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Trade bound vs. college bound


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Hi everyone,

 

My oldest is almost 16 and for several years he's been saying he wants to be an electrician. I'm struggling with the possibility of not going college-prep (just in case) but would also like to give him the opportunity to get a head start in the career he wants. Has anyone here done this? Any advice? Tips? Regrets?

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I have several friends who have homeschool graduates in the trades. I would have been fine with that for either of mine, but both have aspirations that require college.

 

If it were me, I'd keep up the academics at a reasonable college prep level while investigating trade school.

 

DH actually went to a vocational high school, and then did trade school but had a career-ending injury in his 30's. Thankfully he was able to go into a logistics job related to his trade which ultimately led to much more because he get involved in budget and finance as part of that. Later he took on broad strategic planning issues on a multi-national scale. The only way he could do that was that he's an excellent writer and is a life-long reader. Nearly everyone else he knows doing that sort of thing has an MBA.

 

If he had not been as academically-oriented despite the lack of higher education, it would have been hard for him to retool.

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Are you sure you can't still do college prep and allow him to get that head start he wants? What's involved in him starting to pursue his desires now?

 

A basic college prep course isn't too difficult to achieve--most state colleges want to see 4 years of English, 3-4 years of math, 3 years history, 3 years science, 2-4 years of the same foreign language, and some specify a fine arts elective or two--but beyond that, there's a lot of flexibility with elective credits (this is 16-19 credits--a lot of kids graduate with 24-28 credits, so that's quite a few other classes he could take based on his interests).

 

I like to set my kids up for as many options as possible. (And I'll be honest--I've not really understood the rush to get a student starting college classes before they graduate high school. Great if a student is really ready to move on but not necessary for many--so I guess I wonder the same thing about a trade--is it really necessary to start working towards that before he graduates from high school? There may be advantages that are worth considering--that's something I'd want to carefully think through. But I think there's a lot of value in a college-prep highschool education, even if, and sometimes especially if, a student is not going on to college.)

 

If there are advantages to starting earlier and it's not possible to finish the bare bones of college prep while starting earlier, then I'd probably still follow his passion for going into a trade. If he changes his mind later, there are ways to fill in any gaps (like starting at a community college and then transferring, etc...)

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I do not see a dichotomy between a college prep education and a head start on becoming an electrician. A basic college prep education is not that difficult to achieve and not that time consuming. Look at the requirements of your state U; ours requires only 17 credits.

For a future electrician, I recommend working on strong math skills and taking physics.

In order to head start his career, I would inquire about local vocational programs and seek out apprenticeship opportunities; both might, however, not be available until age 18. In the mean time, finding a part time job that involves assisting with electrical work might be an option.

Edited by regentrude
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I think trades is an excellent choice! I agree with others who say you can also do college prep work, but it might not have to be on a super competitive level... just keeping options open. I also recommend business degrees (associate, minor for a bachelor, or a 1-year certificate, or as many relevant classes that can fit in as electives for other majors) to just about everyone. Especially if he might go into business for himself. I see so many talented creatives and tradespeople who barely make any money not due to lack of ability but rather poor business skills. And I have also seen mediocre or worse people make fortunes just on salesmanship and marketing skills.

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My son actually did this. He continued with college prep courses (nothing Ivy League but state school). He worked part time with an electrican we know from age 16 when he was able to get his apprentice license. He didn't get his journey man- he joined the navy instead. However it has served him well. It's a great skill to have as this man has more work than he is able to keep up with. 😉 He makes s nice living for his family.

 

Adding that I agree with Rebel Yell as well. Get a business degree- it will help in the long run.

Edited by Free Indeed
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Not a problem to go this route. As all the previous posters have said, just keep your graduation credits college prep*, and then, for a head start, check out what your options are for taking a few courses as dual enrollment at your local Community College that would be the intro level courses towards training and certification as an Electrician. Not only do those credits count as college credits, but you count them on your high school transcript as Electives or Vocational-Technical credits.

It looks like Electronics Drafting is a related field with a high salary, so if your local Community College doesn't offer Electrician courses, maybe look into CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) and other courses in the Electronics Drafting field to widen DS's future prospects.

At least in our area, to become an Electrician requires a lot of Apprenticeship hours, and you have to have graduated from high school (or have a GED) before you're eligible for Apprenticeships. 

Check out this link on How to Become an Electrician (this is a website that tries to get you to sign up for info at specific schools, so just ignore that part, and glean from the informational part). And also the general info on the occupation of Electrician from the US Bureau of Labor website of the Occupational Outlook Handbook is quite useful.

* = College Prep: completion of a min. set of high school credits for admission to a university:
4 credits = English
3-4 credits = Math (up through Alg. 2; some colleges want up through Pre-Calculus)
3 credits = Science
3 credits = Social Studies (Amer. Hist. required as 1 credit by many colleges)
2 credits = Foreign Language
1 credit = Fine Arts
4-8 credits = Electives (this is where you can do dual enrollment of Vocational-Technical credits that will be working ahead towards Electrician or related field -- typically a 1-semester college dual enrollment course = 1 credit (year) of high school)

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

Edited by Lori D.
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On the CC thing-if you can't do the trades classes due to DE limits (I know some of the schools here have a limited list), see whether non-degree status would work. Here, that means you don't get DE funds-but you also are not required to take just DE classes, and Non-degree get to register before DE. If CC is fairly inexpensive, it can be a good option.

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Thanks everyone! I should've added what we've been using for curriculum. Heart of Dakota for history, he'll have biology and chem done this year, MUS/TT for math, Easy Grammar Plus & Essentials in Writing for each grade, and I forget what else...it's 1:30am here. lol We've been holding off on foreign language but know he'll do 2 years of spanish. Anyways, I guess I was thinking if we dropped advanced classes that he'd have more time to focus on other things that would give him experience. I have no intention of stopping our course, but was thinking we could go easier? I guess I figured that by going with easier classes, it would then "not" be college prep. Looks like I was totally wrong. He's a typical 1st born, but a dreamer - he has several business ideas that he wants to try and I was thinking we could free up some of his time. I think that'll be possible now!  All I know is owning a business - my dad has owned a machine shop since before I was born and I own a photography company. lol It's most definitely in the blood! 

 

Lori D. - those links were awesome! Thank you!! It led me to 2 local colleges that have electrical certificates! Bonus - that they count towards the hours required of an apprentice! 

 

Anyways, he's just a sophomore, so I think I may contact the colleges and talk with them to see what they want to see on his transcripts. That way, I won't worry about if I'm giving him enough. 

 

Again - THANK YOU - to everyone! You've put this mama's heart at ease! 

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Just to note... my younger brother is currently finishing up getting his commercial electrician's license through an apprenticeship program (he took the slow route to adulting...). I don't know a ton about it, but his program and all the programs he considered involve getting a degree as part of the program. He has to take all these courses that are just as demanding as college courses (I mean, because they *are* college courses...). So going into the trades doesn't always mean not going to college.

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