More women are skipping college to make six figures as electricians, car mechanics and truck drivers (Courtesy of the New York Post) — With the high price of tuition at four-year colleges and Americans owing nearly $2 billion in student loan debt, some young people are questioning the benefits of a traditional bachelor’s degree and opting to work with their hands.
Vocational school enrollment shot up by 16% last year, reaching a record level since the National Student Clearing House began recording such data. Gen Z has even been dubbed “the tool belt generation.”
While the majority of workers in trades are men, a growing number of young women are opting to work with their hands. In 2020, 11.6% of those who completed an apprenticeship program in the US were female, according to the Department of Labor.
“It’s about time for people to start realizing that you can make more money, have a better career path, have a happier life, have a better family in the long term, by doing stuff with your hands,” said Victoria Carl, a 25-year-old Albany woman who owns her own car repair show.
Meet her and three other young New York women working — and thriving — in the trades.
At just 25, Victoria Carl owns and operates her own automotive repair center.
“They told me I couldn’t do it, so that’s why I did it,” Carl told The Post of going into automotive repair.
At 21, with a 50% investment from her parents, she took over a shop and named it Carl’s Advanced Automotive and Truck Repair Center in Albany.
Now, at age 25, she has four full-time technicians, as well as rolling up her sleeves herself, and is expecting net sales to be over $1 million this year.
Carl employs four full-time mechanics at her shop in Albany.
“I grew up around cars, racing go karts, restoring trucks with my dad,” she said. “My family knew the previous owners, and they always joked that I would own the shop one day which was funny — until it wasn’t, and it was serious.”
While attending Voorheesville High School, Carl took part in a two-year BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) program, which allowed her to attend heavy duty truck classes during her junior and senior years of high school.
At first, she encountered resistance.
“My guidance counselor said, ‘Absolutely not, why don’t you go to trade school for nursing or cosmetology or go to college?’ she recalled. “And, honestly, at first it was terrifying when I was the only woman in the class, but ultimately I became more confident.”
Carl says that women are making major strides in the trades.
She went on to get an associate’s degree in agricultural diesel technology from University of Northwestern Ohio.
“As an employer now, I see the value of the trades,” she said. “I’m always hiring. I can’t get people in the door fast enough to make good mechanics.”
Carl also sits on the advisory board of the local automotive college, and has seen a shift in how people regard her and her female counterparts.
“These older men are starting to really understand how valuable women are in this trade,” she said. It’s “fantastic.”