Enrollment in trade schools has significantly increased since the pandemic, and it’s only expected to continue over the next decade, according to a new report from Validated Insights.
Newly collected data from the higher education marketing agency reveals that new enrollment from 2020 to 2023 grew by 10.5%. Consequently, revenue increased 7.8% over the past four years.
Their popularity isn’t expected to slow down either. Fall enrollment and market revenue is expected to grow by at least 6% though 2030. On the other hand, the broader higher education field is only expected to grow at 0.8%. This might be driven by the fact that 82% of high school career counselors expect demand for “career” education to continue growing faster than demand for “traditional” higher education.
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Interest is particularly high out west. Here is a breakdown of enrollment growth by state from 2019 to 2023:
- Utah: 16.4%
- California: 19.4%
- Arizona: 27.8%
- Nevada: 33.2%
The pandemic and the rise of online learning has propelled the trade school market beyond stagnant levels recorded prior to 2020. From 2019 to 2023, online enrollment grew by 16.9% while enrollment across higher education grew by 9.4%.
“All the trade school indices are pointed upwards,” said Brady Colby, head of market research at Validated Insights. “Search traffic, estimates from high school counselors, and overall sentiment all point to stable and strong growth in trade schools for the next several years.”
For-profit schools making waves in trade programs
Community colleges and trade schools share student enrollment nearly evenly. While community colleges currently enroll more students, the compound annual growth rate of enrollment at trade schools was higher from 2019 to 2024.
Three for-profit trades schools saw new full-time enrollment jump by 15.4% in fall 2024. Average full-time enrollment growth was as follows:
- Legacy Education: 25.4%
- Lincoln Tech: 13.3%
- Universal Technical Institute: 9.2%
Universal Technical Institute, Inc., a publicly traded company, was valued at $1.38 billion as of this January, which rivals the endowment of some of the nation’s most prestigious nonprofit institutions.
