Higher Education
Due to increased sophistication in livestock production, farming and manufacturing, many Hutterite elders contend that higher education than afforded by grade school is becoming a necessity. Among the Schmiedeleut group support for a high school education is growing and dozens of Hutterite young people graduate with their grade 12 diplomas every year. 

In addition to grade 12 education, local colleges are offering Hutterites men various trade courses, in areas such as plumbing, swine technicians, and electricians.   

University Education & BUHEP
Many of the Schmiedeleut Hutterian Colonies have found it more suitable and appropriate to have teachers from their own colonies.  As a result of interest by several colonies, a program called BUHEP (Brandon University Hutterian Education Project) was initiated in 1994.

The BUHEP program began with Brandon University, in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.  Brandon University professors provide the training for Hutterian students.    For three months during the summer, Hutterian students attend university classes, and for the rest of the school year, they work as interim teachers in different classroom setting.  In addition, several courses are taken off-campus, often on Hutterite colonies, during the year.

This is the first time that such a large group of Hutterites has been involved with post-secondary education.  Twenty-one Hutterites were part of the first group of BUHEPers, seventeen joined the second group, and over twenty enrolled in the third group.  Even though the numbers are declining, the program continues and has graduated over 60 Hutterian educators over the past decade.

However, it should be noted that the majority of Hutterite colonies in North America do not have Hutterian teachers; teachers are hired by their respective school districts to serve the colonies' needs.  In many of these schools, students attend school only to the age of 15 or 16, regardless of what grade they might be in.  Overall, only a small percentage of Hutterite young people graduate from high school, with the bulk of the graduates coming from the Schmiedeleut group.