Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) is rethinking the merits of university education. Only about one-third of American adults think university education is "very important", according to Gallup, down from three-quarters in 2010. Around a quarter of Americans say they have "very little" or no confidence in higher education, citing irrelevant skills and high costs. Average tuition fees for a four-year degree at public universities in America have more than doubled in the past 30 years after adjusting for inflation.
A survey published in June 2025 by the American Staffing Association found that a third of adults would advise school-leavers to attend vocational or trade school—a slightly higher share than would encourage them to attend university. Enrolment in two-year vocational and trade programmes at American community colleges has grown by almost 20% since 2020. The number of active apprentices in America more than doubled from 2014 to 2024, according to America's labour department.
University graduates over the age of 25 still enjoy lower unemployment rates and almost double the median annual wage of high-school graduates. But results vary widely by degree. Those with bachelor's degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics earned a median annual salary of $98,000 in 2024, according to a study at Georgetown University; arts and humanities graduates earned a median of $69,000. A lift technician's median annual salary in America is $106,580. Median annual earnings of electricians are $62,000, but the top 10% make more than $100,000. Top plumbers, boiler operators, aircraft mechanics and electrical power-line installers also earn above $100,000. None of these jobs requires a bachelor's degree, though they do require specialised training.
Blue-collar workers are sorely needed for industries like advanced manufacturing and defence. Almost 60% of new chip-manufacturing and design jobs projected to be created in America between 2023 and 2030 are expected to remain unfilled because of a lack of skilled workers, according to a study by the Semiconductor Industry Association and Oxford Economics. Of those unfilled jobs, 40% are technician roles requiring only a two-year degree. Jensen Huang, the boss of Nvidia, has said that data centres for AI will require hundreds of thousands of electricians, plumbers and carpenters.
In Britain, industry reports estimate a shortage of 35,000 skilled welders, needed to build offshore wind farms, nuclear power plants and submarines. Half of Britain's welding workforce is expected to retire by 2027.
In Switzerland about two-thirds of young people go into vocational training after 11 years of compulsory schooling. The system succeeds because of its "permeability": students can transfer easily between vocational and academic paths. Ursula Renold, an expert in vocational education at ETH Zurich, argues that many other countries promote apprenticeships where trainees get certified to work in a certain industry but cannot use that credential in the education system—a siloed approach she considers "very dangerous". An ideal system should avoid bifurcating students and trainees on different tracks and should let companies take the lead in shaping curriculums and training students in the workplace.
Degree apprenticeships, where students are paid by an employer to pursue a university degree while getting on-the-job training, are emerging as a compromise. BAE Systems takes in more than 5,000 apprentices a year; TSMC recently started an apprenticeship programme in Arizona where process-technician apprentices take community-college courses in nanotechnology paid for by the firm.
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