Trade schools are in a growth phase. Can it last?
Alcino Donadel
March 25, 2025
Enrollment in trade schools has significantly increased since the pandemic, and it’s only expected to continue over the next decade, according to a new report from Validated Insights.
Newly collected data from the higher education marketing agency reveals that new enrollment from 2020 to 2023 grew by 10.5%. Consequently, revenue increased 7.8% over the past four years.
Their popularity isn’t expected to slow down either. Fall enrollment and market revenue is expected to grow by at least 6% though 2030. On the other hand, the broader higher education field is only expected to grow at 0.8%. This might be driven by the fact that 82% of high school career counselors expect demand for “career” education to continue growing faster than demand for “traditional” higher education.
Interest is particularly high out west. Here is a breakdown of enrollment growth by state from 2019 to 2023:
Utah: 16.4%
California: 19.4%
Arizona: 27.8%
Nevada: 33.2%
