By middle school, Tyler Doege had already ruled out college.
“I knew I liked to work with my hands,” Doege, 22, of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, told The Epoch Times. He enrolled in a vocational high school, chose plumbing, and went straight to work after graduation.
Four years later, he is a licensed journeyman plumber earning between $80,000 and $100,000 a year, with no student debt.
Doege is part of a growing number of Gen Z Americans who are skipping the traditional four-year degree in favor of trade school, apprenticeships, and short-term training.
Public confidence in college has fallen sharply. Just 31 percent of U.S. adults now say a college education is “very important,” a record low, according to a Gallup poll released Oct. 1. That figure stood at 70 percent in 2013….