The ROI of Technical and Trades Degrees with Jessie Cannizzaro

Get Down to College Business

Ever feel like you’re swimming against the tide of conventional career advice? If so, this episode is tailored for you. Many people still underestimate how rewarding and viable careers in the trades can be, even though they often lead to high salaries and job security without the burden of student debt.

Join Sarah Holtan as she sits down with Jessie Cannizzaro, master plumber and president of Milestone Plumbing, to break down the stigmas and reveal the true potential of trade careers.

Jessie explains how trades offer structured advancement opportunities—from journeyman to master levels—while focusing on hands-on learning that suits kinesthetic learners better than traditional education often does. How can a career in trades provide not only stability but also avenues for growth in management and beyond?

Curious about how integrating trades education early can set students up for lifelong success? Tune in to hear Jessie Cannizzaro lay it all out, from her admiration for her mother's pioneering role to her advocacy for trades education reform.

Episode Highlights

13:17 - One thing that I have reframed when I go into schools to talk to students about the plumbing trade, I do not lead with it is a 5-year apprenticeship and it took me a while to figure out that that will freak a 16-year-old out because 5 years sounds like an eternity to them.

19:41 - We have a shower head display that I literally will go into a classroom every single year for career day and we let the kids take the trim off, pull the cartridge out, explain what the cartridge does, and how it can fix a leaky faucet at home and then put it back together and assemble it. And seeing their faces light up when they're using the tools, I love especially seeing the little girls, and they'll say sometimes to me like, "My dad couldn't fix this at home." And then I will always, in such a nice way, "You go home and make sure you tell them you know how to do it now."

27:13 - I do think that remote learning and having people working and learning different classes, whether it's remote or just strictly in some fashion that they're not integrating into teams, does set them up to not work as well on teams once they're inside of the workplace. But I think each person is going to have their unique experiences that they've had through life, and those are going to impact whether or not they work well in teams.

Sarah Holtan, PhD

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Jessie Cannizzaro

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