We live in an age where high school students are increasingly skeptical of college. Some of them have good reason to be. You can make six figures without amassing student debt and often earn the skills necessary in less than four years.
For people considering modern employment, there are many paths forward. It's not about degrees exactly, but about skills. In this article, we take a look at situations in which high school students can develop job-ready skills quicker than before.
Trade School
One of the fastest ways to have a high-paying career is trade school. Trade school programs vary in length but often allow apprentice-level students to begin working almost right away. Union-sponsored programs will pay competitive wages while helping students develop skills that can set them up for a lifetime career.
Many high schools now have trade accreditation programs that allow students to learn skills like welding, bricklaying, electrical work, plumbing, and more for free while in high school. They then graduate ready to join the workforce. While this path is not going to be optimal for everyone, it is the fastest path forward for many high school students who want to quickly maximize their earning potential.
An Associate's Degree in High School?
On the other hand, students who are sure that college is in their future can still get a head start as early as age fourteen through college credit courses.
In some high schools, it is possible to complete, or at least nearly complete, an associate's degree while still in high school. Not only does this accelerate a person's collegiate educational timeline by two years, but it also spares them tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.
Accelerated College Programs
There are also several accelerated college program pathways that make it easier to get an advanced degree within a relatively short timeline. For example, let's say you want to become not only a nurse, but a nurse practitioner.
Generally, this would take seven years of education, minimum. For many people, even more time is involved.
Typically, aspiring nurses will graduate from a four-year program with their BSN, take the NCLEX, and then begin working right away in a job.
Often, even those who are destined to go on to graduate school will often take a little bit of time in between as they get acclimated to their professional responsibilities.
Then they work on a master's degree in their "spare time." It's not easy or fast, and as you might imagine, many people wind up dropping their graduate studies as they become too busy with professional and family life.
However, there are easier paths. For people who begin college with a clear idea of what they want to do, direct-entry programs will allow you to complete both your undergraduate and graduate coursework in four to five years instead of seven to eight.
Not only does this make you job ready faster while saving you money, but it also allows you to begin your career with an almost six-figure salary. There are similar opportunities available in education, social work, and pharmaceutical studies.
How to Streamline Professional Development
The best way to accelerate a student's timeline to a professional career is to plan ahead, and as early as possible. What do all of the opportunities we've described above have in common?
Every single one of them hinges on ensuring that the student has a pretty clear idea of what they want to do with the rest of their life at the age of around sixteen.
Naturally enough, most people can't say that, and that's okay. Not everyone needs to be job-ready by the time they're twenty.
The most important thing, particularly in a world where turnover rates are at an almost all-time high across professions, is to find a career that the student enjoys. Not everyone is going to be ready to do that right away.
Students who are confident of their next steps should always look for acceleration options if speed is part of their journey.
Even beyond programs that are designed to move quickly, there are always opportunities to push against the limitations of higher education. For example, a typical course load is fifteen credit hours per semester. Some students graduate quicker by bumping that number up to eighteen or even twenty-one credit hours, or by taking summer classes.
Are these options necessary? Of course not. They're not even necessarily recommended for everyone. The two primary goals should always be to identify a sustainable career path and pursue it in a fashion that ensures completion.
Conclusion: How important is Speed?
For nine out of ten high school students, it probably shouldn't be the primary focus. The majority of eighteen-year-olds simply have no notion of what it's like to be an adult. Outside of high school, there is a lot of pressure to make big choices very quickly. Not the least of these decisions is to take out student loans that will inform the next fifteen years of their lives.
Parents all want to help their kids find the right groove, but there's certainly something to be said about taking one's time, thoroughly exploring one's options, and even perhaps taking a winding route through multiple career paths before finding the right one.
Every student is different. Fast education routes can be a great way to accelerate earning potential and career development for some people, but there's also nothing wrong with taking one's time. At the end of the day, it's all about choosing the path that makes the most sense for the individual.
