From Apprenticeships to Microcredentials, Why Alternatives to College Are Gaining Popularity - Kerry McDonald, the 74

For Chase Buffington, college isn’t a priority right now. The 18-year-old from Enfield, New Hampshire is currently a high school senior working as a paid apprentice for a local heating, ventilation, and air conditioning company, a job that he plans to continue full-time for at least the next several years. Buffington is representative of a growing number of young people, especially men, who are eschewing a college degree for alternatives, such as apprenticeships, entrepreneurship, and microcredentialing. While overall college enrollment numbers have roughly rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, surveys indicate that more of today’s high schoolers are valuing on-the-job training over a traditional four-year college degree. Polls also show that Americans overall have soured on higher education in recent years, with only 36% saying in a recent Gallup report that they have a “great deal/quite a lot” of confidence in the sector, compared to 57% in 2015. 

https://www.the74million.org/article/from-apprenticeships-to-microcredentials-why-alternatives-to-college-are-gaining-popularity/