Brookings Report on the Value of Certificates vs. Associate's Degrees

The Brookings Institute recently published the article, Do students benefit from obtaining vocational certificates from community colleges?  Reporter, Adela Soliz, defines certificates as "explicitly vocational and requir[ing] fewer credits for completion than an associate's degree".  She further notes that the National Center for Education Statistics' Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems (IPEDS) divides certificates into tow categories.  There are long-term certificates, which typically require at least 12 months of full-time study, and short-term certificates, which require less than 12 months of full-time study.  

The figure below shows the rate of growth in these two categories of certificates, between 2000 and 2012.  According to the article, "the number of long-term certificates awarded grew by 63 percent while the number of short-term certificates grew by 157 percent".  According to IPEDS, the number of associate's degrees awarded during the same period grew by only 47% (not shown in graph).  Soliz goes on to note that, "despite the large growth in the number of students completing these [certificate] programs, only a limited number of studies to date have examined the financial returns to community college credentials other than associate's degrees".  

What Soliz has turned up from research on the subject is that there are financial returns on long-terms certificates, but that these returns seem to be correlated with specific career fields.  There also appears to be less evidence to support financial returns for those completing short-term certificates.  She goes on to hypothesize that the differences between the financial returns of short and long-term certificates may be attributed to the level of recognition that employers have about these certificates.

Soliz proposes that one way to increase the likelihood that employers will recognize these certificates is to establish and develop better relationships between community colleges and local and regional employers.  She cites The National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3) as one resource for creating networks in order to implement "technical certifications that are portable, stackable, and recognized by industry".  The NC3 model first works to develop credentials at the national level, before approaching training programs at the local level.  The model is also based on the concept of stackable credentials, where one certificate program builds on the next and, learners are able to complete a series of certificates over time that prepares learners for a national licensing exam, and/or leads to an associate's degree.

Questions:  Have you noted any trends with your learners enrolling in certificate programs?  What is the typical field of study, and duration of the programs that most of your learners are joining?  Do you know of any programs in your area that offer stackable credentials leading to national licensure, or an associate's degree?     

Best,

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Cynthia Zafft, the Post-Secondary Completion Moderator, shared the Aspen Institute's 2015 report, The Value of Credentials for Disadvantaged Workers: Findings from the Sector Employment Impact Study.  

Jobs typically requiring a postsecondary credential are projected to account for 44 percent of new jobs in the 2008-2018 time period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2012-22.  This report notes that even as policy makers place increasing focus on training workers for postsecondary credentials, there are questions for job seekers and workers investing time and money to obtain a credential with the goal of improving their employment prospects and increasing their earnings. 

Drawing on data from the Sectoral Employment Impact Study (SEIS)4, which included three sector-focused training programs, the report explores whether learners who obtain credentials work more and earn more over time than they would without these credentials. In Section 1, the authors describe sector-focused training programs and the participants in the study. In Section 2, they describe the specific credentials provided to the participants and explore the value of credentials using a statistical technique called instrumental variable (IV), and highlight three findings. Section 3 outlines conclusions.

Thanks, Cynthia!

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com 

Hi Mike:

Some very good general advice comes from W. Norton Grubb:

“The take-home message is: credential programs are better than non-credential programs; longer programs are better than shorter; and, students need to worry if certificates have any established LOCAL market value.” — W. Norton Grubb.  In his research, he also notes that race, age, and gender will impact the value of a specific credential.  This is taken from an older Research to Practice Brief on the NCTN website, The Economic Benefits of Pre-baccalaureate College: What Can We Learn from W. Norton Grubb?

Below is a table about the characteristics of pre-baccalaureate credentials. It may represent a time before employers used credential attainment as a way to weed out job applicants in a tight labor market.  Interestingly, it makes a case for pursuing training opportunities that an employer provides as way to strengthen the employer-employee relationship, something we don't talk about often-- what people can do once they are hired to secure their employment.

Cynthia

Table 1. Understanding the Pre-baccalaureate Employment Market.

The Pre-baccalaureate job market is…

Implications

LOCAL

  • Employers look locally to fill positions for occupations requiring less than a baccalaureate.
  • Two-year colleges market to local employers.

Benefits of pre-baccalaureate education are geographically bound– if students fail to find local employment in their field of study, moving to another location may not increase opportunities because employers hire from their own local programs.

INFORMAL

  • Hiring is highly informal with specific experience often preferred to formal schooling.
  • Preparation in military, on the job, and through hobbies may be as valuable as formal schooling.

Formal schooling is less likely to be an absolute requirement. Resumes should reflect the student’s full range of experience related to type of skills required by a particular job.

LESS STABLE

  • More likely to undergo cycles of unemployment than jobs requiring baccalaureate level schooling but more stable than those requiring only a high school diploma.
  • Employers are more likely to lay off less-educated workers or those without company-specific training.

Investigation of an occupational field should include job stability and patterns of unemployment along with availability of work. Once in the job, students should take advantage of opportunities in which the employer invests in training.

Adapted from Grubb, W.N. (2002). Learning and earning in the middle, part I: National studies of pre-baccalaureate education. Economics of Education Review, 21, pp. 302.

 

The  Center on Education and the Workforce recently published a paper looking at certificate completion nationally, and more specifically in Oregon.  Below is a chart of the research around completion numbers for certificates and post-secondary degrees, based on different geographic regions of the county.

What surprises you about these numbers? Are they in line with what you’re seeing in your region, or your affiliated programs?  Read the full report for more details.  What data is missing about certificates for adult learners to help move the conversation on them forward with other stakeholders, such as higher education, and industry.

Awards of postsecondary credentials across the United States vary widely by region (see following table).