Plumbers prosper, but 'the odds are against workers without degrees'

Students seeking short-term workforce credentials will be eligible for federal Pell Grants, starting this fall.

Some non-college pathways pay off, writes Matt Barnum on Chalkbeat. Plumbers, machinists, HVAC installers, and carpenters, for example, earn more than the national median. But, overall, "the odds are stacked against workers without degrees."

Michigan is struggling to persuade working men to consider college, reports Hechinger's Rachel Fradette.

The state has a shortage of skilled workers, and a relatively low percentage of adults with education or training beyond high school, she writes. Michigan Reconnect, which covers community college tuition for people 25 and older, has proven popular with women, but not with men. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants more focus on getting men into certificate and college programs. It's been slow going.

Young males are more likely to focus on working, and less confident of their academic skills.

Fradette talked to Tyler Kniss, who dropped out of high school and spent time in prison. Then he became a father, found a manufacturing job to support his family and earned a GED.

Kniss, now 33 and a manufacturing operations manager, has a "wealth of experience" backed by certifications, but thinks he needs a degree to advance. He’s enrolled in a degree program for business administration at a local college while working full-time, "and hopes to transfer to the University of Michigan for a bachelor’s degree," she reports. The Michigan Reconnect scholarship covers tuition for his two-year degree, and his employer’s education policy would cover the bachelor’s.

Colorado's youth apprenticeship program has been a disappointment. writes Chalkbeat's Jason Gonzales. Only 1,200 students have taken part in CareerWise programs in the first decade.

He profiles a high school senior who's paid more than $18 an hour to tutor fifth-graders and now wants to be a teacher. His original plan was to be a HVAC technician. He'd have earned more as an entry-level tech than a teacher, and gotten into the workforce two or three years years sooner, but median pay for teachers is slightly higher than the median for HVAC techs in Colorado.