The Days of Going to College and Getting an Office Job Are Over

Last month, the CEO of the world's largest recruitment firm went on CNBC and said something that should have been front-page news.

"The days of going to college and doing something in an office — they are over. You can make a good career and good money in a skilled trade."

Sander van't Noordende, CEO of Randstad — CNBC Squawk Box Europe, May 2026

Van't Noordende isn't a trades advocate. He runs Randstad — 39 countries, nearly 5,000 offices. He's not speculating about the future. He's watching it happen across millions of job placements.

Two forces are colliding

AI is absorbing entry-level office roles faster than new ones are being created. And the AI economy — data centres, infrastructure, energy systems — needs to be physically built. Randstad's analysis of 50 million job postings found demand for HVAC engineers jumped 67% between 2022 and 2026. Industrial automation technicians, 51%.

A June 2026 SimplyWise survey of over 1,100 Gen Z adults tells the same story:

• UK trade wages are up 9% since 2022
• 66% of Gen Z would encourage a friend to consider a skilled trade
• 25% say they would choose trade school if they could start over

For a generation raised to believe the degree was non-negotiable, that last number is a shift.

The group nobody's talking about

This conversation almost always focuses on school leavers. But there's another group it applies to just as much: mid-career professionals who spent years building the kind of office careers van't Noordende is now calling into question. People who want to work with something tangible — and just need a structured way in.

That's what Renzo is building. A retraining platform for mid-career professionals making the move into skilled trades. Structured and built around the way working adults actually learn.

The shift is real. The path in should be too.