This is a great story in the Wall Street Journal which showcases high paying careers that are often overlooked.
This isn’t really news to us. Here at New England Tech, higher education means far more than simply earning a college degree. Each program has been thoughtfully designed with input from industry experts, and is taught by instructors who have worked in the field.
New England Tech is working to help fill the #SkillsGap with Associate, Bachelor’s, Master’s and online degrees in programs that are in demand like Manufacturing, Health Sciences, Information Technology and NEW Associate degree in Welding Engineering Technology.
Along with the SAMI program, which was developed in partnership with Rhode Island employers who have a demand for skilled welders and machinists.
The article below was printed in the Wall Street Journal January 7,2015. NEIT makes no representations concerning comparable compensation and/or employment opportunities.
From the Wall Street Journal:
HOUSTON—Justin Friend’s parents have doctoral degrees and have worked as university lecturers and researchers. So Mr. Friend might have been expected to head for a university after graduating from high school in Bryan, Texas, five years ago.
Instead, he attended Texas State Technical College in Waco, and received a two-year degree in welding. In 2013, his first full year as a welder, his income was about $130,000, more than triple the average annual wages for welders in the U.S. In 2014, Mr. Friend’s income rose to about $140,000.
That has allowed the 24-year-old to buy a $53,000 Ford F-250 pickup truck, invest in mutual funds and dabble in his hobbies, such as making jet engines, including one he attached to a golf cart. “Not everybody needs a four-year college degree,” said Kathryn Vaughan, his mother, a retired biology lecturer who spent part of her career at Texas A&M University. The risks of a mismatch between costly university degrees and job opportunities have become clearer in recent years.
Anthony Carnevale, director of the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University, said nearly a third of people aged 22 through 26 with a Bachelor of Arts degree either don’t have a job or are working at one that doesn’t require a university degree. The numbers are similar for young people with vocational degrees, but those lower-cost degrees don’t typically lead to heavy debts.
When he graduated from Texas State Technical College in 2012, Mr. Friend quickly found a job at Acute Technological Services, a Houston-based unit of Oil States International Inc. Acute, which employs about 70 welders, mostly does work for the energy industry. Mr. Friend is usually dispatched to a plant that makes subsea oil-production equipment.
Click link to read entire story: The $140,000-a-Year Welding Job – WSJ.
For more information about Associate, Bachelor’s, Master’s and online degrees, including Welding Engineering Technology, call Admissions at 800-736-7744 ext. 3357 or email [email protected] or for additional information about the SAMI program, call 800-736-7744 ext. 3700 or email [email protected].