Students rethink post-secondary education, exploring trade school, college and other options

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- High school juniors and seniors who are starting to think about post-secondary education and opportunities have a few different paths they can take to work in the career they're most interested in.

Now, students are realizing there’s more than one path forward. Instead of automatically committing to a traditional two or four-year university, many are exploring other options that better fit their goals. 

One of those options is trade school. 

Becky Houtchens, a school counselor at Maryville High School, said she’s definitely noticed a shift in recent years. 

“I feel like in the past, students just were expected to plan to go to a traditional college for a variety of reasons, but there has definitely been a shift towards the trade school vocational route,” Houtchens said.  

One of the biggest reasons she pointed to for choosing trade school is the rising cost of college tuition, which can be a real barrier for many families.  

Houtchens explained how students who complete the Missouri A+ Scholarship and attend an in-state school that accepts it can finish a two-year program tuition-free.  

"I also think our students are becoming more and more informed about what is necessary for what they want to do,” Houtchens added.  

In the past, she said, undecided students often went straight to college simply because that was seen as the most successful path.

Now, schools are working to expose students to a wider range of options. 

They bring in guest speakers from different careers and talk about post-secondary paths like two-year colleges, four-year universities and the military.  

For some students, trade school feels like the right fit.

Jackson Dudeck, a senior at Hillyard Technical Center, said he plans to attend trade school after graduation to build on his welding skills. He likes that it’s more specialized.  

"I think it's more specialized, so I think I will learn what I want to know and I am going to need to know for welding,” Dudeck said.  

He’s also looking forward to developing a strong work ethic and working toward his goals.  

“The teachers, they make you work so hard throughout the whole time and just help us with communication and working as a team,” Dudeck said.  

Dylan Mazur, another senior at Hillyard, is planning to follow a similar path, inspired by his family.  

He said sitting in a classroom all day just isn’t for him.  

"I like building stuff, and my dad’s been a welder for 25 years, and my grandpa was also a boiler maker. So that was just something I grew up around, which is what I would like to do after high school,” Mazure said.  

Nolan McGarry is taking a slightly different route. He plans to join the military after graduation, mainly because he’s looking for more structure in his life.  

Still, he hasn’t ruled out welding entirely.  

He said he wants more structure in life, which is the primary reason he wants to go to the military.  

“The military is just about the best thing to do when you need structure. I also wanted to learn more about welding because it is not out of the picture, and I know that the military won’t last forever,” McGarry said.  

Angie Ortiz, a senior, is planning to attend the University of Missouri–Columbia to study civil engineering and eventually pursue a master’s degree in structural engineering  

But that wasn’t always her plan initially.  

“Originally, I was considering a trade school for maybe something tech related, but I saw this class, and I was pretty interested in what they were doing, so I decided to do this,” Ortiz said.  

Since then, she’s discovered a strong interest in structural work. She said the support she’s received and the level of precision she’s learned in the classroom played a big role in her decision to attend a four-year university. 

Payton Johnson, a robotic programming technician at Altec, said that while he did well in school, college just didn’t feel like the right path for him. Instead, he started looking into opportunities through Hillyard and quickly found himself drawn to hands-on work.  

“Graduated from Hillyard, and then I did a tour with Altec and ended up going there, and this was right after the summer of high school. I wanted to get my life started a little quicker and wanted to just kickstart my life,” he said.   

Johnson said the experience has been exciting because it opened so many doors for him at a young age.  

As one of the younger employees at Altec, he’s had the chance to learn from people with years of experience.  

"For me, school helped in jumpstarting this career, so when I got in here, I fit right in. They accepted me, and they taught me, and now I have been here for seven years,” Johnson said.  

Like Johnson, many students who chose a non-traditional path said the biggest advantage has been the hands-on experience they gained along the way.  

They hope those experiences will continue opening doors and help them build successful careers in the future.