Harmony Wall was studying hard for her entrance exam to Linn State Technical College.  She graduated from high school in 2002 and this is the first secondary school she has thought about attending.

Many people, including Wall, decide to attend trade and technical schools rather than four year colleges because they know exactly what field they want to go into.  Wall wants to do web design.

Breanna Kinkade has always wanted to own her own salon.  She loves working on people's hair.  Kinkade went straight from Centralia High School to the Cosmetology Concepts Institute in Columbia.

Darla Fox is the director of the Board of Cosmetology and Barbers.  She says student enrollment in cosmetology schools has nearly doubled in the past five or six years.

She said, "We usually stayed real consistent at about 2,000, 2,500.  Now we're up to almost 4,000 students."

The number of estheticians the board licenses each year has also increased significantly.  It used to distribute 600 licenses a year and now it is up to 5,000.

Many more cosmetology schools have opened in Missouri.  Fox said for a long time there were only 72 cosmetology institutes in the state.  They reached a peak around 2005 and today the number of schools has leveled out at 85.

Wall has one worry.  "I just hope it makes enough money for my life," she said.

Money may have a lot to do with why trades schools have gained such popularity in the past five years.

People like Wall and Kinkade who know what they want to do hope to get into the job market as soon as possible.

They can do this easier at a trade school or technical college which normally offer one or two year programs instead of a four year college.

The other side of the growth may come from older people who have already had a career. 

"With the economy the way that it is, we have had more adult students that are looking into retraining because maybe they've been laid off," said Becky Dunn, the director of admissions at Linn Tech.

People who are trying to change their career later in life want to get in and out of school quickly.

All of these factors combine to create a boom in trades schools across the country and in mid-Missouri.