As many smaller Catholic colleges face demographic and financial challenges, a new breed of institutions is emerging: one that combines a commitment to Catholic belief and practice with more of a vocational focus. 

In the Los Angeles area, Catholic Polytechnic University is hoping to become the next “Catholic Caltech” or “Catholic MIT.” In Steubenville, Ohio, St. Joseph the Worker College, which is welcoming its first class of students this fall, is offering an innovative six-year program that blends training in a trade with a Catholic liberal arts education. 

Other Catholic trade schools also opened recently, including Santiago Trade School in California, Harmel Academy of the Trades in Michigan and CatholicTech outside of Rome. 

These schools are tapping into a national trend. Liberal arts colleges are facing declining enrollments, due to the smaller size of Generation Z, and backlash against high tuition costs and the crippling debt many graduates face. Meanwhile, trade and vocational schools are drawing increased interest as a more affordable and practical alternative. From 2021 to 2022, enrollments at mechanic and repair trade programs went up by 11.5% and construction trades jumped by 19.3%, while culinary programs attracted 12.7% more students (according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse cited by The Hechinger Report). 

Jennifer Nolan, a neuroscientist and founder of Catholic Polytechnic University, told the Register that the idea came to her because of her own children’s interest in studying science and technology in college. As Catholic parents, Nolan and her husband faced a dilemma: either send them to a traditional liberal arts Catholic college without the emphasis on science and technology, or a local STEM-focused vocational school where they worried that an atheist professor would try to talk their children out of their faith. 

“What if we had a Catholic Caltech or a Catholic MIT where faith and science could be overtly rejoined and the students can see their blockchain professor in adoration and their AI professor in daily Mass?” Nolan said. She envisioned a university where students would be able to take classes in philosophy, theology and writing while also studying science through the lens of their faith. 

Catholic Polytechnic University is mission-driven, with an aim to show that science is a pathway to faith by educating Catholic scientists whose careers will be founded on a conviction in the harmony of faith and science. In addition to the school’s evangelical vision, there is also a need for scientists with a strong ethical foundation, given today’s forays into biotechnology, among other areas, according to Nolan.

San Damiano College for the Trades is founded on a similar vision that seeks to combine a trade or vocational education with Catholic values. The college aims to serve “traditionally minded Catholic families (many of whom are home-schoolers), putting faith first in all things, and who want an alternative to big debt, big wokeism and the standard white-collar B.A. career path,” said the college’s president, Kent Lasnoski. 

While vocational alternatives are available in other trade schools and community colleges, Catholic students won’t find the “worldview, theology, spiritual formation and cultural formation” they are looking for in those institutions, Lasnoski explained to the Register. 

San Damiano, located in Springfield, Illinois, also fills a geographic void, as the corridor from Minnesota and Wisconsin down through Illinois, Michigan and Missouri does not have enough faithful Catholic colleges for families who prioritize Catholic identity in colleges, according to Lasnoski. 

For its part, Santiago Trade School opened in 2023, after “identifying a critical need for a Catholic institution that integrates technical trade education with spiritual formation,” Mayra Brown, the school’s director of community relations, told the Register. “Our hands-on, experiential learning model equips students with real-world skills in general construction, mechanical technology and agricultural management, allowing them to apply their training directly to ongoing projects. What truly sets Santiago apart is our commitment to holistic formation. We have a dedicated Catholic Formation Department led by a chaplain from the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a Carmelite priest and a Ph.D. who all work together to guide our students’ spiritual development. This ensures that they grow not only as skilled tradesmen but also as individuals firmly rooted in their Catholic faith and moral values.” 

“The reception has been incredibly positive,” she added, “with strong support from both local parishes and the broader Catholic community. We are proud to be forming tradesmen who are prepared to serve both the Church and society with their skills and values.”

The College of St. Joseph the Worker was founded to address similar geographic and institutional gaps. The college is located in Steubenville, Ohio, and offers a program that combines elements of a trade school with a traditional liberal arts school, with an emphasis on the formation of the whole person as a faithful Catholic and skilled tradesman. 

“The College of St. Joseph the Worker is not a cookie-cutter program. We’ve entered the higher-education fray with a completely unique model: a Catholic liberal arts degree combined with training in a skilled trade,” said Michael Gugala, vice president of enrollment. 

On Sept. 25, the school’s first class of 31 students began what will be a six-year program, split between three years on campus and three years off campus learning their trade, while taking classes remotely. 

While studying the traditional liberal arts on campus, students will also begin their training. The first year provides an overview of the residential construction trades; afterward, the students will need to pick a specific trade. The school is initially offering concentrations in carpentry, plumbing, electrical and HVAC. 

“Our students are educated in the Catholic intellectual tradition while simultaneously being trained as capable craftsmen,” Gugala said. “This skilled-scholar model is designed to form leaders who are ready — spiritually, intellectually, physically — to live out the unique aspects of the lay vocation — sanctifying the family, the workplace and society.”

Catholic Polytechnic University, meanwhile, has its first few graduate schools this fall and will begin advertising for undergraduate students for the upcoming academic year. 

At a time when skyrocketing student debt has many questioning whether a four-year college is worth it, Nolan said the school has also made affordability a major priority, keeping tuition for first-year students at a remarkably low $5,000. (The average cost of a four-year school is $38,270, including tuition and all related expenses, according to the Education Data Initiative. Caltech is even more expensive, at an estimated cost of attendance between $90,822 and $94,380, depending on whether students live on or off campus.) 

Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society that publishes The Newman Guide to Catholic colleges, which includes colleges featured in the Register’s annual “Catholic Identity College Guide,” pointed to the new vocational schools as evidence of a broader yearning among Catholic students and their parents for authentically Catholic colleges: “More and more Catholic families are turning once again to authentic Catholic education.”