Gen Z wants careers, not degrees. This nonprofit is helping them bypass college

While volunteering with a boys' high school basketball team in Indianapolis, Earl Martin Phalen discovered a surprising trend in between scrimmages and drills: A large portion of players had applied to college at the request of their teachers and principals — but most had no intention of enrolling in higher education. 

Phalen had spent decades working in education law, and set out to understand this trend more. His research showed that the decision came down to, largely, money: Tuition costs are high, and the appeal of launching a career and earning money right after high school was undeniable.

"Fifty percent of high school seniors in urban communities like ours want to go to college — that's beautiful and we want to support them and honor them if they choose that path. But there was another 50% choosing to go into careers right out of high school," says Phalen. "That changed my mindset and really got me focused on finding a way to help our young people who want to go to careers without just relying on jobs at Pizza Hut or Burger King." 

In response, Phalen went on to found Great Jobs KC in 2022, a Kansas City, Missouri-based nonprofit that provides workforce training to young adults in the area to help them get full-time employment in sectors like healthcare, IT, manufacturing, logistics or construction. Applicants are first accepted into month long professional skill classes where they learn basic workplace competencies. Later, when they're matched to one of the 72 local companies in the nonprofit's network, they'll do training and onboarding with that company's team, with the goal of ultimately earning a full-time position. 

Read more: 25% of Gen Z workers are supporting family members — and risking their own financial future

Throughout the process, applicants communicate primarily with one of Great Jobs KC's scholar advocates, who provide both administrative and emotional support to the young adults as they go through their various training and eventually graduate. 

"We're fostering a personal connection," Phalen says. "We're making regular calls and text messages as well as showing up to workshops to make sure they're doing well and keeping up with attendance, and asking them about what they need if they're not. That way, our scholars really understand that they have a champion." 

For most of the applicants to Great Jobs KC, the biggest stressor deterring them from higher education has been the rising cost of tuition. The possibility of accruing more debt than they could ever imagine paying off, even with a thriving career, was not worth the risk for many. 

"A lot of the young adults we work with also felt like they had to help their household and bring in another income," Phalen says. "Many of them just want to contribute to the family and support their siblings and their moms by being successful." 

Read more: ​​How Gen Z is building successful careers without college degrees

When building his network of industries and companies that could partner with Great Jobs KC, Phalen ensured that the young adults going through his program weren't sacrificing compensation by bypassing a university degree. On average, the young adults that graduate from the training programs are placed in jobs where they can earn up to $85,000 annually plus benefits, earning on average $925 more per month than they did before enrolling in the program. 

In just a year, an effort that was created to primarily help inner-city kids quickly grew to include young adults from all walks of life — because much like the boys on Phalen's basketball team, there were many more young Gen Z-ers looking for opportunities that didn't necessarily include a college degree. A survey commissioned by American Student Assistance and Jobs for the Future found that not only are 50% of high school graduates actively pursuing non-degree opportunities instead of going to college directly, but 70% have high confidence in their post-high school plans. 

"It's not that they don't want to get to work — they want to have freedom and flexibility," Phalen says. "These credential pathways often give them that. This isn't our grandparent's generation where they're going to join a company at 21 and stay there for 40 years. If they want to, they'Il make it a priority to get another credential and get a different job."

The youngest working generation is communicating those wants and needs earlier than those that came before them. In a recent report from Gen Z and millennial market research platform YPulse, 57% of Gen Z middle school students and 49% of Gen Z high school students believe work experience is more important than a college education. In addition, 80% of Gen Z middle school students and 85% of high school students plan to go to college, compared to 100% pre-pandemic.

Read more: Gen Z workers in these 10 states are struggling to make a living

Currently, Good Jobs KC has 3,000 scholars — not all of whom are exclusively fresh high school graduates — enrolled in their training programs, and 665 graduates working in one of their designated fields. The nonprofit had already made the process tuition free, but they were recently able to up their program offering access to support services, including child care and transportation support, eliminating  as many obstacles  as possible for participants. 

As they continue to grow, Phalen and his team hope to grow their network of employers and inspire organizations to think outside the box when it comes to recruiting young talent. 

"This is a new generation and they're just looking at work differently," Phalen says. "Some people live to work and others work to live and Gen Z certainly falls under the latter category. It's time for businesses to start to understand that they need to interact with this workforce differently."