New Jersey Trade Schools Can Fill the Skills Gap

Demand for skilled workers in New Jersey is projected to grow almost 13% by 2026*

The State of New Jersey has a robust economy that spans many sectors, especially technology, transportation and medicine. While New Jersey is the 5th smallest state in regards to geographic size, it is the 11th most populated state, and has the highest population density nationwide¹. This busy and crowded state requires a large pool of talented tradespeople to keep the roads and bridges repaired, vehicles maintained, manufacture high tech items, and attend to the health care needs of millions of people.

The biggest concentration of New Jersey residents is in the northeastern counties, which has easy access to New York City by four major modes of mass transit; train, bus, ferry and rideshare. This close proximity represents additional employment opportunities for those who want to commute daily into any of the five boroughs of Manhattan².

The main interstate, Interstate 95, as well as the Garden State Parkway, offer easy access to all six of Lincoln Tech’s New Jersey campuses. Mahwah and Paramus campuses are in the most Northeastern part of New Jersey (Bergen County), Iselin and South Plainfield campuses are in Middlesex County, and our Union and Moorestown campuses are in Union & Burlington counties respectively.

Campus Locations & Programs Offered

Bergen County

Mahwah, NJ

Bergen County is home to Lincoln Tech’s Advanced Manufacturing with Robotics program, which takes CNC Machining to a more advanced level by incorporating robotic assistance through customized programming. This is accomplished using advanced CNC machinery from Haas Automation, as well as the use of RoboDK software for simulation and offline programming of industrial robots. New Jersey has a $3.7 billion a year manufacturing output in the fabricated metal products and machinery sectors³. This is part of the overall $52+ billion manufacturing output of the state. Lincoln Tech offers a convenient shuttle service, which is available to students who live in the Bronx or Yonkers NY. Please reach out to the Admissions team today for details.

Stryker Corporation, a Fortune 500 medical manufacturing company, has locations in Mahwah NJ and Ramsey NJ, the latter of which is a manufacturing facility. There are hundreds of manufacturing firms in New Jersey. The Mahwah campus also offers high demand programs in Automotive Technology, Electrical & Electronics Systems Technology, and HVAC. All three are much needed in a state that has the highest population density in the United States.

Paramus, NJ

Lincoln Tech’s Paramus campus offers four popular health sciences programs, each of which are experiencing a significant increase in employment demand throughout New Jersey until at least 2026. This particular campus offers training programs in Medical Assistant, Patient Care Technician, Practical Nursing, and Medical Coding and Billing. It also offers the Computer and Network Support Technician program, which holds a strong relationship with these medical fields. Hospitals, insurance companies and doctor’s offices rely heavily on information technology to track and store medical history, treatment information and insurance data. The security surrounding this kind of confidential information requires a knowledgeable networking technician to maintain and protect it.

Middlesex County

Iselin, NJ

This growing population center is located close to shipping ports, major industry and within commuting distance to northern New Jersey and the five boroughs of New York City. The Iselin Campus offers three training programs in health sciences; Medical Assistant, Patient Care Technician, and Practical Nursing. It also offers the Computer and Network Support Technician program.

South Plainfield, NJ

Located between the cities of Elizabeth and New Brunswick NJ, this town sits strategically along the Route 1 & Interstate 95 corridor. The South Plainfield campus offers training well suited to its surroundings. Diesel Technology, Heavy Equipment and Welding are the three programs taught here, and they are very relevant to the surrounding area of Middlesex County due to close proximity to industrial cities, the New Jersey Turnpike and the major seaports just to the east.

Union County

Union, NJ

The Union campus is easily accessible from the Garden State Parkway, and is close to the heavily-traveled Newark and Staten Island region. For people who want to pursue training for a high-demand career field, this campus offers programs in Automotive Technology, Electrical & Electronics Systems Technology, and HVAC Technology. Mass transit is available between Brooklyn and Union so New York students can attend classes in New Jersey. Transportation is available through COACH USA Bus Service from four of the five Manhattan boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, NY, to Union.

Burlington County

Moorestown, NJ

Lincoln Tech’s Moorestown campus is located in southwestern New Jersey, just between Camden and Trenton. It is also just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, a major metropolitan area. Moorestown offers the same Health Sciences and Networking programs just like our Iselin, NJ Campus. It also offers Massage Therapy training which is a field with a projected 32%+ growth in demand between 2016 and 2026. With mid-sized cities in southwestern New Jersey nearby, and Philadelphia just across the bridge, there is plenty of opportunity for the aspiring Massage Therapist to obtain work.

Six New Jersey Campuses Offer 13 In-demand Skills

The best way to determine job growth is to look directly at the official sources for occupational information. The chart below is aggregated directly from CareerOneStop.org, which obtains its data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Please feel free to use the Career-One-Stop Occupation Profile page to reference the information we have provided below. Simply plug in the “Occupation code” into the Search by Occupation field, and then add “New Jersey” as the location. The results page will show you everything you need to know about that particular career field in both NJ and nationally by state. It also supplies excellent information regarding certifications, wages and related job fields for the training you wish to pursue.

* Projected Growth is calculated using the standard growth formula: Growth = ((2026 value - 2016 value)/2016 value).

** Projected additional job openings refers to the average annual job openings due to growth and net replacement.

Closing the Skills Gap in New Jersey

There exists a national skilled employee shortage; and it has been referred to in both industry and the news as the Skills Gap. In short, the United States does not currently produce nearly enough skilled tradespeople as it actually needs, so the demand to fill career trades of all kinds goes unfulfilled. Employers are struggling to find enough skilled individuals to fill the positions they need to fill, and are willing to pay a good wage to secure highly skilled and eager individuals. Lincoln Tech offers thirteen excellent career training options in New Jersey, all of which have positive growth in job demand. Please feel free to contact Lincoln Tech through the contact form on any page, or call the campus closest to you for additional details.

¹ Highest Density of US States found on the web at https://www.census.gov/popclock/, Accessed on 7/30/2020.

² Population density of NJ by County as per the Census Bureau at https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/map/NJ/PST045219, accessed on 7/30/2020.

³ National Association of Manufacturers – Stats on NJ Manufacturing, found on the internet at https://www.nam.org/state-manufacturing-data/2019-new-jersey-manufacturing-facts/. Accessed on 8/5/2020.