Gen Z Taking Up Trades
The Brian Lehrer Show
WNYC
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2024
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Te-Ping Chen, Wall Street Journal work and work culture reporter, talks about her reporting on more young people are going off the college track in favor of the plumbing and electrical trades.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYc, |
| 0:02.0 | Welcome, I'm |
| 0:04.0 | Bridget Bergen. |
| 0:10.0 | It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. |
| 0:13.0 | Welcome back everybody. I'm Bridget Bergen, filling in for Brian today. |
| 0:17.0 | Now we turn to higher education. |
| 0:19.0 | The pandemic upended how kids think about higher education, the percentage of students who enrolled in college after graduating high school fell from 70% in 2016 to 62% in 2022, |
| 0:33.0 | according to the Wall Street Journal. |
| 0:35.0 | So where are all the kids going? |
| 0:37.0 | Well, enrollment in vocational training programs |
| 0:40.0 | is surging as overall enrollment in community colleges and four-year institutions has fallen. |
| 0:45.8 | It rose 16% last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking |
| 0:52.1 | such data. |
| 0:53.0 | Students are increasingly interested in jobs like HVAC maintenance, vehicle maintenance, and construction to get them in high-paying jobs right out of school with very little student debt. |
| 1:05.0 | Joining us now to discuss her latest reporting is Taping Chen Wall Street Journal |
| 1:09.7 | work and work culture reporter. |
| 1:12.0 | Hi Taping, welcome to WNYC. |
| 1:14.0 | Hi, thank you for having me. |
| 1:16.0 | And listeners, we're wondering if we have any young tradespeople of those |
| 1:20.0 | currently in a trade program tuning in now. |
| 1:23.0 | We're calling all new electricians, HVAC, plumbers, or carpenters. |
| 1:27.0 | Why did you choose trade school? |
... |
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