Why Our Trade Schools Are America’s Strategic Advantage

By Danielle Skinner, Founder & President
4th Watch Educational Services dba Machinist Career College

As new tariffs spark momentum toward a potential manufacturing renaissance in America, a critical challenge looms: the widening skills gap threatens to derail these efforts before they even begin. With an aging workforce, declining investment in vocational training, shifting demographics, and rapid technological evolution, the industry is also grappling with a deeper issue — outdated perceptions of what manufacturing careers actually are today.

Since graduating high school, I’ve dedicated my entire professional life to career education. Through leadership roles at multiple career-focused institutions, I’ve seen firsthand how alternative education pathways can change lives — while simultaneously addressing our nation’s urgent need for STEM-trained, job-ready workers.

But to truly bring manufacturing back home, America must adopt tech policies that don’t just incentivize reshoring — they must prioritize education and innovation together. We need to prepare for a global tech race that’s already well underway, one in which our adversaries are advancing fast.

For generations, America’s education system has, often to its own detriment, funneled students toward four-year degrees — regardless of aptitude, interest, or practical opportunity. I graduated high school nearly 30 years ago at the top of my class, yet when I arrived at college, I was already two years behind my peers. Not because of ability — but because they had access to resources I didn’t.

The data tells the rest of the story. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, just 41% of first-time, full-time students complete a bachelor’s degree in four years, and only 62% within six. Yet traditional universities continue to receive steady funding with minimal accountability. In contrast, career education programs like ours are held to rigorous standards — often required to maintain graduation rates of 70% or higher just to retain accreditation or access to federal financial aid for our students.

In my home state of California, the need for alternatives is even more urgent. In 2022 alone, the California State University system enrolled over 65,000 first-time students — yet only 19,531 are projected to graduate within four years. According to CSU’s own metrics in “A Progress Report of the Graduation Initiative 2025 (August 2023)”, 17 of its 23 campuses — nearly three-quarters of the system — have set four-year graduation goals at or below 44%. Most striking of all, 10 campuses are aiming for a four-year graduation rate as low as 30%. A goal of 30% — that’s not just low, it’s heartbreaking. Imagine enrolling your child into a college program knowing there’s less than a one-in-three chance they’ll graduate on time and only a slightly higher change that they graduate at all.

And the gaps get wider. PELL Grant-eligible students — often from the same working-class communities we serve — graduate at a rate 13.5% lower than their non-PELL counterparts (https://public.dashboards.calstate.edu/csu-by-the-numbers/historical-grad-rates).

These statistics tell a painful truth: too many students are being pushed toward a system that doesn’t support or serve them. And yet, that same system continues to be held up as the gold standard — while career education remains overlooked, underfunded, and undervalued.

The good news is that solutions already exist — and they’re working. At Machinist Career College, students complete an intensive 5-month training program that leads to three industry-recognized certifications. We maintain a 92% graduation rate and an equally impressive career placement rate of 84%, with the vast majority of our students placed in full-time employment within 30 days of completing the program.

Our graduates go on to work at companies like Starr Surgical and Hydraflow, as well as dozens of small and mid-sized manufacturers across California like Charles Meiser, Inc.— the very businesses that quietly power America’s supply chain. What makes these jobs remarkable isn’t just the technology or the titles. It’s the stability. As one industry veteran told our students, “I’ve never been unemployed… Never, ever have I been unemployed.”

Our average student is 28 years old — often a working or out of work adult with real-life responsibilities. Many are warehouse workers, day laborers, or underemployed individuals looking for something more: stability, growth, and a career they can build a life around. They don’t have time to waste — they need opportunity now, not four years from now.

The ripple effect of expanding access to technical education reaches far beyond any one classroom. By tapping into California’s world-class innovation ecosystem and channeling it into workforce development, we have the power to drive a new era of statewide renewal. If we can move just a fraction of our paycheck-to-paycheck population into stable, skilled careers in manufacturing, we can transform entire communities.

In California, this model offers a powerful alternative to the business exodus we’re watching unfold. Instead of relying solely on tax incentives to retain corporate headquarters, we should invest in a skilled labor force that makes relocation unnecessary. The same ingenuity that built Silicon Valley into a global tech hub can — and should — be applied to advanced manufacturing. But it only works if we have the hands to build what our brightest minds design.

This must become America’s next moonshot moment. We need bold policy that prioritizes both innovation and education — and that supports multiple, real-world pathways to success. Because if the jobs come back and we’re not ready with a trained workforce, then we haven’t really brought manufacturing home. And the opportunity will pass us by.

I’m not naive about where manufacturing is headed. The era of traditional assembly lines may be behind us, and yes — automation and robotics will be central to the future of American industry. But someone still has to build the robots. And on an even deeper level, someone has to manufacture the precision parts that make those machines function. That someone is the machinist.

Machining is no longer a blue-collar fallback. It’s a modern STEM career — one rooted in mathematics, programming, materials science, and design. Our graduates operate multi-axis CNC machines, interpret complex engineering drawings, and work with tolerances smaller than a human hair. They are not just technicians — they are the builders of innovation. And in today’s geopolitical climate, they are also vital to our national defense.

For decades, the U.S. has outsourced critical components of our supply chain — chips, parts, tools, and the skilled labor to produce them. Meanwhile, countries like China have scaled aggressively. Since 2004, China has surged from less than 9% to nearly 30% of global manufacturing output. They’ve launched over 2,300 AI-focused academic programs and are projected to outpace the U.S. by 27.5 million STEM graduates in the next decade. This isn’t just about economics — it’s about sovereignty. When we can’t produce what we need to defend our country or maintain technological leadership, we are exposed.

That’s why the work we do at Machinist Career College matters. We’re not simply placing students in jobs — we’re building a workforce that fortifies America’s innovation infrastructure. And the students we serve are often the very ones our system has overlooked for far too long.

Lastly, career education isn’t just about teaching a trade. It’s about restoring belief. At MCC, we’ve built a student support model that wraps around the whole person. From trauma-informed coaching and motivational mentoring, to transportation assistance, career readiness, and financial literacy, we meet students where they are — and help them grow into where they’re going. Because for most of our students, machining is new — but so is being seen. So is being believed in. We can’t just open a school and expect change. We can’t just start a program and hope for results. If we want different outcomes, we have to do something different; and that something is coupling education with the wrap around services that are needed due to the neglect of worshiping traditional education models as “the best” post-secondary option. We already failed them once. Let’s not do it again.

To our policymakers: If we want to win the global tech race and reclaim our manufacturing edge, we must reimagine what national security looks like — and who protects it. That means investing in the machinists, the builders, and the training programs that power American innovation. It’s time to make workforce development a national priority — not just a budget line.

To City /State/Federal Funding Agencies and Donors: Let’s be honest. Continuing to pour resources exclusively into four-year, or even some two-year community college, models while ignoring the outcomes and overlooking the alternatives isn’t just shortsighted — it’s wasteful. Career education is working. It’s producing results. It’s rebuilding industries. The smartest thing we can do now is broaden the definition of success and invest in all the ways people actually get there.

Because in the fight for our future, we don’t just need talent — we need tools. And that starts with people who know how to build.

About the Author:
Danielle Skinner is the Founder and President of 4th Watch Educational Services, a nonprofit career education provider and the Level 1 owner of Machinist Career College in California. A lifelong advocate for workforce equity, Danielle has spent more than two decades in leadership across career training institutions, helping thousands of students—especially those overlooked by traditional systems—find purpose through skilled trades. The name 4th Watch is drawn from a biblical reference (Matthew 14:25), symbolizing courage and breakthrough in the darkest hour.