As technical jobs are on the rise, numbers of qualified employees are falling. Career and technical education programs are offering reasonable solutions for students, employers and America.
Work boots. Hooded sweatshirt underneath a Carhartt jacket. Tool belt. Truck.
That’s the perception for many of a career after trade school.
Nathan Meyer thought so, too. Although he’d taken classes in high school for CPR and EMT training at Davis Technical College, the local “trade school,” he didn’t consider it an option for his higher education route.
Instead, he took the prescribed path to achieve his goal of earning a doctorate in botany — enrolling at Weber State University.
At the midpoint of his college career in 2016, however, a series of unexpected setbacks in his family required Meyer to pivot.
His wife went into early labor, and doctors discovered four tumors in her brain. The situation compounded — problematic medical diagnoses for the baby and continued seizures for his wife, even after she’d finished chemotherapy and radiation.