I’m trying to help my boyfriend decide what he wants to do, so I thought I’d ask here for some input on pros and cons.
My boyfriend’s uncle is offering him an apprenticeship to become a welder. He really wants to do this and prefers hands-on type of work. His mom wants him to go to college and get a degree. My dad was telling him it’d be wise to take the apprenticeship and he can always go to college later on.
We’re going into our senior year of high school, so he wants to make a decision before applying to schools and worrying about all that.
Comments
It depends on what degree subject he’d be taking and the finances. Graduates on average have higher lifetime earnings than people who never went to university but it’s not a done deal. Some courses are absolute arse and leave you borderline unemployable these days.
Tradies can make good money and have the benefit of not racking up huge debts learning their trade.
> He really wants to do this and prefers hands-on type of work.
Discussion pretty much ends there.
We need more people in trades and less podcasts. Its a good thing.
Let him follow his heart. Welding is a tough job but it pays well, and will start paying from day one.
I went to college and now work construction. I feel like going to uni definitely made me a more well rounded person and it’s worth it to go to college.
>My dad was telling him it’d be wise to take the apprenticeship and he can always go to college later on
Other way around.
As a former college instructor/tutor- my “non traditional” students often did far better. There’s a huge difference between “I’m here because daddy said so” and having tried some things and decided personally that you really want it. I did technical college for IT and got my certificates. right in time for the 2008 recession. Didn’t work out. Ended up not just going back to college but all the way to a PhD. It’s not an either or.
A lot of these career fields are facing a looming retirement crisis as all the guys who have been doing it forever are retiring so he’d likely have very reliable employment going forward depending on the exact trade
Welders make bank and there are not enough of them.
Im not a welder, but getting into the trades is the best decision i ever made
My parents wanted me to go to college and I thought I wanted to go to but it was a monumental waste of time, effort, and money. So much time wasted by filler classes that I was required to take that did nothing for me professionally. And now a lot of technology fields are completely oversaturated so getting work is difficult.
I’m talking with some family right now about working for one of them as a laborer to see if it would be a good change for me (they think so but tell me it’s absolutely not going to be easy).
Trades are rough on your body and eventually it does take it’s toll on you but you’re not going to be hurting for work. Everyone always needs good tradesmen.