DENVER — 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.
Gombos enrolled in the Multimedia and Video Production program at EGTC. An eleven-month, part-time program, that cost her less than $7,000.
She said that's a mere fifth of the cost of what her bachelor's degree cost.
"I'm only a week in, but so far, it absolutely feels worth the financial commitment," Gombos said.
With her English degree, Gombos felt she was living paycheck to paycheck. EGTC prides themselves on offering programs that result in "livable wages."
"85% of our students who start a program with us will complete that program. 93% of our students will get a job within their field, and we're sitting it right at 100% of our students who sit for a professional exam, are passing that exam," Johnson said.
The return on investment is clear, according to Johnson.
"Every one of our students that walk through the doors here, they are finding employment. And they're finding not just a livable wage, but they're finding a wage that they're able to to really build their own families and their own communities as well," he said. "This is where we're that first step in the continuum of higher ed. The salary ranges, all of our salaries, we don't offer any program that does not offer a livable wage."
Gombos said it's more than the wage. It's the tangible skillsets she can point to, which makes the most difference.
"I really think that if this program had been accessible to me at 18, the entire trajectory of my career would have been different," she said.
EGTC offers 19 different career paths and there's no age limit on who can enroll.
"This is a really viable, a really important and a really clear next step in their career, in their life journey," Johnson said.