By Leticia Wiggins

Driving a semi-truck is a job that gives you plenty of time to think – too much, actually, for Jordan Washington. He says the job paid well, and it was fun in the beginning until the monotony sunk in.

“But then after a while, I’m just like, 'O.K., I’m bored. This is not for me,’” Washington says.

By the time Washington was driving trucks, he had three kids and needed something better-paying. The only way to a lucrative job, he thought, was through college.

“My parents were always pushing, ‘Gotta go to school, gotta get the degree,’ but it never resonated with me,” he says. “People have all this debt, they're unemployed. I just kept looking for something until I found something that was for me.”

Washington didn’t want to go to a university, but he did want work that supported his growing family.

Before college became so widespread, these things called “apprenticeships” were the ticket to a good career. A teacher, or master craftsman, employed a younger person, or apprentice, as cheap labor. In turn, the apprentice was given food and lodging while learning the trade.

Read full story on radio.wosu.org.