"Growing up in Concord, North Carolina, just outside Charlotte, Jacob Palmer was a classic academic achiever. "I was a good student," he says in an interview with Fortune. "In high school, I participated in all types of extracurriculars, student leadership, I did a lot of public speaking. I had all sorts of friends." But he said something changed during the pandemic. "School looked drastically different doing online classes and Zoom calls.""
"He says he figured out pretty quickly that online college "didn't work for me. I hated it." Palmer said that instead of sticking with college, he tried things out, including a stint at a FedEx warehouse for several months, and a change of scenery at his grandparents in rural Virginia, where he worked at a factory for a few months."
Jacob Palmer grew up in Concord, North Carolina, and was an academically successful and active high school student. The pandemic transformed schooling into online classes and Zoom calls, which felt intangible and led Palmer to conclude online college did not work for him. He left college, worked at a FedEx warehouse and at a factory while living with grandparents, then returned home seeking work. A contact with a passionate electrician led him to pursue a full-time electrical apprenticeship at a Charlotte contracting firm, starting at $15 an hour and advancing. Many peers similarly abandoned college during the pandemic, driving a substantial portion of a broader undergraduate enrollment decline.
#pandemic-college-dropouts #apprenticeships-and-skilled-trades #undergraduate-enrollment-decline #labor-market-shifts
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