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I'm considering going to trade school for a few months to a year after a 10-month volunteer stint, and they give me a $5,000 financial aid award for completing the stint. Since it's hard to find a job outside of the food service or hotel industry without at least one year of experience or certification, I had the idea that maybe I could use the financial aid award to pay for trade school or an academy that I can attend for about a year, and find a part-time job nearby the campus so I can save up money for a vehicle and/or a place to live.
I was wondering, what are some good trade schools or academies? I had an interest in law enforcement, EMT, and firefighting, I aim to possibly become a Park Ranger someday, and I like working with my hands but also getting to use my head, and am willing to do hard physical work.
I have an interest in being a cook, a painter (for houses and businesses), a welder, a carpenter, an electrician, a stagehand, and really anything where I get to use my head, work with my hands, be on a team, and/or develop hard skills that can be useful with the National Forest Service, a career in law enforcement, or that can transfer over to a major job sector where I can easily find more jobs.
I know there's a Commercial Diver program at the Santa Barbara City College in California that (if I understand) has a campus, but I'm not yet certified enough to attend, and I'm not sure if my swimming skills will be good enough by the time I finish NCCC.
I would search the community colleges in your area. Most of them will offer certificates or AA/AS degrees in those subjects. The CC in my area does indeed have a forestry program.
In Pa. a teaching certificate in Industrial arts got me a few jobs in industry. The managers in the industry didn't know just how much the education of teachers was screwed up compared to what was practiced in industry, which was a good thing for me or I would never have gotten the jobs. When I got into the industry I found out just how wrong what I was supposed to teach was.
What do you want to do? You'll have to narrow down that list a bit. Since you're in Tennessee you have both the Community College system and the Tenn College of Applied Technology as options. There will be campuses near you. Depending on what you want the CC systems focuses on the more "white collar" type of trades such as IT and academic programs/college prep while the TCAT focuses on the classic blue collar trades. Law enforcement at Tenn Law Enforcement Academy.
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