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University or Trades?

Hi everyone and welcome (or welcome back) to the blog “Soldier to Student”. In this post I want to talk about the debate that is university or trades. When getting out of the military there are plenty of choices to make as to what you can do with your future. While getting out and working is very popular, if you plan on attending schooling the question is, schooling for a college degree or trade certification? I think there are many pros and cons for both. I also strongly believe that it is a personal choice. For me it was a no brainer to go to university, I am a good student and I have no desire to work in trades. But for many trades offer the opportunity to work with your hands and make very good money doing so. Popular trade jobs include electrician, plumber, welder, mechanic, carpenter, and more. Trade school can vary between six months and two years. So which is the better option? I would argue trades honestly, which may be shocking because this whole bog is dedicated to university education. I say trades though because after being active duty for three years I found that most of the people I served with were there because they did not like school. That if they were to get out they wanted to be in a blue collar field. So while I knew university was right for me, I also knew that not a ton of my fellow coworkers shared that view. Actually looking at my friends that got out of the Army around the same time as me, only one chose to go to university and the rest went trades or straight into working jobs that did not need schooling or training. What option did you choose? Please let me know in the comments your thoughts on university vs trades!

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