As Gen Z grapples with artificial intelligence reshaping the traditional career ladder, a growing number of South Korean teenagers are skipping college and enrolling in vocational semiconductor schools instead, putting them on track for six-figure careers before they are old enough to vote.

Instead of spending their final years of high school preparing for university entrance exams, students are learning electronic-circuit design, clean-room protocols, and contamination control alongside calculus and chemistry. Those subjects form the technical base needed to work in South Korea’s multibillion-dollar chip industry, where specialized training can translate quickly into a job offer.

At Chungbuk Semiconductor High School, southeast of Seoul, 96.4% of students are graduating with a job offer already in hand.

“When I was in middle school, I tried to convince some of my friends to enroll with me,” No Jun-sik, a 17-year-old senior with a job offer from Samsung, told The New York Times. Instead, many of them chose to attend university. “A lot of them are now regretting that,” he added.

Like Jun-sik, roughly one in four students land jobs directly at Samsung, South Korea’s largest company. The average Samsung Electronics employee earned 158 million won ($107,300) last year, according to The Korea Herald. Under the company’s latest union labor agreement, employees in its semiconductor division — including assembly-line operators — could earn as much as $400,000 next year if profit targets are met.

AI is making college grads’ job search harder, while opening six-figure opportunities in chip manufacturing

The appeal of hands-on careers such as semiconductor manufacturing is rising as AI pushes young people around the world to reconsider whether a four-year degree is still the safest route to a stable, high-paying job.

More than 480,000 South Koreans with at least a university degree were unemployed in the second quarter of 2026, the highest level in five years. Among people ages 15 to 29, the unemployment rate rose to 7.2%, and AI is expected to make entry-level hiring even more competitive.

The pattern is not limited to South Korea. In the U.S., workers with at least a bachelor’s degree are facing a 2.7% unemployment rate, a level not seen since 2015 outside the pandemic. Young Americans have faced similar challenges, with teenagers dealing with the worst summer job market in nearly 80 years.

At the same time, AI is driving demand for the workers needed to build its infrastructure. Billions of dollars are flowing into semiconductor fabrication plants and data centers across states including Texas, California, Arizona, New York, and Ohio, creating demand for electricians, technicians, construction workers, and advanced manufacturing specialists.

By 2030, the U.S. semiconductor industry is expected to face a shortage of roughly 157,000 skilled workers, according to McKinsey research cited by Bloomberg.

For many workers, those jobs offer a high-paying alternative to the traditional college pipeline. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, one in five semiconductor workers does not have a college degree, while the industry’s average annual salary was about $170,000 in 2020.

Companies are also investing heavily in skilled trades

The semiconductor boom is part of a broader effort to rebuild the skilled-trades workforce in the United States.

Earlier this month, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said there is an immediate need for more skilled workers to support shipbuilding and other major industrial projects.

“We need 300,000 electricians, welders, etc. to build ships in the next five or 10 years,” Dimon told CNBC from the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

At the same time, JPMorgan announced a $24 million investment through loans and philanthropic grants to support a new submarine manufacturing and assembly facility expected to create 450 permanent jobs and expand workforce training.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has also joined the effort, recently launching a $115 million training program called America’s Workforce Academy. The program is designed to train data center technicians, and after completing the five-week course, participants are guaranteed a job at one of Meta’s sites.

Earlier this year, Lowe’s announced a $250 million commitment to help train 250,000 skilled trade workers in fields such as plumbing, carpentry, and electrical work over the next decade.

“In a world where administrative and analytical occupations are going to be increasingly dominated with the acceleration of AI,” Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison told Fortune at the time, “we think the skilled-trades initiative is going to be even more important here in the near future.”

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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com