The vocational, technical, and college preparatory courses being offered by secondary schools give students a chance to explore their ideas and interests in activities that provide a workable foundation for many career paths. The untold story is that students are becoming more attracted to fields that allow for enrollment in 2-3 year intensive training programs in lieu of matriculation in a four-year liberal arts degree program. The shifting social and economic paradigms seem to accommodate their desires for less academic rigidity in their career pursuits. These realities have produced tremendous growth for companies and institutes that provide the requisite training and education for vocational, technical, and entrepreneurial careers. The partnerships being formed between voc-tech schools and secondary schools are also providing students with the chance to use their minds and hands in creative and useful ways as they define their postsecondary interests. The cooperative and mentoring programs which grant students practical work exposure resonate more with the group of students who may not be as motivated by traditional learning styles and classroom settings. The integration of apprenticeships and internships into the secondary curriculum has successfully filled the gap for so many young people whose aspirations extend beyond the disciplines offered by traditional colleges and universities.

Aside from not having to attend college for four years, vocational, technical, and entrepreneurial opportunities are appealing because the upfront cash outlay is significantly less than college tuition and the chance to build one’s own enterprise or franchise is immediate in many instances. The economics surrounding college enrollment almost make it impossible for some students to pursue postsecondary education, especially if they have an aversion to student loans. Even though they still have to finance their enrollment in voc-tech education and training programs, the price tag is very much more palatable. While rising college costs essentially eliminate college matriculation for some, the increased growth in new fields gives them many more career options from which to choose. Trades and crafts such as electrical, plumbing, construction, mechanics, and industrial engineering continue to form the basis for long, productive careers. Vocational choices in health, sales, administration, culinary arts, medicine, design, and web ventures have exploded in all kinds of directions. The amazing proliferation and creation of new career paths allow young people to explore their dreams in areas that did not exist in years past. Further, these new century realities allow them to build ventures and enterprises in their own images and time.