Gen Z Revolts: Skip the Degree Trap

As student debt bites and degree payoffs dim, a leading family-policy advocate is urging Gen Z to ditch the college-for-all script and build America through the trades.

Story Highlights

• American Principles Project president Terry Schilling urges Gen Z to consider skilled trades and entrepreneurship over defaulting to four-year degrees.
• New York Fed data show rising unemployment and underemployment among recent grads as loan delinquencies surge after repayment resumed in 2025.
• Skilled labor shortages offer steady pay, faster entry, and lower debt compared to many degree pathways.
• Debate intensifies as families demand real returns and colleges face scrutiny on costs and outcomes.

Schilling’s Case: Skills First, Debt Last

Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, is pressing Gen Z to rethink the college default and look seriously at trades and entrepreneurship. He points to soaring tuition, heavy loan burdens, and difficult landing spots for new grads. He argues skills-based careers deliver faster earnings and family stability without decades of debt. Schilling’s message aligns with APP’s family-centered mission and skepticism of higher-ed’s return on investment for non-specialized degrees, especially in a tightening job market.

Multiple labor indicators in 2025 sharpen the point: recent graduates face higher unemployment and widespread underemployment, even as essential trades struggle to fill openings. Families watching delinquency rates climb after repayment resumed see the risk clearly—borrow first, hope later is no plan. The trades route—electricians, plumbers, carpenters, welders, mechanics—offers paid training, predictable demand, and earlier wealth-building. For many young adults, that means a mortgage and a family years sooner than debt-loaded peers tethered to entry-level office churn.

Labor Market Reality: Degrees Without Demand

Federal Reserve and major media reporting show unemployment for college graduates aged 22–27 rising in 2025 alongside underemployment north of 40 percent for recent grads. That mismatch between credentials and openings is especially acute outside STEM and licensed professions. Employers across industries increasingly hire for skills, portfolios, and certifications rather than diplomas. When work experience and hands-on competence win job offers, a four-year degree without clear ROI becomes a costly luxury, not a necessity.

Meanwhile, the skilled trades face demographic pressure from retirements and too few entrants. Apprenticeships and credential programs place learners on job sites earning wages while training, avoiding the tuition spiral. Wage growth in many trades has kept pace with inflation better than entry-level office roles, and overtime or contracting can lift earnings quickly. For parents and grandparents who value self-reliance and local prosperity, steering kids toward productive, debt-light careers aligns with both pocketbook common sense and community strength.

Policy Backdrop: Ending the College-For-All Era

The cultural bias that made four-year college the default path has collided with harsh arithmetic—tuition at many private colleges exceeds $50,000 per year while graduate outcomes falter. After pandemic-era forbearance ended, student loan delinquencies spiked, exposing fragile household budgets. Public patience is thinning for institutions that raise prices while producing weak job placement. As policymakers discuss expanding apprenticeships, fast-track licensing, and skills credentialing, families want pathways that respect budgets, timelines, and real job demand.

Some experts still note that college pays in certain fields and over long horizons. That is true for engineering, nursing, accounting, and other licensed or technical tracks tied to clear labor demand. But the broad-brush promise that any degree guarantees mobility has proven unreliable. Prudent parents now insist on program-level outcome data: completion rates, field-specific earnings, debt loads, and time-to-job. Where those numbers disappoint, trades, military service, or entrepreneurship become the rational, conservative choice.

What This Means for Families and Communities

For conservative families focused on stability, the trades deliver tangible goods: steady pay, merit-based advancement, and local enterprise. Communities benefit when skilled jobs stay rooted—houses get built, power grids maintained, small businesses thrive. Reorienting guidance counselors, school boards, and state policy toward apprenticeships and technical education would match young talent to real needs, reduce debt, and strengthen the middle class. That shift respects both taxpayers and the next generation’s right to a future not mortgaged to questionable credentials.

Think tank president urges Gen Z to consider trades over college in tough job market https://t.co/vnAjpq2xG0 #FoxBusiness

— Fear no evil (@voterightin24) August 10, 2025

Bottom line for Gen Z: choose training that pays you to learn, qualifies you for in-demand work, and builds assets early. Bottom line for parents: demand transparent outcomes before signing loan papers. Bottom line for leaders: fund apprenticeships, fast-track high-demand credentials, and stop steering kids into debt for degrees that don’t deliver. A skills-first culture honors work, strengthens families, and restores the dignity of making, fixing, and building America.

Sources:

Terry Schilling

Staff

Board

American Principles Project

American Principles Project