Trade School Enrollments to Continue Strong Growth

CHICAGO – March 18, 2025 – According to the newly released report from higher education marketing and research firm Validated Insights, enrollments in trade schools are growing and projected to continue significant growth over the next five years, significantly outpacing overall growth in higher education enrollment.

According to the report, fall enrollment at trade schools is projected to grow 6.6% per year, while market revenue is projected to grow at 6.0% annually through 2030. These rates are well above enrollment growth projections for higher education broadly, which Validated Insights estimates at 0.8% annually.

“Enrollment growth in trade schools and programs was stagnant for several years but it’s clearly on the upswing now, a trajectory we expect to continue,” said Brady Colby, Head of Market Research at Validated Insights and founder of Thirty Two Edu, which was acquired by Validated Insights in 2023. Colby and Thirty Two Edu provided the data and analysis used in previous market reports from several analysts and research firms.    

In addition to monitoring and projecting top-level trends in the trade school marketplace, Validated Insights’ March report features more in-depth data and analysis of Beauty & Wellness schools and enrollments, which represent a significant portion of trade-related education. The March report also features state-by-state breakdowns of trade school enrollment patterns as well as state-by-state data on cosmetology programs.

Validated Insights estimates that the Beauty & Wellness category in trade education is worth $2.2 billion as of 2024, which represents 13.1% of the total trade school market. The report also predicts that this sub-market will grow at 5.4% a year through 2030. Although, given that more growth is expected in the trade school market as a whole, the Beauty & Wellness share of the trade market will decline over this time.

As of 2024, approximately 240,000 students were enrolled in Beauty & Wellness or Cosmetology programs nationally.

Also noted in the report is that community colleges still hold an enrollment edge in trade program participation, with about 54.4% of all trade program students attending at community colleges. This community college advantage is declining however, as enrollments in trade programs outside of community colleges continue to advance.

“All the trade school indices are pointed upwards,” said Colby. “Search traffic, estimates from high school counselors, and overall sentiment all point to stable and strong growth in trade schools for the next several years.”

In late 2024, Validated Insights released its initial report on trade schools. Future reports on trade schools and trade-related enrollments will be released quarterly, along with other timely and relevant information about higher education and the higher education market. To receive future reports from Validated Insights, follow Higher Ed News by VI on LinkedIn.

About Validated Insights
Validated Insights is an agile marketing agency specializing in helping higher education institutions achieve and exceed their goals. With a comprehensive suite of services, including digital marketing, paid search, paid social, and web strategy, Validated Insights delivers data-driven strategies and measurable results. The agency’s agile testing approach enables short- and long-term growth through better creative, strategy, media execution and continuous brand building. Validated Insights is the only agency in the higher education space to offer a performance guarantee in KPIs in the first 60 days – and continuous growth beyond that.

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