For parents and students · Launch League blog
Trade school vs college: how to choose without regret
By Nick Gonzalez, founder, U.S. Air Force veteranPublished
The short answer
Neither is better. Pick the path you are most likely to finish, because the data shows the worst outcome is starting one and stopping halfway. Apprenticeships pay you while you learn but are physically demanding; college raises average earnings but costs more and ends badly if you leave without a credential. Test both before committing.
The finish-line check
The choice that matters is not trade school or college. It is whether you will reach the finish line of the one you pick, and what you would be holding if you stopped halfway. Choose the path where the half-finished version is still worth something.
Is trade school or college better?
Families treat this as a contest. After watching a lot of young people go both ways, I think it is the wrong contest. College is the right road for some students and a trade is the right road for others, and a few do both in sequence. The useful question is which one fits this person, and how to find out cheaply before the expensive part starts.
I spent eight years at a company where we turned co-op students into apprentices and tradespeople into supervisors, so I have seen the trades up close, including the parts the brochures skip. I am not selling you one road.
What does the labor data say?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes earnings and unemployment by education for workers 25 and over. In 2025, unemployment fell as education rose: 4.3 percent for people with a high school diploma, 3.0 percent with an associate degree, 2.8 percent with a bachelor's degree. Median weekly earnings rose with each step as well.
Two cautions. These are averages across every occupation, so they say little about an electrician versus a history major. And the table counts only the highest level completed, which hides the group worth worrying about.
The group the averages hide: started, didn't finish
Look at the row for "some college, no degree." In the same 2025 table, that group's unemployment rate was 3.8 percent, higher than people with an associate degree (3.0 percent) and not much better than a high school diploma (4.3 percent). Earnings sat only a little above the high school level.
That is the case for the finish-line check. Time and money spent on a path you leave early often buys much less than the full version would have. Before you pick, ask what the half-finished version looks like. A certificate or a first-year apprenticeship usually leaves you with a usable skill. Two years of credits toward a degree you abandon often leaves you with debt and no credential.
How does learning a trade actually work?
There are two doors, and they are not the same. Trade school is school: you pay tuition, and you learn in a classroom and a shop. An apprenticeship is a job: you are an employee, you earn while you learn, and you are taught on the job plus classroom instruction.
Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services oversees ApprenticeOhio and says registered apprentices are full-time employees who earn a salary while they learn, finishing with a nationally recognized certificate and without typical student loan debt. It also says some apprentices can be as young as 16, and that Ohio has more than 100 pre-apprenticeship programs for youth ages 16 to 20.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the electrician route as an example: most learn through an apprenticeship that lasts four to five years, with about 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training each year plus technical instruction, and the typical entry requirement is a high school diploma or equivalent. It projects 9 percent growth in electrician jobs from 2025 to 2035.
What Ohio electricians earn and how to startPlumberHVAC technician
The honest downsides of each
The trades are physical. The same BLS page lists cramped spaces, long periods of standing and kneeling, extreme temperatures, work at heights, and lifting up to 50 pounds, and names shocks, falls and burns as common injuries. Overtime and evening work are common. If you picture the job on a bad Tuesday and still want it, that is a good sign. If you picture it and flinch, that matters too.
College costs more up front and the payoff depends on finishing and on what you study. A degree in a field with few openings and a lot of debt is a real risk, not a myth. The honest fix is to look at the pay and openings for the jobs a major leads to before you pick it.
How can Ohio students try both before committing?
Ohio gives high school students ways to test each road cheaply. College Credit Plus lets students in grades 9 to 12 take college courses for credit, so you can find out whether you like college-level work while it is still low stakes. Career-technical programs, through your high school and your district's career center, let you try a trade in a shop before graduating.
Ask your school counselor which pathways your district offers, what each costs your family, and which ones lead into registered apprenticeships.
How to decide: two conversations and a Tuesday
Find two people who do the job you are weighing: one who took the trade route and one who took the college route into a similar field, if you can. Ask each what an ordinary Tuesday looks like, what they would do differently, and what the half-finished version would have looked like.
Then run the finish-line check on each option. If you can honestly say you will finish it, and the half-finished version is still worth something, it passes. Start with the free career quiz if you do not yet know which jobs to ask about. And if the decision keeps turning into a family argument, the Future Ready Sprint is six weeks of one-to-one coaching over video for US$1,295, ending in a written plan and two conversations with people in the field. Do the first two sessions; if you don't think it's worth it, you get the whole fee back.
Questions
Quick answers
- Do tradespeople earn less than college graduates?
- On average across all jobs, higher education goes with higher earnings, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But an average hides a lot: individual trades and individual majors vary widely, so check the pay and openings for the specific job you want.
- Is an apprenticeship better than trade school?
- They are different. An apprenticeship is a paid job with classroom instruction, so you earn while you learn. Trade school is tuition-based schooling. Many trades accept either route, so ask which is common in the specific trade and which employers hire from.
- Can I do a trade and still go to college later?
- Yes. People move in both directions. A skill you can already earn from makes a later degree easier to afford, and Ohio's College Credit Plus lets high school students start earning college credit early.
- How young can you start an apprenticeship in Ohio?
- Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services says some apprentices can be as young as 16, and that the state has more than 100 pre-apprenticeship programs for youth ages 16 to 20.
- What if my parents want college and I want a trade?
- Bring evidence, not a preference: two conversations with people in the trade, what the training path looks like, and what the half-finished version is worth. Parents usually soften when they see a plan with a paid route in.
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Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Unemployment rates and earnings by educational attainment, 2025 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Electricians · Ohio Department of Job and Family Services: Youth Apprenticeship Week release (May 6, 2024) · Ohio Revised Code 3365.03: College Credit Plus eligibility (grades 9 to 12) · Ohio Department of Education and Workforce: Career Tech. Coaching is not therapy, medical, legal or financial advice.