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Brayden Fox

Ms. Tyler

Eng 1201

October 25th, 2020

“Literature Review”

The research that is being conducted is focused on the question that has not been given a

clear answer, or a define answer for everyone, what secondary school should people do after

high school; college or trade school. This research will focus on the long term of the people that

would go either route and which one will end up with a better quality of life rather than just

income. In the sources used for the paper, there are some key points that were repeated between

all the sources. The biggest two repetitions was the downplay of trade schools to high schoolers,

and the job satisfaction of trade workers.

Authors Michael McQueen and Career School Now explain how trade jobs are not

promoted by high school to high schoolers, “Inversely, vocational training, apprenticeships and

industry work have been negatively affected by people’s prejudices against them.” [ CITATION

McQ20 \l 1033 ] and “It has been drilled into students' heads for ages that college is an absolute

must. Sure, everyone needs a skill to support themselves, but do those skills need to come from

four-year universities?”[ CITATION Car20 \l 1033 ]. Authors James & Janet Rosenbaum and

Business Insider explain how the job satisfaction is high with jobs that have significance, “young

adults with BA and graduate degrees have the greatest nonmonetary job rewards, followed by

those with associate’s degrees and certificate credentials, all of whom have significantly greater

nonmonetary job rewards than high school graduates.” [ CITATION Ros16 \l 1033 ] and
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“Despite the stigma associated with construction trades, nearly two-thirds (65%) of the GTA

trades rated their job satisfaction between 8 and 10 on a scale of 1-10. The average score was

7.9.” [ CITATION PRN19 \l 1033 ].

The biggest disagreement that can be seen between job satisfaction of both educations.

Based on both sources that focus on job satisfaction argue either that people with a Bachelor’s

degree or a construction worker, which can be divided into several different trade jobs have the

better job satisfaction. According to the Rosenbaum’s people with BA’s have better

nonmonetary rewards, then people with associates degrees, and the high school graduates.

According to Business Insider, construction workers have a high satisfaction rate, with a 8 out of

10 rating given to several construction workers. This leads to having someone believe that job

satisfaction does not necessarily relate to the education, but the importance of the job the worker

is tasked with.

Each source is unique to each other but provides significance to research question. Career

School Now focuses on the differences between college degrees and trade school. The page

looks at factors such as cost of education and time to complete the education. Michael McQueen

looks into how high school and society as a whole looks down on trade schools and trade jobs

and why he believes in getting rid of this stigma. Business Insider explains a study that looked

into the job satisfaction of construction workers, and how there should be a bigger push towards

trade schools rather than college. Mike Profita, a career specialist looks into 10 of the most

popular careers for people with a business degree The Rosenbaum explain how people with a

higher degree tend to have a higher nonmonetary reward and satisfaction.

One answer to a factor of my question is the job satisfaction and which form of education

produces better satisfaction. When looking at the research of both the Rosenbaum and
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Business Insider you get a answer that goes both ways to both types of schooling. The

answer to this question could be; generally, people with bachelor’s degrees, but there is high

satisfaction rate with trade job workers. As there is more research into different fields of

trade work, since it doesn’t necessarily seem that education is a factor into this aspect.

Works Cited
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Career School Now. (2020, October 25). Trade School vs Traditional College. Retrieved from
Career School Now: https://careerschoolnow.org/careers/trade-school-vs-traditional-
college
McQueen, M. (2020). Why We Should Trade in Our Education Biases: Finding a Balance
Between University and Trade School. Teachers Matter, 6-7.
PR Newswire. (2019, March 19). Construction skilled trades have high job satisfaction levels,
but recruitment is a challenge. Retrieved from Business Insider:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/construction-skilled-trades-have-
high-job-satisfaction-levels-but-recruitment-is-a-challenge-1028040897
Profita, M. (2020, June 13). Best Jobs for Graduates With a Business Degree. Retrieved from
The Balance Careers: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/best-jobs-for-business-
majors-2059628
Rosenbaum, J., & Rosenbaum, J. (2016, September 30). Money isn’t everything: job
satisfaction, nonmonetary job rewards, and sub-baccalaureate credentials. Retrieved
from NCBI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6508652/