It’s graduation season but the truth is, most people who enroll in college dropout, never getting the degree they signed up for. How can you beat the odds and maximize your investment in a college or certificate program?

In today’s episode, you will learn:

• How to organize your schedule so that you take classes in the optimal order to succeed academically and graduate on time.
• How to leverage the innate desire in all people to help one another to get support, increase accountability, improve your grades, and lower stress.

Studies show that there are three general reasons people drop out. Thirty-eight percent say they ran out of money. About thirty percent are not academically prepared to do post-secondary work, and the remainder has personal or family challenges.

My guest today is Evelyn Van Til. Evelyn is currently a Strategic Partnership Manager at American Student Assistance, a national nonprofit changing the way middle and high schoolers learn about careers and navigate education-to-career opportunities.

Almost in passing Evelyn recounted an experience she had during her tenure at The Ohio State University. I felt that this was something that more people, and by this I mean a LOT more people, especially students or prospective ones, should know about.

While at Ohio State, Evelyn achieved something extraordinary: in just two years, she turned dropout rates on their head and cut the time to graduation in half. When she came on board, her program had a 90% dropout rate, when she left, 91% of students graduated and time-to-graduation rates dropped from an average of 7-9 years to a very reasonable 4-5 years.

How did she do this? It turns out that the way students organized their classes and themselves had almost everything to do with whether or not they graduated and how fast they did it.

First, Evelyn reduced confusion about schedules, replacing vagueness and uncertainty with focus and confidence.

On the administration side, Evelyn worked with instructors, focussing on how she could help students pace their classes and providing a four or five-year framework for graduation. Beginning during orientation, a time when many students wander around with only a vague sense of how to set up a schedule, Evelyn provided guidance in the creation of schedules. She cleared up some common misconceptions about when to take required courses.

Second, she leveraged the innate desire of people to help one another.

When possible, Evelyn enrolled students together in their chosen fields of study. She encouraged them to ask for “study buddies” and to develop accountability partners and study groups.

Many of her students had never been on their own. So they needed to learn how to be accountable for their success, beginning with showing up for classes regularly. Having a buddy to check with increased attendance. Having study partners and groups allowed students to reinforce their learning by explaining it to others and/or to get the help they needed.

All this social organization undoubtedly reduced stress.

Links:

Facts and figures about college graduation dropout rates: https://educationdata.org

American Student Assistance https://www.asa.org

Evelyn van til https://linkedin.com/in/evelynvantil

It's 2022, let's go over seven high-paying trades. I'll tell you what nobody does: how you can get into them fast without a costly trade school. I'll also explain wages. Salaries vary as much as 30% across the nation. I'll show you how to find the salary range for your state. The figures I give you are just the mean wages (the summary of all wages earned for a job divided by the number of folks doing them).

All you need to enter a trade is your high school diploma or GED. In addition to electrician and plumber, learn about becoming a solar panel installer, HVAC tech, aviation mechanic, welder, or telecom line installer. You can enter some trade jobs after as little as six months of on-the-job training!

With overtime, most of these jobs pay better than bachelor's degrees and can earn you as high as pay $100k. If you run your own plumbing or electrical business you can expect to earn $100-150k, no college degree required! Understand what you can really earn and how long it takes to get training as well as how to find how much you will earn in your state. The fact is, there are many employers that will train you for free!

I've interviewed a bunch of these folks in previous episodes. Don't forget to look for them.

Ooops! I forgot to say that welders make an average of $44,000.

1) Telecom Line Installers and Repairers

Median pay: $68,000 explain

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/installation-maintenance-and-repair/line-installers-and-repairers.htm

Entry: high school diploma

Many apprenticeships: offering wages, health ins. 401k, and vacation pay

Training: up to two years

Job demand: Flat

You will be working on towers 100+ feet tall with a 50 lb

Safe Climbing Practices, Procedures, and Rescue Plans

Flexible with shift work, to include maintenance window and weekends if needed

There are many free training programs offered by cable companies. You can also find apprenticeship programs in which you are paid wages while you are training.

2.) Solar Panel Installer

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/solar-photovoltaic-installers.htm

Mean annual wage $46,470

Entry: high school diploma

Many apprenticeships: offering wages, health ins. 401k, and vacation pay

Hourly wages

Job demand: High growth through 2030

An entry point into a construction career.

Many solar companies will train you. Training will take a year or less. Most solar panel installations are done outdoors, but PV installers sometimes work in attics and crawl spaces to connect panels to the electrical grid. Installers also must travel to jobsites.

High growth: 52%

Look for Solar Installer – Electrical apprentice openings

JUDALINE CASSIDY

FOUNDER & CHIEF VISIONARY OFFICER

TOOLS & TIARAS

Trades careers offer great wages and job security and can be entered with only a high school diploma or GED. Yet only 4% of the trades professionals are women. And only 8% of trades workers are people of color. Today we get to stigma busting with Judaline Cassidy, Founder, and CEO of Tools and Tiaras, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, master plumber, and member of Union Local 1 NYC has some answers!

1) "TV is very, very powerful." To alter the stigma surrounding the trades, the media needs to show tradespeople as something other than cleaning toilets. We need full characters portrayed in the media.

2) Tradespeople need to take pride in their jobs and encourage their children to enter the trades.

2) Construction is a STEAM occupation and career paths should be taught in the schools.

3) Investments are needed in organizations that recruit women.

4) Teachers and guidance counselors shouldn't just be rewarded for college admissions and should be directing students into the trades.

Notes:

Tools & Tiaras

Union Local One NYC

Plumbing Careers and Wages