Lesson #1: Choose a Trade Skill

How to Get into Trade School

Length: 30 mins

❏ Explore different types of available trade skills
❏ Select a trade skill based on interests

❏ Reading: Key Ideas and Details
❏ Reading: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
❏ Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration
❏ Language: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

❏ Numbers and Quantity: Quantities

What Is Trade School?

Do you have any work experience? Are you working now? Have you worked in the past? What did you do? Tutor: Share your own career and professional journey and talk about why you chose your occupation.

Trade school (sometimes referred to as vocational school, technical school, or vocational college) is a post-high school institution that’s designed to give students the technical skills to prepare them for a specific occupation.

Trade schools prepare students for work in their chosen field and occupation. Trade schools often provide work experience throughout the program. 

Unlike a four-year college, students do not graduate from a trade school with a bachelor’s degree. At the end of the program, students can get a diploma or certificate acknowledging they successfully completed it.

Program lengths vary, but typically, they range from anywhere from 8 months to 2 years. Trade school degrees are much shorter in length than college degrees.

After trade school, you can get a job immediately in the field of study.

For example, if you study cosmetology, you can become a cosmetologist.

Here are some jobs you can start with a degree from a trade school:

  • Electrician
  • Plumber
  • Welder
  • Aircraft Mechanic
  • Cosmetologist (Hair & Beauty)
  • Chef
  • Construction manager
  • Massage therapist

Trade school programs are the shortest; they run from less than a year to up to 2 years as opposed to community colleges and four-year colleges. Many trade schools are for-profit businesses. The focus of trade schools is on giving students hands-on experience directly related to a specific job they are interested in doing. At the end of a program, they can get a diploma or certificate, prepare for a licensing exam, or become an apprentice or journeyman in a skilled trade. Admission is mostly open enrollment. There is really no extracurricular involvement or on-campus culture at trade schools. Students only attend their classes and get their professional training.

Time. A bachelor’s degree typically takes a student 4 or more years to complete versus a trade school, where earning your degree could take 2 years or less! 

High Demand. Most programs/jobs are in high demand in the workforce.

Cost. It costs the average American $127,000 to earn a bachelor’s degree. At a trade school, it costs students an average of just $33,000 to earn a degree.

Rolling Applications. There are always multiple start dates for programs.

Job Experience. Not only are you getting an education, but you are also getting a lot of hands-on training in your field to build your confidence and experience.

Career Services. Trade schools help students with resume composition,  networking skills, interview skills, and even connecting them to jobs!

Choose-a-Trade-Skill-WorksheetDownload

How do you feel about the trade skills based on the test results? Do they make sense? Do your current and/or past jobs match these?

What’s Next?

New concepts covered and activities completed:
TODAY: Lesson #1: Choose a Trade Skill

  • Available trade skills


NEXT WEEK: Lesson #2: Choose a Trade Career