Trade School Enrollment Takes Missouri By Storm

In an economy where jobs aren't necessarily available at the ready, one industry is notably on the rise -- colleges and universities, as more and more people go back to school to increase their skill level and get training in new fields. Earlier this week we talked about their growing popularity in California, but today the reports are that trade tech school enrollment in Missouri is reaching a record high.

Darla Fox is the director of the Board of Cosmetology and Barbers. She says student enrollment in cosmetology schools has nearly doubled in the past five or six years.

She said, "We usually stayed real consistent at about 2000, 2500. Now we're up to almost 4000 students."

The number of people the board licenses each year has also increased significantly. It used to distribute 600 licenses a year and now it is up to 5000.

Many more cosmetology schools have opened in Missouri. Fox said for a long time there were only 72 cosmetology institutes in the state. They reached a peak around 2005 and today the number of schools has leveled out at 85.

Gravitation toward cosmetology degrees lies heavily in the profession's perceived "recession-proof" status -- everyone needs hair cuts, and everyone wants to look (and feel) a little better, recession or not. That said, cosmetology isn't alone in its new found popularity. From laid-off workers looking for new skills to people looking for a change from a job that no longer challenges them, career training has never looked so good as right now, leading to the enrollment boom in technical schools across the country.