Amid high costs and controversies surrounding college education – coupled with the threat that artificial intelligence poses on certain white-collar jobs – much of Gen Z is leaning towards pursuing trade schools and blue-collar jobs with that tech gap in mind.

“These jobs are here to stay,” Lincoln Tech CEO Scott Shaw told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Tuesday. “Since COVID, people are kind of catching the wave and understanding the need for trades.”

Shaw explained that there is a demand for essential workers and that his schools’ students were essential during the pandemic.

“They were in the hospitals. They were keeping transportation, keeping your Amazon deliveries, getting to you.”

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Enrollment in vocational community colleges is up 16% since 2018, according to a January 2024 National Student Clearinghouse report, as younger generations are turning towards trades and careers instead of paying for college tuition.  

Shaw went on to explain the demographics of those who are turning to trade careers and enrolling in higher vocational education. 

“About 20% of our students are right out of high school,” he said. “About 50% are 21 and younger, but the average age of our students is 25.” 

He also touched on those students who made a 180-degree turn for the careers they’re now pursuing.

“We have a lot of career changers, people that have tried college, and it just wasn’t right for them or people that now want to follow their passion.”

Another Clearinghouse report released in April detailed the drop in undergraduate completions for the 2022-23 academic year, marking a decline for the second year in a row. However, that year also saw continued growth in first time certificate earners in mechanical or repairs, production and construction trades. 

In the same vein, America’s career coach and Ramsey Solutions personality Ken Coleman believes that trades provide a quicker and less expensive alternative to college education. 

“We’re seeing that 75% of Gen Z is saying they are interested in being an entrepreneur. They want to work for themselves,” he explained on Tuesday’s “The Big Money Show,” adding that “trades offer a quicker, cheaper path to being able to work for themselves, create jobs for other people, and plug into—which is the real backbone of our economy—small business.” 

Coleman said he believes that there will be a “dramatic shift” to trade careers and entrepreneurship in the next couple of years. 

“This trend will continue because I think trade schools aren’t just a traditional plumber or electrician anymore. It’s also technology.”

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The career expert weighed in on those who attend college for professions and industries, such as law, medicine and other sciences where higher degrees are required.

“So there are some very specific industries where college is absolutely worth it,” he argued, before listing examples of questions prospective students should ask themselves prior to making a decision about college. 

These questions include the type of college, whether it is private or state-funded, and whether it is considered a bigger or a smaller school, as those answers will help dictate the overall expense.

“At the end of the day, your customer and your employer down the road does not care where you got the degree, right?” Coleman posited.

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Perhaps the best known and most successful big-box store chain in the world, Walmart’s 62-year history has been marked by explosive growth fueled by thrifty, innovative business practices.

After its first location was opened in 1962 by Sam Walton in Rogers, Arkansas, Walmart seemingly became an overnight sensation in the world of discount retail. 

Decade after decade, the chain began turning over millions – and soon, billions – in revenue each year, entering the 21st century as one of the largest brands in both the U.S. and around the world.

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Here is a closer look at how it all happened. 

Walton was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, in 1918, and he spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Columbia, Missouri. Walton, a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadet, attended the University of Missouri, graduating in 1940 with his bachelor’s degree in economics.

Three days after graduating, Walton began working for JCPenney as a management trainee, a position he held until 1942, when he enlisted in the Army.

After leaving the military, Walton purchased a Ben Franklin variety store in Arkansas, operating under a business model not unlike the one undertaken by Walmart later in his career.

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Walton served as Walmart’s CEO from its establishment in 1962 until 1988 and remained the company’s chairman until his death in 1992. Walton, who was being treated for multiple myeloma, was reportedly reviewing sales data from his hospital bed just days before he died.

While operating his Ben Franklin branch, Walton adopted a business model that focused on making his stores competitive by buying up low-cost goods and selling them at lower prices than his competitors – in theory, despite turning over a lower profit margin, higher demand and, in turn, higher sales volume, would compensate for it.

Walton quickly found himself proven right, with revenue more than doubling from $105,000 to $250,000 in his first five years of ownership. 

His good fortune persisted across other business ventures. After failing to renew his Ben Franklin lease, Walton opened Walton’s 5-10, a discount store in Bentonville, Arkansas, that now serves as the Walmart Museum. Shortly afterward, he opened the Wal-Mart Discount City store in nearby Rogers – now recognized as the first store operated under the Walmart brand proper.

By the end of 1962, Walton was operating two stores under the Walmart brand’s umbrella – the inaugural Rogers location, and another in Harrison. 

Growth continued throughout the 1960s, and by 1967, there were two dozen Walmart stores across Arkansas that had brought in a cumulative $12.7 million in sales. 

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In 1968, the first two Walmart stores outside Arkansas – located in Claremore, Oklahoma, and Sikeston, Missouri – opened. In 1969, the company officially incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and became publicly traded a year later. By 1972, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

By 1980, Walmart was employing 21,000 people in 276 stores across 10 states and was pulling in $1 billion worth of annual sales. In 1983, the first Sam’s Club – a Walmart-owned chain of Costco-like, membership-based warehouses – opened in Oklahoma.

The company also expanded over the course of the 1980s through its acquisitions of large regional department store chains – like Kuhn’s Big K in the Deep South – and was operating in 27 states by the end of the decade, boasting $26 billion in yearly sales.

Today, Walmart runs over 10,500 stores in some 19 countries, employing over 2.1 million people worldwide – 1.6 million of whom are based in the U.S.

The company sustained unprecedented levels of growth throughout the 1990s, entering the new millennium with over a million employees at nearly 4,000 locations across the globe. After Walton’s death, his eldest son and heir to the family fortune, Rob, became the chairman of Walmart’s board, a position he held until 2015.

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Walmart has also undertaken a number of community outreach ventures over the past few years – including a mass vaccination campaign during the coronavirus pandemic and a robust program that covers its associates’ college expenses.

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