Gen Z Finds an Answer to Its AI, Money Fears

Gen Z may be souring on the traditional campus quad, but they're still getting schooled—just with welding masks and wire cutters instead of laptops and pens. The New York Times' Callie Holtermann follows young Americans who are trading four-year degrees for skilled trades, pushing back against the idea that blue-collar work is a consolation prize. Tuition shock, stories of underemployed grads, and anxiety about AI are nudging some teens and 20-somethings toward apprenticeships and trade programs that finish faster, cost less, and carry better job prospects.

Enrollment at public two-year vocational schools is up nearly 20% since 2020, and many students say the math—often sub-$25,000 programs leading to $80,000-plus jobs—beats decades of student loan payments. Holtermann also digs into the social friction: guidance counselors who talk only about college, parents who hesitate to brag that "my kid's a welder," and a stubborn stigma that paints tradespeople as less intellectual. Yet the work is in demand, physically taxing, and hard to automate—exactly what some Gen Z-ers want. For vivid on-the-job scenes, paychecks, and more from the culture clash around trades over college, read the full piece at the Times.