Katy Willis at W.S.M. reports a four-year degree is not always practical when you have bills due now - yet plenty of short training programs seem to lead straight to low-paid work with shaky hours. Many adults in mid-life or beyond just don’t have the resources or the desire to retrain for four long years, but that doesn’t mean there are no decent options for starting over. Some of the better jobs with shorter learning periods are hidden in equipment rooms, testing labs, utility sites, rail yards, hospitals and industrial plants. The work can be repetitive, technical and far from glamorous, but that’s part of what keeps the applicant pool smaller. The pay listed here is typical for trained Workers, not always the first-week Trainee rate. You may need a license, certification, supervised hours or company training before reaching it. For example, one of the jobs: Non-Destructive Testing Technicians look for cracks, weak welds, corrosion, and hidden damage without cutting equipment apart. You might use ultrasound, magnetic particles, liquid dye, or industrial X-rays to examine aircraft parts, pipelines, pressure vessels, bridges and factory equipment. A Level II Technician earns an average of about $31 per hour.

To Find Out What The Remaining 17 Occupations Are, Go To: 18 jobs you can train for in under 2 years that pay at least $30 per hour