More Students Choosing Trade Schools to Fill Skilled Job Gap

The Rise of Trade Programs in Minnesota

Ben Oman earned a construction management degree from the University of Minnesota but didn’t enjoy watching others work. He enrolled in Minneapolis College and now works as a technician at a refrigeration company, fixing walk-in freezers and other tasks, earning $38 an hour.

“I just wanted to do something with my hands that was satisfying personally,” Oman said.

Interest in trade programs, often referred to as career and technical education, has surged across the state and nation. More high school graduates and older adults are seeking well-paying jobs with a less costly and quicker education compared to a bachelor’s degree.

In the Minnesota State system, which includes 33 public colleges and universities, enrollment is up 5% at colleges this fall, with the largest increases at technical schools. Minneapolis College, where Oman studied, has seen a 45% enrollment boost in trade programs over three years.

This trend comes as Minnesotans, like many Americans, question the value of a four-year college degree. This doubt is fueled by rising tuition costs, student debt, and a tough hiring market for four-year college graduates.

Experts predict a shortage of skilled tradespeople as more workers retire and certain industries grow. Todd Bridigum, a welding instructor at Minneapolis College, noted, “I think most people are kind of looking at, ‘OK, well where are the career paths where it’s not going to be just eaten by new technology?’”

As interest grows, the stigma once associated with jobs that don’t require four-year degrees is fading. More young people are choosing training programs that usually take less than two years and prepare them for specific, hands-on jobs. Training programs and the fields themselves are also becoming more diverse.

Dunwoody College of Technology, a Minneapolis private college, has seen a 48% jump in students since 2014. High school counselors, parents of ambitious teens, and students are increasingly attending orientations, according to Cindy Olson, the school’s vice president of enrollment management.

“There’s just more of a curiosity than I’ve ever seen before,” Olson said. “They are ... [saying], ‘Tell me more about alternative pathways that can lead to great careers for my kid.’”

Some school leaders say the resurgence began a decade ago, but there’s been more enthusiasm for trade programs since the pandemic ended. The construction trades, including plumbing, electrical, and HVAC work, have seen especially strong numbers. Minnesota State data shows that, among career and technical programs, health care programs have the highest enrollment in 2025, with registered nursing on top.

Shannon Bryant, Minnesota State’s executive director of workforce and economic development, mentioned growth in areas like manufacturing, welding, aviation maintenance, auto mechanics, cybersecurity, and information technology.

Dunwoody’s electrical construction program has seen a 383% enrollment bump since 2014. Other growing programs include architectural drafting, automotive service, and surveying and civil engineering technology.

The trades, once seen as dirty and physically demanding, may now involve using tablets or sitting at a desk, officials said.

Perceptions about career-focused training, once called vocational education, in high school and beyond are changing, said Karl Ohrn, systems director of Career and Technical Education for Minnesota State.

“The trouble with the term ‘vocational education’ is that, oftentimes, that was a dumping ground for students who couldn’t perform academically in other classes,” Ohrn said, adding that students of color were often automatically tracked into such courses.

Some officials cautioned that there’s a mixed picture related to the trades in Minnesota; some training programs are seeing bumps while others decline, and not all translate into high salaries. At Minnesota State, enrollment in career and technical education programs declined over the last five years by 9%, but has rebounded by 3% since 2024.

Statistics from the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) show the state’s total enrollment in skilled trade programs was 11,607 in 2023, the latest year data is available, up from the previous year, yet still down from 2019.

“The trades” can be hard to define because it can encompass so many things, officials said, including cosmetology and culinary arts in some cases.

Ohrn, from Minnesota State, sees “the trades” as nearly synonymous with “career and technical education,” though he views the latter as more aligned with technology and the future. Others said career and technical education was the umbrella under which the trades fall.

Students may enter the trades directly after completing a training program or by getting an apprenticeship; some last five years or more as an apprentice learns on the job and takes classes too.

Much of the recent excitement and energy around the trades comes from a wider group of people choosing to pursue careers long perceived as being mostly for white, working-class men.

At Dunwoody, officials said they’re seeing more high schoolers with great GPAs who might otherwise have attended a four-year college attending informational events.

“They don’t want to wait another four years before they can be productive,” Olson said.

Much of Dunwoody’s recent growth in the last decade stems from students enrolling just after high school, which has lowered the school’s average student age. But Dunwoody also attracts students who already have a four-year degree, President Scott Stallman said.

At Minneapolis College, the student body in the school’s five trades programs is more diverse than ever, said Vince Thomas, dean of the School of Trade Technologies, and it’s one reason the programs are thriving, along with recent billboard ads.

“We are bringing students into higher education for careers ... that previously were not just underrepresented, they were not represented at all,” Thomas said.

Minneapolis College trains students in aircraft maintenance, bicycle assembly and repair, HVAC and refrigeration, welding, and computer numerical control (CNC) machinery. Programs range from 24 weeks to six semesters.

More women are also signing up for classes and three of the programs have female faculty, he said.

At Dunwoody, 21% of students are female and a quarter of students are people of color. There are more women in engineering programs in particular, and the architecture program is among the school’s most ethnically diverse.

Among the biggest selling points for the trades is earning an attractive salary — and not waiting years to do so. Pay varies by industry, and because the “trades” category can be wide-ranging, average salaries can be challenging to pin down.

DEED doesn’t have a tool displaying only wages for the trades because of that ambiguity, said Alessia Leibert, DEED’s research project manager. In 2025, plumbers made an average of $41 per hour, millwrights earned $34, architectural and civil drafters brought in $33, and construction laborers got $29, according to DEED.

Dunwoody graduates in 2023-24, the latest year with data, made an average of $62,710, and 90% of that year’s grads were employed in their field within six months or so. Among students receiving a two-year degree or a certificate, the average salary drops by about $5,000.

In Minneapolis, Bridigum, the welding instructor, said there’s a waiting list for the program for the first time in two decades.

“It’s amazing where wages have gone,” he said, adding that an average starting salary is $45,000 to $50,000 in the Twin Cities.

Dean Gale, business manager for the Plumbers Local No. 34, said the union offers a 5½-year apprenticeship program, which will pick between 30 and 40 apprentices in January. The union recently bought a building to hold its own night classes.

Demand for plumbers is trending upward and many older plumbers are retiring soon, he said. Journeyman workers, or skilled workers who have done an apprenticeship, make between $53 and $54 an hour. Apprentices start at 45% of that and earn more each year.

“It’s a good time to get in because it’s growing,” Gale said.

At Minneapolis College, Thomas said Minnesota State intentionally only starts or continues programs that pay a family-sustaining wage.

“What we’re really trying to avoid is putting our graduates in a situation where ... they leave still unable to sustain themselves,” he said.

Miles Kaldahl, a Dunwoody student in the machine tool technology program, left North Dakota State University after three years of studying mechanical engineering because it was all lectures and calculations at a desk.

“Machining allows you to flex your creativity,” he said. “Everything in the world is made on machines.”