When Ranken Technical College opened its doors in 2013 at its satellite location in Wentzville, it would be the first time that the College has had offerings outside of its home in the Lewis Place neighborhood of St. Louis, just north of the Central West End.
Ranken Technical College, established in 1907 by David Ranken Jr, an Irish immigrant, is renowned in the St. Louis Metro area for being the go-to place for technical education. The five divisions being Construction, Automotive, Manufacturing, Electrical and Information Technology means that there is something for almost anybody looking to get a career in the skilled trades.
The big push over the past 40 years by everybody from schoolteachers, school administrators, parents, and the US government was to go to a university and get your hands on a bachelor’s degree. The average skilled tradesman is now in his 50s and with job layoffs in the tech sector beginning in 2024, many have begun rethinking the way post-secondary education is addressed.
With the cost of education continuing to climb and student loan debt continuing to balloon, many in Generation Z are wising up on their after high school education, thinking of it as a cost-benefit analysis. They look at things like return on investment after graduation and are digging into the job prospects after completion.
In a recent interview with Newsnation, Mike Rowe, the TV personality behind the show “Dirty Jobs” had this to say on the matter:
“I want to hear from young people who are getting started in the trades because it’s the stigmas, the stereotypes and the myths and the misperceptions that have a whole generation brainwashed,” Rowe said. “They don’t think they can make six figures welding or plumbing; they’re wrong. There’s a path to prosperity, and it starts with a trade.”
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), as of January 2024, there were a combined one million job openings nationwide in construction and manufacturing. This shortage shows no sign of slowing down, as the BLS reports that jobs in the skilled trades will be added at a rate of 15% through 2026. This means that high school graduates have an incredible opportunity to gain meaningful employment that is in demand and will continue to be in demand for years to come.
Ranken forecasted this trend earlier than most and along with several key partners, opened its first satellite campus near Mexico Road and Hwy A, adjacent to the GM assembly plant in Wentzville, MO. This decision was due to the area’s population growth and in Ranken’s interest in providing comprehensive technical education to the surrounding area.
Program offerings at Ranken Technical College West are Automotive Technology, Diesel Technology, Information Technology, Electrical Automation, Control Systems and Building Systems Engineering.
While programs like Automotive Maintenance and Diesel Technology tend to speak for themselves—and have cool equipment to boot—other not-so-obvious programs like Building Systems Engineering often leave people with raised eyebrows and looks of confusion when the name is said out loud.
Plenty of academically inclined high school students aspire to be engineers, and thus aim to go to a university. However, what many don’t know is that the path to a career in engineering doesn’t require as much time commitment, money or math acumen as one may think.
Take Building Systems Engineering as an example. All of the systems that make buildings habitable and safe for the occupants must be designed before they can be installed and constructed. While you certainly do need a license, and in many cases a bachelor’s degree in engineering, to become a professional engineer (PE), you do not need a bachelor’s degree or license to be a systems design technician.
In just 16 months (4 semesters), a student attending Ranken Technical College’s Building Systems Engineering (BSET) program can go from zero to hero and land an entry level position at an engineering firm, general contractor or systems contractor designing either mechanical, electrical, plumbing or fire protection systems.
Entry level positions as of April 2024 pay between $48-65,000 a year depending on which systems you are designing, assuming of course you decide to pursue design at all. The ancillary skills learned prepare you for a variety of other potential career fields such as plans reviewer, building commissioning, project engineer, project management, estimator or even sales.
Not that all decisions are financially motivated, however, for some it makes a quality-of-life impact so large that it can’t be ignored. BSET graduate Zach Bischof had this to say on the matter:
“This program [Building Systems Engineering Technology] is a gateway directly into the upper middle class. In a little over a year, you could radically change the outlook of your life. When it comes to system design there are very few competitive programs. Leaving you with minimal competition for work. I cannot recommend this program strongly enough.”
Building Systems Engineering Technology focuses on the exact skills that employers demand. These skills include heavy use of design software programs, AutoCAD and Revit. Often, this results in Ranken graduates working right alongside and, in some cases, having the same job titles as those with engineering degrees.
BSET graduate Kellen Shanner, class of December 2020 had this to say on the matter:
“I got hired on at SSC Engineering in Chesterfield as an electrical designer. While attending Ranken, I was hired on as a part time, paid intern. They were impressed with my AutoCAD and Revit skills. So much so, that they had me training a new hire that had just graduated Missouri S&T’s electrical engineering program. So here I am, a part timer going to Ranken Tech, training an electrical engineering graduate. I had assumed for the longest time that electrical engineering majors would graduate from a university and just know everything already. This experience really demystified that.”
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Dan Stevens is the Department Chair for the Building Systems Engineering Technology program at the Ranken Technical College West campus as well as the Department Chair for the Electrical Systems Design Technology program at the Ranken main campus in St. Louis.