Trade School Market Insights
March 2025 Edition
2019 to 2023 Change in Fall Enrollment at Trade Schools (%)
This report is the second of Validated Insights' recurring report series entitled Trade School Market Insights. The first report, published in October 2024 featured trade school enrollment trends derived from our proprietary, first-of-kind classification of trade schools in the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) IPEDS university. This report continues to build on that work, and provides a further update on the Trade School market with a number of other often-overlooked indicators. In addition to the improved data visualizations, this March 2025 update also includes:
A further exploration of enrollment trends in Trade Schools utilizing our proprietary classification, this time exploring Fall Enrollment. This report also looks at projections of Trade School enrollment through 2030.
Additional Trade School market financial metrics including a look at recent earnings results from the three publicly traded Trade School companies to get the most current peek at how market leaders are performing.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau on trends in the total population that reports being enrolled in Trade School to capture enrollments at institutions not in the NCES IPEDS universe.
A digest of state-by-state enrollment trends and demand metrics to create a resource for future analyses. These data tables show the trend in Fall Enrollment at Trade Schools (from NCES IPEDS), self-reported enrollment in Trade School (from the U.S. Census Bureau), Google Trends, and more.
A deep-dive into the market for Beauty & Wellness Schools.
Key Findings
Fall Enrollment at Trade Schools grew at an estimated 3.2% CAGR from 2019 to 2024. From 2024 to 2030 enrollment at these institutions is projected to grow even faster at a 6.6% CAGR.
In Fall 2023 there were 5.5 million students enrolled in Trade Schools and/or trade programs; 21% at Community Colleges, 61% at non-Title-IV Trade Schools, and 18% at Title IV Trade Schools.
Publicly traded Trade School companies' enterprise valuations grow 49.8% from January 2024 to January 2025. These companies' new enrollments grew 14.4% from Fall 2023 to Fall 2024.