In early May, we wrote you an article titled “Growth in Trade School Enrollment is Expected to Double,” saying that if you operate a trade school or career-based college, you’ve likely been seeing a great uptick in enrollments over the past few years. Because the industry has been, well, on fire.
In that article we highlighted statistics showing that between 2019 and 2024, enrollment in trade schools grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 3.2%. Which is robust, especially when compared to the CAGR of traditional four-year college enrollment.
However, if you recall, we furthered that data with new information from Validated Insights. Their report is projecting a CAGR of 6.5% through 2030. More than double the already solid growth rate.[1]
So, trade schools and career-colleges can rejoice. The education you provide is in high demand!
But and this is a big but…
We failed to mention one very important fact. It’s a fact that you really need to pay attention to if you’re looking to attract new student enrollments to your trade or career-based school. Which, you probably are.
And that fact is this:
With student demand for the kinds of programs your school offers, more and more schools are opening… many current schools are expanding and the competition for students is growing.
In fact, competition for students is not only growing, it’s becoming fierce.
See, with more and more people going to trade school, both new high school grads and adult learners alike, students now have more choices in schools than just about any time in our history.
Get this, in 2015, just ten years ago, there were an estimated 6502 trade schools in America. Now, 10 short years later, that number has ballooned by nearly 1,000 new schools.[2]
Simply put, you have to compete with a lot of other schools for enrollments, regardless of growing student demand. Because school “supply” is growing too.
So, how can you best compete in this environment?
Well, we at Conversion Media Group believe you can not only compete, but you can thrive!
Before we show you how to thrive, we’d like to share a quote from a recent article in the Foundation for Economic Education.
“After graduating with a marketing degree, Katherine Millar of York, Pennsylvania, said she struggled to find opportunities aligned with her career goals despite completing an unpaid internship.
“Frustrated by the lack of prospects in her field, the 25-year-old pivoted to cosmetology school. Less than a year later, she was working in a salon and earning more than she had anticipated in her previous line of work.
“As soon as I got out of school, I started working as an entry-level stylist. I’m already making more money than I would have in marketing,” Millar said.[3]
Even college grads are getting into the trades!
So, how can you thrive in this current climate of fierce competition for new students?
Well, it could be as simple as partnering with Conversion Media Group.
You see, curating, nurturing and delivering high intent trade school leads is what we do. And by delivering, we mean it.
We speak with hundreds, sometimes thousands of prospective students who are interested in the trades…
And we speak with them directly on the phone!
Yes, the phone. Now, when we’re on the phone with them, and they show genuine interest in your school and its programs, we can transfer these calls directly to your enrollment department, live.
This is called a live transfer lead.
No matter if you’re fully online, hybrid or a brick-and-mortar, we have the ability to deliver high-quality, high intent leads straight to your enrollment reps.
It’s what we do.
So give us a call at 1-800-419-3201, (or click HERE) and we’ll explain how our live transfers work, how we curate our various trade school and career-college leads, and how many new student leads we can hand off to you.
[1] Validated Insights Report Released: Trade School Enrollments to Continue Strong Growth
[2] Trade & Technical Schools in the US Number of Businesses Statistics | IBISWorld