt and struggling to find work that pays enough to buy a home, much less support a family.And as it happens, the industries that propelled opportunity for Palmer and Burgess are hiring.Electricians keep the grid running; welders build and maintain the pipelines, refineries and plants that keep the country powered.But we’re short of workers for these roles — and that means the success young people long for is hiding in plain sight.These are well-paying careers rooted in our communities, offering an increasingly rare path to an independent life.Right now, America’s energy industry desperately needs electricians, welders, pipefitters, mechanics, equipment operators, technicians, engineers and other skilled professionals.By 2035, two out of every three new energy workers will be needed simply to replace retirees.Across advanced economies, there ...