Marcus Bruce leaned against the tables where he and his carpentry students paused to answer questions from local middle schoolers on a recent tour of the University of the District of Columbia’s workforce campus.

The young students didn’t hold back:

“What happens to student loans? Will they take it from your check if you don’t pay?”

“Will your family have to pay back your student loans if you die?”

For Bruce and the other instructors at UDC’s Workforce Development and Lifelong Learning campus, the questions from the students reflect a generation already weighing the costs of higher education alongside the promise of quicker pathways into the workforce.

“If you look all around this city, you’ll see they’re building everything,” Bruce told the students. “Having a trade is an awesome and beautiful thing, and guess what? They’ll always need people with skill.”

As faith in traditional four-year degrees is falling, enrollment in trade schools has increased.

Apprenticeship programs and enrollment in two-year, trade-focused college programs have risen almost 20% since 2020, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. With many university graduates stuck in debt and unemployed, trade schools and programs are offering alternatives. Blue-collar jobs can provide more stability and salaries to match, Bruce and others say.

UDC’s workforce development program is free to Washington residents and has offered an alternative to a traditional four-year college experience for nearly 17 years. Construction is among the six pathways in the trades program. The university’s workforce training programs have expanded steadily, and the waitlists for courses have grown each semester.

Nationally, the construction industry has a projected need of 2.2 million new workers, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Bruce and his colleagues want to ensure students from the city’s public schools benefit from the potential opportunities locally and beyond. Across the nation’s capital, construction companies have planted their flags on sites of future development projects such as housing, grocery stores and outdoor shopping destinations.

Read the full article about connecting Black students to higher-paying trade jobs by Alecia Taylor at Capital B News.