I’ve owned and operated trade schools for 40 years and Gen Z is onto something: They recognize the value of vocational education
Stephen Tave
November 5, 2025
A recent survey offers a case in point. Only 16% of Gen Z parents now believe a college degree guarantees long-term job security, according to research from Jobber, a home services software maker. Indeed, 77% of Gen Zers themselves indicate that choosing a career resistant to automation is a “top priority.”
The professions that Gen Z parents ranked most “AI-resistant” were plumbers, HVAC technicians, electricians and nurses” – most of whom undergo training at vocational schools. The higher-education sector once stigmatized these trade and technical schools. Vocational schools were, after all, decidedly blue-collar. Mainstream society, generally intent on grooming doctors, lawyers, accountants, scientists, engineers, and computer coders, perceived a student learning a working-class skilled trade as somehow lowly, poorly compensated, a second-class citizen. Vocational schools were regarded as an afterthought, a last-ditch option, offering vastly less prestige than traditional universities, particularly vaunted Ivy League institutions.
