As more teens consider alternative postsecondary options, school counselors say the stigma attached to these choices should not deter students from understanding nondegree pathways, according to a K-12 Dive article.
In 2024, only 45% of students in grades 7-12 saw a two- or four-year college as their most likely next step, according to a new survey from national nonprofit American Student Assistance. In 2018, 73% of grades 7-12 students sought two- or four-year college pathways. The survey’s sample included 3,057 students in grades 7-12.
Interest in nondegree education pathways — vocational schools, apprenticeships and technical boot camp programs, etc. — more than tripled from 2018 to 2024, from 12% in 2018 to 38%, the ASA survey found.
The increasing number of postsecondary options requires school counselors to educate students to be knowledgeable about how these pathways work and contend with the stigma associated with them.
More than 9 in 10 teens have discussed post-high school plans with their parents, but nearly a third said in the ASA survey that their parents disagreed with their plan to enroll in a nondegree program. More teens said their parents disagreed with pursuing a non-college path (30%) than skipping a formal postsecondary path altogether (21%).
“I think everyone’s initial response is, ‘Oh, that’s a waste of potential, you should go on to school,’” says Steve Schneider of Sheboygan South High School in Wisconsin, a school counselor for 25 years. Talking with parents about alternative options can be challenging, but it’s important to advocate for what the student wants and to make sure each side understands the other’s thinking, he says,
If resources only go into college as a postsecondary pathway, such as AP courses and dual credit courses, and there are not enough career and technical education courses and ways to explore if other pathways are a good fit, the social stigma can be systemic, Says Schneider.
To help consider alternatives, Stephanie Nelson and her colleagues at Garner Magnet High School in North Carolina emphasize enrollment, enlistment, employment and entrepreneurship. She meets with senior students to learn what they’re interested in, which steers deciding the next steps in considering options.
“We’re helping to offer internships and job shadowing in a variety of fields so that students can kind of weigh their strengths and weaknesses or their likes,” says Nelson, a counselor at the high school.
Students are confident about their preparation for future plans — 82% of those surveyed say they feel prepared, up from 59% in 2018. The biggest jump was in middle schools, where confidence in career-planning rose 30 percentage points from 2018.
Make sure students are working toward career goals throughout high school before they are in 12th grade, says Diana Virgil, a high school counselor at Daleville High School in Alabama. She works alongside a career coach to prep students to start thinking about their post-secondary options.
ASA’s survey report recommends starting as early as middle school to help teens assess their interests and strengths. The emphasis is on hands-on, work-based learning. Schools should also provide data and transparency on workforce outcomes to help students plan for their future, ASA said.
“We always start the question off as, ‘What does your lifestyle look like for you? What do you want your lifestyle to look like in the future?’,” says Virgil. “We try to gauge from there, and then we start going into the career assessments. Since we are small, that is the advantage. You get to know more about their background, their upbringing, and why they’re interested.”
K-12 Dive
