Does occupational training pay off for students?
Summary
About two out of every five undergraduate students are enrolled in community colleges, seeking degrees, certificates, upskilling for their current career, or retooling for new careers through for-credit programs and courses. Community colleges also serve millions of students each year through noncredit programs.
Many of these noncredit programs provide occupational training—offering an alternative route to upskilling or reskilling and often preparing students for a professional certification or license needed to secure employment or advance in a specific field. Despite the high level of demand for noncredit occupational training, until now we have been unable to say with confidence that the training pays off for students.
The recent enactment of Workforce Pell grants for short-term, occupational training places a particularly fine point on the need to answer this question. A study recently published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis addresses the question, analyzing wage growth following occupational training in community college noncredit programs among 128,000 students enrolled in Texas community colleges. This brief highlights the key findings of that study and implications for education and workforce policy with special attention to the implementation of Workforce Pell and WIOA reauthorization.
Key findings
Earnings gains from occupational training in community college noncredit programs are robust.
Earnings gains differ markedly by field of study.
Longer training programs tend to pay off better than shorter programs, but earnings gains unfold over time.
The paths from noncredit training to credit-based degree and certificate programs continue to be limited and problematic.
Highlights from the brief
A typical student in Texas noncredit workforce programs enrolls in just 92 hours of training—roughly the equivalent of one 3-credit course. Yet, workers in Texas who complete noncredit occupational training see average earnings gains of more than $2,000 per year (adjusted for inflation) within two years after training. Even two years later, trainees remain almost 4 percentage points more likely to be employed. When individuals who were unemployed are included in the analysis of wage growth, average gains are nearly $4,000 per year by two years after training, reflecting the combined effects of training on both wages and the likelihood of being employed.
$2,014 — Workers’ average growth in annual earnings two years after completing training.
5.6 percentage points — Increase in the chances of being employed in the quarter after completing training.
$3,895 — Average growth in annual earnings two years after training, including individuals who moved in or out of the workforce.
.jpg)
.avif)
