With the cost of a four-year degree on the rise, technical schools are becoming more viable options for those considering secondary schooling.
Enrollment at Emily Griffith Technical College (EGTC) is up 6% this year, according to Randy Johnson, the executive director.
He said the “immediate relevance” of a technical education is becoming more appealing to students like Aly Gombos.
She graduated high school in 2007, and took a two year gap before enrolling at Central Connecticut State University.
“I had been working in food service, really like living on my own, struggling to make ends meet,” Gombos said. “The only career advice anyone was interested in giving me was, ‘Go to university. Get a four year degree. Doesn’t matter what you get a degree in.'”
So she majored in English and graduated in 2014, and the narrative around the usefulness of her four year degree, she said, was changing.
This year, she decided to make a career change.
” I looked at program after program of all different price points. And this was the one that I landed on,” she said.