Florida Trade Schools: Cost, Completion & Earnings (2026 stats)

Analysis & insights

EDsmart Data aggregates institution-level College Scorecard data for this profile. Highlights below compare local medians to U.S. and regional benchmarks.

Costs & borrowing

Median graduate debt is $8,466 (-10.9% below the U.S. median of $9,500, and -11.9% vs the Southeast regional median of $9,612). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #8 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #1 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Florida are $37,379, about -6.3% vs the U.S. campus median ($39,899).

The median campus reports 84.4% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 85.5% (-1.2 pp). Formal job-placement statistics are not published in Scorecard; treat this as a comparative outcome indicator, not a hire guarantee.

First-year, full-time retention at the median campus is 61.4% vs a U.S. median of 65.2%—a leading indicator for completion and time-to-degree.

Loan repayment indicators at the median campus: 2-yr default 10.0% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 46.0% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Florida ranks earnings #35 and employment proxy #39 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include American Medical Academy (94.9%), Cambridge College of Healthcare & Technology (91.9%), National Aviation Academy of Tampa Bay (91.9%), Concorde Career Institute-Miramar (91.5%), Medical Institute of Palm Beach (91.3%), Florida International Training Institute (91.1%), Paul Mitchell the School-Fort Lauderdale (90.6%), Concorde Career Institute-Orlando (90.3%), Concorde Career Institute-Jacksonville (90.3%), Aviator College of Aeronautical Science and Technology (89.7%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Florida, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $30,893 (96 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $42,750 (76 campuses). Public campuses often dominate enrollment while private nonprofits can show higher earnings medians at selective institutions.

Average institution-level completion rate across all sectors in Florida is 75.9% (national institution average about 66.8%).