Expand<\/a><\/p>\nBill Burke, the Scranton-based Johnson College vice president of enrollment and student affairs, said trade school enrollment has been increasing nationally for several years.<\/p>\n
The Education Writers Association reported that according to a March 2025 report by the higher education marketing and research firm\u00a0Validated Insights, enrollments in trade schools have been growing and are projected to continue significant growth through 2030, significantly outpacing overall growth in higher education enrollment.<\/p>\n
According to the report, fall enrollment at trade schools is projected to grow 6.6% per year, while market revenue is projected to grow at 6% annually through 2030. These rates are well above enrollment growth projections for higher education, which Validated Insights estimates at 0.8% annually.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur enrollment since 2021 has increased 30%,\u201d Burke said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing more and more interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Johnson\u2019s enrollment was 693, as of mid-July. Enrollment is up 60% since 2018, he added.<\/p>\n
He said the school\u2019s building trades programs in electrical, HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), welding and radiologic technology are among the most popular.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the number one thing for students and parents is they really see a return in investment,\u201d Burke said. \u201cThey (students) are only here one or two years, and see the amount of money they could make when they go to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said electricians and welders, for example, could start at $50,000 to $60,000 a year.<\/p>\n
Many factors in growth<\/p>\n
Karla Carlucci, Ed.D., executive director of the Career Technology Center of Lackawanna County (CTCLC), Scranton, said enrollment continues to grow each year at the high school-level program and has reached its highest enrollment yet \u2014 1,038 \u2014 for the coming school year. That\u2019s a 41% increase over the 736 students enrolled five years ago for the 2021-2022 school year.<\/p>\n
At the school, students from nine area high schools enrolled at the center spend a half day of each school day at their home school and a half day at CTCLC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe currently have waiting lists in several programs, including many construction trades, manufacturing programs, such as welding and automotive technology, cosmetology and several healthcare programs,\u201d Carlucci noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe there are several factors driving this growth,\u201d she said. \u201cOne significant factor was the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, many people realized that skilled trades remained essential even while other industries slowed or shifted to remote work. That realization has continued as technology and AI evolve. Many skilled trades still require hands-on expertise that cannot simply be replaced by technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlucci said another major factor is value. Students and families increasingly recognize that a career and technical education provides high-quality training at a fraction of the cost of a traditional four-year degree while leading directly to high-demand careers with excellent wages.<\/p>\n
Burke said 20% to 25% of Johnson\u2019s students transfer from another institution because they decide the career they were seeking with a four-year college degree wasn\u2019t for them. Even graduates of four-year colleges decided to learn a trade when they couldn\u2019t find a job.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see that a lot,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur programs are streamlined to need,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re starting our fourth year at our Hazleton campus, where there are such programs as manufacturing, warehousing building. \u201cOur students are in there doing the work from day one. Most of our students are working.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted electricians and similar trades will always be needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese jobs are recession-proof, AI-proof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Learning diverse skills<\/p>\n
Campbell said his internship also is helping him diversify his skills.\u00a0 As part of the plant maintenance team, he has been exposed to not only electrical work, but also welding.<\/p>\n
He has realized that working in a cubicle wasn\u2019t for him. He learned that after years of trying to find his place.<\/p>\n
He initially attended Temple University and took two years of classes after high school, then started working at a Walmart for several years. He moved up from an hourly position into the management program in the Allentown area before attending Muhlenberg. He said that while he loved his four-year college experience, he realized the resulting opportunities weren\u2019t what he was interested in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trades have always been an area of interest, but they were never really presented to me as a land of opportunities,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n
Now he is finding more opportunities in a trades career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is much more fulfilling,\u201d he said. \u201cl feel like the white collar jobs are getting pared down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest thing Johnson College offers is the ability to pivot and ramp up into another industry, in my opinion. They embraced me and brought me up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still growing<\/p>\n
Burke said the school\u2019s forecast for enrollment growth continues through 2028, mostly due to Hazleton campus.<\/p>\n
He said the school also offers a transportation technician training program at a Wyoming Avenue, Scranton, site and an aviation maintenance training program at the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport.<\/p>\n
High school students also can simultaneously take classes at Johnson College to earn college credits. Burke said he estimated that 14 students recently graduated from high school and Johnson in the same year.<\/p>\n
Carlucci said CTCLC has dual enrollment agreements with some schools and articulation agreements, which allows students to earn post-secondary credits.<\/p>\n
The school offers high school students programs in areas such as cyber security, computer networking, digital communications, commercial illustration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe currently have high school students participating in cooperative education placements earning between\u00a0$20 and $40 per hour before they graduate,\u201d Carlucci said. \u201cWe also have graduates receiving job offers ranging from approximately\u00a0$40,000 to over $100,000 annually, depending on the occupation, employer, certifications earned, and whether they choose to travel for work, particularly within the union trades.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said\u00a0some of the highest-demand careers from an employer perspective include automation, cybersecurity and computer networking, even though those programs are still growing their enrollment. Employers are actively seeking graduates in these fields, Carlucci said.<\/p>\n
The school continues to see exceptionally strong demand in construction trades such as HVAC, electrical, carpentry, and building mechanics, as well as welding, automotive technology and healthcare programs, including patient care technician, EMT and medical assisting.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom an enrollment standpoint, we anticipate continued strong interest,\u201d Carlucci added. \u201cIn fact, we are approaching the physical capacity of our building and are exploring scheduling options and other alternatives to serve additional students.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also said it is not just enrollment that is increasing, but student achievement is, as well. Students continue to improve their performance on the NOCTI assessments, which are Pennsylvania\u2019s technical end-of-program assessments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncreased enrollment accompanied by improved student performance demonstrates that career and technical education is producing both more graduates and highly skilled graduates who are prepared to meet workforce needs,\u201d Carlucci said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Campbell\u00a0earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in business from Muhlenberg College and worked for more than 15 years as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[18056,18057,6520,201,803,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-263786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-biz570","tag-biz570-news","tag-hazleton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-luzerne-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Charles](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BJL-L-TRADESCHOOL-01.jpg\")
Charles Campbell\u00a0decided to learn a trade and enrolled at Johnson College\u2019s Hazleton campus. Campbell will start the second semester of his first year in the college\u2019s electrical construction technology program this fall and already started an internship in late July with a plant in the Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Township.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BJL-L-TRADESCHOOL-05.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BJL-L-TRADESCHOOL-02.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BJL-L-TRADESCHOOL-03.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n