May 19, 2013
Tallahassee, Florida- August 7, 2012
With the unemployment rate still high, enrollment at trade schools, like Lively Tech, is on the rise.
"We're seeing a tremendous number of college graduates that cannot get jobs that are coming back because the trade fields are open and there are available jobs in the trade market," said Woody Hildebrandt of the Lively Technical Center.
A 2012 Survey conducted by ManpowerGroup says jobs in the skilled trades such as electricians, welders, manufacturing and natural gas and oil fields are in high demand. So are jobs as engineers, IT staffers, Sales reps, and accounting and finance staff.
Employers in these in-demand fields say finding qualified applicants is challenging. Some students say getting the right training is a no-brainer.
"With the industry, and what's going on right now, I decided that I would prosper more in a job to where I was a trade, where I can use my hands, instead of a job to where I'd be getting a degree," said Kevin Harvey, a Welding Student at Lively Technical Center.
Most training programs at tech schools take twelve to twenty four months to complete. With so many jobs available in these fields, a paycheck can be soon to follow.
"I've seen a lot of people from Lively, and kept contact with them after they graduated, and they've found jobs not even a month after they got out," said Joshua Hurst, a Computer Systems Technology Student.
Six years ago there were just over seven hundred students at Lively. Enrollment this year is expected to top over twenty-eight hundred students.
