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Hey I did you a favour man. At least your brain cells aren't dying 🤣
We actually need to ne pushing for people to go to college more for certain things like RNs and medical care in generally.  Not saying trade school isn't a bad things at all but there's a huge shortage in RNs. And teachers to. >

The same concept applies to trades. >

The people who keep advocating for trade schools forget that what they're doing is exactly why college degrees lost so much value and became so expensive. Everyone starts wanting a trade certificate or whatever? Suddenly a lot of sleezy ones pop up, valid ones jack up the price and introduce feature-creep, etc.  
Not to mention that not only are you increasing your competition in the trades (thus driving down profits), you're also eliminating customers because everyone who gets that certification and moves to a completely different field is now someone who will fix their own shit instead. >

Keep in mind this is the internet and people often are black/white about issues. I think it's great that trades are being pushed more though. I'm not in a trade, but most of my friends are and it's done them well. I may be wrong, but I suspect a lot of the people are speaking from a grass is greener perspective. Ie. they were a college grad whose post grad didn't turn out as expected so they start idealizing trade work.
You are right that a lot of the rhetoric resembles what was sold to kids post 2000s on going to college. You also cannot just waltz in to trade school and walk out with 80k job. This is the same thing as going into college and claiming everyone can walk out getting a 6 figure IB job by studying finance. Trades are still a form of skilled labor just like IB is and some are more cut out for it than others, some make better decisions while in school etc. As of now we DO need more people in trades, but some people are simply not cut out for it and/or would be better suited going to college as we do need in white collar fields as well. >

Are there stats on how many people stay in their respective trades after leaving vocational schools? Because I swear I know only like two people who work in the trade they learned while in vocational school. Almost everyone else I know that went never did anything along the lines of what they studied in school. >

This is why I'm against trade schools for high school students. My experience was a lot of money was put into the programs and nearly none of the students ever continued in the trade for very long. Most were not employed in the trade they trained in a year after graduation. The exceptions were the certified nurse's assistant and veterinary technician program. 
We had a program that trained high school students to be certified in aviation manufacturing. It was rather expensive. The kids just weren't leaving high school and going straight into aviation manufacturing. Same thing when the carpentry and the plumbing and the agriculture programs. The students might learn plenty. But it's not translating into them jumping into the professional workforce post high school. >

You’re 100% correct. Medicine specifically has a huge disparity in labor and can only be solved through easing higher education in medicine. >

Exactly, Trades should definitely get more love than they do and are a better option for a lot of people, but for some people college would be a better option. Neither are a golden ticket. 
People seem to understand that not everyone is cut out to be an investment banker, software engineer, lawyer, doctor, or work a white collar professional office job. The same concept applies to trades. A nerdy kid who was good at school, never had experience with blue collar labor and primary interests are video games and browsing reddit wouldn’t have better chances in a trade than college for the most part. >

It literally depends on the person on whats best >

That's what I mean bro. It depends. Every job is important and not one is superior or inferior. My comment was more on those that looked down on the option of college/university just because they go to trade school which shouldn't be the case >

All about how you make use of it.
Your point contains within it the idea that college/university is not automatically superior to trade school. I applaud and agree with that sentiment.
So if I talk a lot about trade school as a viable option, which I do, then it's from a place of, too many people dismiss it out of hand and insist on sending every kid to college. Whether it's a good fit for their plans or not. And irrespective of where our job vacancies in the most urgent need of filling, and often the lucrative incomes with the best job security, are increasingly found for young people on finishing their schooling. >

I think that very much depends. You can get degrees in a lot of vocational skills and I do think that's inferior to a trade school. 
Also your examples were an interesting choice. 
Nursing (in the UK) never used to be a degree. It used to be a more vocational skill based role and was a lot more hands on and taught nurses how to actually do the job. 
Also accountancy degrees are useful but only leave you part qualified as a chartered accountant (again I know speak from within the UK), there are other courses you can take, often while working, and often paid for by your employer, that will give you accountancy qualifications and you can become a fully qualified chartered accountant without ever setting foot in a university.
So whereas I agree with you in principle, I think the system is more complex than that and it's easy to be fooled into the importance of a degree. 
For the record I am also saying this as someone with multiple degrees. >

Nursing where I'm from is a degree. Interesting take on the accountancy. I have friends that are doing accountings like ACCA etc. in University and have to get industrial experience in their hours as interns so that when they graduate, they are already qualified as well. I always thought accountings was a University exclusive thing >


Nursing where I'm from is a degree

It is now In the UK. But wasn't when my mum qualified and her opinion was always "these new nurses think because they have letters after their name, they're too good to wipe arses!". 
But yeah again certainly in the UK ATT, ACA and ACCA are all qualification you can choose to do outside of university. >

I think it depends entirely on what you're studying, people with degrees seem to think that the dagree alone means they can just walk into a high level job with no prior experience. I'm the only one in my friend group who didn't go to college or uni, but I'm also the only one that has a decent job, It's mainly because they apply for jobs that request prior experience, so they get turned down and then they say its unfair.
Most my pals are musicians and now they wanna go into teaching because their music degree isn't getting them anywhere, so they're essentially continuing the circle of no progress.
I'm not saying degrees are useless, there are plenty of jobs that 100% require them, but experience is also important, college and uni is free in my country so money isn't really a factor.
One thing I completely disagree with in your post is in regards to engineering, as someone who got into it via apprenticeship I would 100% recommend it, the technical knowledge is very important, but having practical experience is vital to not making dumb mistakes.
Tldr: I think college and uni is missold to people as a ticket to guaranteed employment, and it simply isn't. If you're aiming for a specific career you should look into what gets you there, not just what educational road you should take. >


I think it depends entirely on what you're studying, people with degrees seem to think that the dagree alone means they can just walk into a high level job with no prior experience

Nobody I know expected to walk into a high level job with no prior experience. Everyone expected at least an entry level job given their four years of training/specialization in a field. I remember graduating college and seeing a bunch of shit claiming to be "entry level" requiring 2\~4 years of employment on top of the degree and a mediocre to poor salary.  
College & university definitely is missold, though, and too many businesses require degrees where they aren't relevant. >

Yeah I'm speaking mainly from my personal experience, I know not all college or uni graduates expect to just walk into a high level job, I've just got a lot of pals who think like that, and it's frustrating. 
I think it really does depend on the job, like for instance you would want a doctor to have decent experience and a degree, whereas what I do (parts manager for VWG) experience is vital, I went in with no qualifications and eventually surpassed my manager and took his job, not intentionally, he just made a lot of mistakes that I tried to warn him about, but because he had more qualifications he believed he knew better, evidently he didn't. 
I think the biggest load of shiz is when companies want a degree, 10 years experience, but also don't wanna hire older people or pay a fair wage. I'm looking to change jobs and the amount of listings I've seen asking for the moon on minimum wage is ridiculous. >

Mechanical engineering is BASICALLY a trade school. >

I believe I'm learning more of the theoretical side and how it works + a bit of practical work with industrial placement internships. Trade school is heavily practical I believe and less emphasis on the calculations and the why. I want to go into Masters for Automotive Engineering so theoretical knowledge is needed if I want to innovate and research something + having experience through my internship. Trade school people don't really do the R&D/innovation from what I've seen and heard >

Nurse here myself, bachelors, I can tell you there's plenty of nursing theory that's very abstract from the practice.  But on that note I think you're onto something, but your point is a little dulled by your specific example. >


but your point is a little dulled by your specific example.

Ah damn. Mind telling me which part? Pretty lost in my own point >

Well mechanical engineering is a relatively vocational degree.  If you start talking about things like statistician or physicist, the line blurs a little more between academics and job training.  If you want to go to the extreme you'd use philosophy or theoretical mathematics. >


You saying my mechanical engineering degree (final year soon) will be useless in the future?

No, just that you paid a lot of money to get a degree which many others will have. Meaning you will be in fierce competition for that smaller pool of jobs.
Meanwhile, Barry who went to trade school got a trade without going into debt, looked for work in a larger pool of jobs which typically has less competition. He can then quite easily take that trade and start his own business. Be his own boss and make bank while being a respected business owner. While the mechanical engineer will typically have to fight for more pay and will typically find it harder to be self employed.
We need both as they are both very important. But you have to admit that trade school seems to be the better looking option atm for young people with school fees being sky high and everyone and their mother going to uni.
Edit: I'd also like to add that Barry most likely learned his skills on the job so has experience and references from people in the field when looking for a job, where as a mechanical engineer looking for work likely has 0 experience and just knows theory or had to fight hard for a spot on a year in industry at uni. >

I agree on you as there pros and cons to both education paths. By the way, engineer graduates have experience with their degrees. It is required that we get industrial placements and internships in our desired field but of course the experience won't be as long as trade students. No engineering student will graduate with 0 experience. It will be on our CV as well.
I plan on getting my Masters in Automotive Engineering when I get my Bachelor's in ME. In the future, I would like to innovate and research more on cars. This is where degree and trade schools differ.
Trade school students, from what I know, don't do R&D or innovation with the theoretical knowledge because they are mostly practical heavy. Whereas us engineering students are theoretically adept with some experience here and there. Learning how to use CAD/Solidworks, other engineering programs, applying critical theory thinking on how to problem solve etc. I'm currently interning at a car company so I'm quite happy.
So in conclusion, people that want to research and innovate while having working experience should get a degree and those that want to be technicians and be more hands-on should do trade school. This is why I said trade schools are neither superior nor inferior. We need each other. >

All are important the problem starts when one starts acting better than the other. The doctor needs the carpenter to build his roof so he can have a place to work and the carpenter needs the doctor when he gets ill or hurt >

I wish people would stop getting on this sub and posting reasonable positions.