Vocational Schools Make Real World Sense
Lauren KawamIssue date: 2/11/10 Section: News
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And all McIntosh did was go to school. The rest came along with the program he attended at the Tempe-based Conservatory of Recording Arts and Science. Like many other trade and vocational schools in the Valley, CRAS, as it's known among the inner circles, is an accredited, privately-owned skills-based school.
The 22-year-old started in early April and went until December, knowing he'd at least have the internship in the end.
"They said over and over during the admissions process that going here wouldn't guarantee me a job, but it would at least help me get my foot in the door," he says. "Then. after that, they said it was up to me. Clearly, they did something right, because they offered me a job three weeks in."
He says he sees the appeal of trade schools, especially in this time of the weak economy, and in the eight months he was there for his audio engineering degree, he saw class size increase.
"People are coming to CRAS and schools like it that have shorter programs and prepare you for the job market because … well look at things, they're not the best they can be right now," he says. "It seems to me that people, especially young people, are going to jump at the chance to get a job, especially one in a field they actually like."
So, as the economy begins is climb back into normal ranges, at a seemingly donkey-like pace, many students aren't willing to wait. Some are turning to trade and vocational schools for quicker, more hands-on training, and the promise of better odds for getting a job straight out of school.
And across the Valley, there are plenty of places to attend, from schools like CRAS to union apprenticeship programs, a local trucking school and automotive institutes. These might not sound like especially prestigious programs or jobs, however, most of these schools offer job placement unheard of within the four-year university world, making these anything but a laughing matter.
Found Opportunity
Alejandro Pedroza graduated a little over a week ago and he's already looking at a choice between five or six jobs that want him. All he did was send out a couple of resumes and wait to hear back from these people.
Like McIntosh, Pedroza, 23, only spent eight months in school, attending the Refrigeration School Inc., one of the nation's largest accredited career schools for heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration, or HVAC, repair.
The school has more than 500 students and 45 instructors and administrators and RSI, like many other trade and vocational schools around the country, is experiencing a slow-but-steady increase in the number of students they see enroll for each start of a new session.
Shelly Short, the marketing manager at RSI, which has been around for 45 years, says a large part of the reason why RSI and other schools like it are seeing an increase in enrollment is because people are starting to realize that four-year colleges aren't for everyone.
"Getting people to understand their opportunities is hard," she says. "Many students nowadays don't understand that there is a world outside the four-year university."
She says she's dealt with a lot of students who come from universities and community colleges.
"They're seeking something totally different," she says. "And they can come into this, eight months, they have a skills trade that they can take with them everywhere, and for the rest of their lives."
Even with the increase in enrollment, it seems as if trade and vocational schools get a bad rap.
Jon Cline Jr., the marketing administrator at RSI and also the son of the former owners of the school, says he can understand why some people feel as if trade schools aren't worth it.
A graduate of Arizona State University, Cline, 25, says he, like a lot of people his age, was programmed to think that a four-year university was the way to go after high school.
"I went to Brophy, and I was a spoiled little city kid," he says. "After college, I came back here, took a couple of the programs for training purposes and I just thought to myself 'Why didn't I do this before? This just makes more sense.'
"If I could play my life out differently, just from five years ago, I would have gone here, and gone to school somewhere else, and worked on units. That's the thing, you can pay for a four-year university while being an HVAC repair man. It's easy, you just have to work really hard during the summer time, and that's it."
Even if it seems as simple as Jon puts it, no industry is recession proof.
Rick Rusch, RSI's career development director, says that while every sector of the economy is facing cutbacks, having an education from a trade school allows you to have more opportunities to get a job.
"Specifically with trade schools, you have age diversity," he says. "We have students who are18, and up to 75 years of age. They all found work, in part because of the skills-based training they received at a vocational school, not a college. I don't know if colleges can say the same thing."
He also says once a trade-school graduate goes into the field to find work, their ascension on the career ladder is a lot quicker.
"Depending on the company they work for and how long they've been there, I've seen salaries go from $50,000 to $100,000 in three to five years," he says. "Over $100,000 isn't the norm, but as we get in to it, there's more of a shortage in this industry [for workers], and as that becomes more so as the economy gets better, salaries will be going up again."
Differences Abound
McIntosh says he tried going to Mesa Community College for two years before attending CRAS. The whole time he says he wasn't happy.
"I dabbled in criminal justice and took some psychology classes, but both fields weren't really interesting to me," he says. "I felt like I was just reading a bunch of stuff I didn't care about, and not learning a whole lot."
Pedroza has a similar story. He tried both community college and ITT Technical Institute before settling on RSI.
"Neither of those places was really working out for me, because when you go to a community college, the teacher is talking to a group and they're most focused on the books and literature," he says. "You don't ever get that one-on-one attention from the staff like you do at a trade school.
He also says he noticed a huge difference in the way teachers interact with students.
"They are willing to help you, they want to help you, and even some of the time, they'll stay after class and troubleshoot with you until you have a better understanding," he says.
For McIntosh it was as much the different teaching methods in addition to the number of teachers he had.
"We had so many different teachers that were all teaching the same thing, so we got to hear experiences from each teacher, when they were starting off in the business," he says. "It was good because if they all repeated something, I kind of clued in that it might be an important lesson to learn if five teachers all experienced it. Plus, all the teachers actually knew my name, which was hugely different from MCC."
When it came down to it McIntosh said he chose CRAS over a traditional university because "you learn the basics, and then you get the internship, and the rest in on-the-job learning."
Pedroza says for him, it was all about the hands-on training. As a self-professed visual learner, he says working on actual machinery was well worth it.
"I feel like I learn quicker by using the actual machines and working on them," he says. "You get the hang of it easier and faster. Like anything, once you do it, you understand it better. And that's how it is here. You're not just listening to an instructor, your mind is working and you're actually doing something."
When it comes to class content, Pedroza and Short agree that, while you learn a lot, it's very specific, which is different than traditional colleges.
"In college, you get a diversity of information, but you never know what exactly is going to be applicable to your career," Short says. "But what you're getting here in the eight-month program is absolutely applicable to the industry and what they will be doing. Then, they just build on that and grow."
In reality, Rusch says, the differences between traditional colleges and trade schools comes down to a matter of practice.
"When I went to college, I was working full-time, and bottom line is, I read the book, learned what the professor wanted me to know for the text, and I just studied for the test," he says. "Here, it's totally different. You have to know it. You can't just study for the test. If you don't practice and practice and practice some more, you're not going to pass the course."
High Value
Both McIntosh and Pedroza talk a lot about the value of the education they received in the short eight-month programs they each attended.
"I am already working in a place where I'm putting the skills I learn at RSI to work," Pedroza says. "But, if I wanted to climb up the career ladder, as does everyone, I needed the training from RSI. It helped to update the knowledge I had about manufacturing and facilities. That's something I couldn't have gotten anywhere else."
Perhaps one of the greatest values of a trade-school education is the fact that there is almost always going to be a need for these kinds of skills.
Rusch says in the 19 years he's been at RSI, he's consistently had over 90 percent job placement once students graduate. He says this means RSI is doing something right, but more that there has consistently been a need for people in that field.
This might conjure up the idea of a recession-proof job, especially under the contexts of this current job market. But Pedroza says even with his RSI education, no one's safe.
"We're all dealing with the recession in some way, but you have that knowledge that you're able to do side work, and you're always able to do something, you're not limited by your education," he says. "You can keep expanding your capabilities and go wherever you want to go or need to go. The nice thing about RSI specifically is that once you finish your program, if you want to come back and take a refresher course, it's free. Its not like at a traditional college, where you take the class, and if you want to go back you have to pay for it. Here, it's no extra cost."
Short says one of the reasons why they offer the free refresher courses after eight months is because "your success is my success is our success. If we can help, we will."
McIntosh says he also doesn't see himself as recession proof, but more "recession resistant."
"Even if I hadn't landed a job right out of school, having the guarantee of an internship looks a lot better than finishing the program and not going anywhere with it. I look at it this way: If I had gone to Berklee or a more well-known music school, I feel like I might have just been paying for the name, because it would have been four years and I would have been paying for more and arguably getting less.
"But it's also about the internship thing too, they teach you everything you need to know and they cover the basics, and then they get you right away into the internship, as opposed to teaching you everything that you need to know to pass the course, and then saying 'Good luck,' and sending you on your way," he says.
While both the programs are just eight months long, the costs reflect more. Students not only pay for the information, but also the hand-on aspect, which isn't largely available in many traditional colleges. Costs for RSI runs from $15,000 to $24,000 and for CRAS, it's $18,000. Both schools do offer financial aid for those who qualify.
Ultimately, Cline says, it's just about giving trade schools a shot.
"These programs are definitely underrated, but the value is definitely there and will prove itself on a daily basis."
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