Validated Insights Report: Training Market for Skilled Trades is Growing Faster Than Expected and Leads the Education and Training Market

New mid-year report on skilled trades & allied health, from Validated Insights, shows trade school revenue and job postings nearly double recent estimates, fueled in part by AI infrastructure demands.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to the newly updated report from higher education marketing and research firm Validated Insights, enrollments, revenue, and other data related to trade education and allied health indicate the sectors are now the fastest growing area in American education, far outpacing even past generous growth estimates.

Earlier projections for growth in trade and allied health education programs were strong, anticipated to expand about 6.0% annually through 2030. According to the update, growth was underestimated. The entire sector grew but health and trade programs have nearly doubled. The report found that “2025 trade-school revenue, [is] up 11.4% YoY — nearly double the 6.0% growth originally forecast.”

“We’re seeing some pretty fast, amazing, and strong numbers in the trade education and health education sectors,” said Brady Colby, Head of Market Research at Validated Insights. “Things, frankly, we did not expect to see in quite this way. More importantly, we’re seeing that these growth metrics are likely stable, structural, even conservative and bolstered by other ancillary data such as job postings and outside investments,” he said.

Trade education programs are now a $19.1 billion market based on 2025 revenue, the report found. Based on the new data, the sector represents about 12% of the total US education market, which is estimated to be about $164 billion.

The report also found strong financial returns for private providers in the trade education sector and strong market tailwinds for future growth and returns. Among those projections is that there will be more than 370k open construction and electrical jobs by 2030 – jobs for which formal training programs will be necessary.

Many of these new jobs are, the report finds, related to real and anticipated needs in AI-related infrastructure, which is causing major technology providers to start or invest in skilled trade programs such as HVAC, construction, and plant engineering. “AI turned skilled trades into the bottleneck. The capital that follows is the response,” the report found.

In addition to the trends in skilled trade education, the updated report includes new data and projections on allied health education, which is also undergoing strong and sustained growth.

According to the report:

• 1.1 million students are now enrolled in allied health education and training programs
• These programs are expected to exceed 8% growth annually, with enrollments in medical assistant programs expected to surpass a staggering 37% annual growth rate

For both skilled trades and allied health sectors, interest in future enrollments continues to far outpace capacity in actual, available programs indicating significant unmet need among future students. In health fields alone, about 7.7 million potential students said they intend to enroll in these programs within two years, only about 571k did.

“Even though the jobs and programs are there, there is still a massive, persistent gap between what people say they want and what they actually do,” Colby said. “If you’re looking at these markets, that means they’re growing, investment is coming in, returns are going out, and it’s still deeply underserved,” he said.

This is the fourth edition of Validated Insights’ recurring report on the U.S. Trade School market. In late 2024, Validated Insights released its initial report on trade schools and updates were released in March 2025 and in September 2025. Each edition builds on the last using VI’s proprietary IPEDS taxonomy — a classification that isolates Trade Schools from the broader federal data.

Previous reports from Validated Insights have studied the market for online program management companies (OPM), MBA programs, nursing education, AI education, and computer science programs.

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About Validated Insights

Validated Insights is an agile marketing agency specializing in helping higher education institutions achieve and exceed their goals. With a comprehensive suite of services, including digital marketing, paid search, paid social, and web strategy, Validated Insights delivers data-driven strategies and measurable results. The agency's agile testing approach enables short- and long-term growth through better creative, strategy, media execution and continuous brand building. Validated Insights is the only agency in the higher education space to offer a performance guarantee in KPIs in the first 60 days - and continuous growth beyond that.