My wife was a journeyman electrician when I married her 25 years ago, and I have two nephews who are journeyman machinists. My nephews are both in their 20s and are making in excess of $50K a year each. If they had gone to college like their mother (my sister) wanted them to, they would probably be like most of the other college grads whose future is uncertain.
My Dad was a trained machinist who went on to get a Mechanical Engineering degree. He made his living as a design engineer for some big companies then set up on his own. He was always working in his shop creating prototypes to see if his designs would work. It’s just a great skill to have.
That's exactly right. When I got out of the Marine Corps, I had a choice. Go to a four-year college and go back to living with my parents in the meantime or acquire a skill fast and get out into the workforce to make some money. So what I did was get a job and then went to night school learning a trade (electronics and computer repair). My daytime employer reimbursed 80% of it and my military college benefit (VEAP) covered the rest. Within two years, I had my certifications and was making as much as any college graduate with zero debt in student loans.
A college education is a good thing and I did end up taking college courses at night and cobbled together enough credits for a business degree which got me on the management track. But my advice to young people today is to only go to college if you are going to learn a profession, such as engineering, law or medicine. Don't waste your money on college loans if you are going to major in something stupid like Liberal Arts, Fashion Design or Sociology. If you got rich parents who will foot the whole bill, go for it, but don't expect to set the world on fire in the workplace.