Beyond The One-Size-Fits-All College Degree

Abstract

James Rosenbaum, Kennan Cepa, and Janet Rosenbaum examine how commonplace assumptions about higher education limit opportunity.

Nearly 90 percent of high school graduates say they will seek a bachelor’s degree, according to a 2004 national survey. But only 28 percent of community college students who want to earn a BA will actually get one—and it often takes them six to eight years to do so. Studies show that attending college has little impact on students’ earnings unless they obtain a credential. But most students fail to get any credential at all, so they leave community college in debt, and with job prospects that are no better than those who simply graduated from high school.

However, a BA is not the only route to a good job. With soaring college costs and high dropout rates, some argue that college students seeking job preparation would be better off spending their time and money elsewhere. That “elsewhere” could actually be inside colleges.

Community colleges offer short-term certificates and associate degrees that prepare students for specific occupations. Sociologist Steven Brint, an important critic of such options in the 1980s, has since noted improvements and substantial payoffs in terms of economic rewards and the ability to transfer to four-year colleges. Yet few Americans recognize the value of certificates and associate degrees (AAs). They assume that a four-year BA is the only valuable goal; they have what we call “BA blinders.”

In order to understand what young workers value about their jobs, and the value of different college credentials, we examined a national survey of young adults (AddHealth), and interviewed 48 occupational faculty and 65 students in 8 community colleges. Our focus was on the three largest occupational fields in the United States: health, computers, and business. Programs that grant certificates or AAs in these fields provide access to high demand, mid-skilled jobs like computer networker, medical assistant, accounting assistant, and computer-assisted designer.

Labor markets don’t work unless students can match jobs with their own qualifications. Occupational programs can facilitate that. Students’ choices are “organizationally produced,” sociologist Gad Yair notes. Occupational programs shape labor markets by helping students discover job options and rewards they were unaware of, as well as qualifications, interests and abilities they’ve never experienced, along with new professional role competencies. Such programs provide access to high-demand mid-skilled jobs that require education beyond high school, but less than a bachelor’s degree. These mid-skill occupations are vital for society, and they offer status and advancement opportunities. Yet few people know about them. Occupational programs are not necessarily “better” than other community college programs, but they provide a viable alternative to the one-size-fits-all view of college.

Illustrations by Gabriela Molina

More Than High Earnings

Sociologist Burton Clark, writing in 1960, argued that occupational programs “cool out” students’ aspirations. However, among adults of all ages, researcher Anthony Carnevale reports that 19 percent of all certificate holders also have AAs and 15 percent have BAs. Occupational programs no longer prevent students from seeking higher degrees; they add interim credentials that yield quick job payoffs on the way to higher degrees. Similarly, occupational programs can be routes to good jobs. Certificate and associate degree graduates in some fields enjoy significantly higher earnings than high school graduates. Although their average earnings are less than BA degree holders, nearly one quarter of certificate graduates earn more than the typical bachelor’s degree graduate.

Moreover, earnings alone do not necessarily indicate a “good job.” Some employment experts warn that high-paid jobs often have undesirable attributes (the five D’s: dangerous, demanding, dead-end, deceptive, and disagreeable) such as unlikely commissions, or unpredictable work shifts. Occupational faculty teach students to be wary of these undesirable attributes, taking into account the value of non-monetary job rewards.

In assessing possible jobs, students tend to focus on earnings potential. Occupational programs help students discover new job options and rewards. Analyzing AddHealth survey data, epidemiologist Janet Rosenbaum found that young working adults, from 25 to 32 years old, report that alternative job rewards such as status, autonomy, career relevance, and career preparation are more strongly related to job satisfaction than earnings are. While BAs provide the greatest rewards, certificates and associate degrees can offer some comparable non-monetary job rewards (even after controls, see table at contexts.org for additional data). Compared with high school graduates, certificate graduates’ jobs have significantly higher job status, autonomy, career relevance, and career preparation. In addition, having an AA degree (but not a certificate) leads to increased health and vacation benefits, and jobs that are less likely to require night shifts, irregular hours, or strenuous, repetitive work.

In computer work, for example, graduates earn status and respect when they possess skills that protect vital information and keep basic operations functioning properly. Allied health workers are responsible for people’s lives. They may also have advancement opportunities in surgical technology, radiography, and hospital administration jobs.

Certificates and associate degrees provide significant gains in job rewards over high school diplomas. For students who wish to escape dead-end unskilled jobs, these credentials often lead to better jobs in one or two years, and they allow students to accumulate credits towards bachelor’s degrees.

Student Qualifications

Community colleges offer training in “college-level academic skills” so that students can eventually transfer to BA programs. Most community colleges compel students to take remedial courses, which are typically high-school-level courses that offer no college credits. Remedial courses are often a dead end. Math remedial success rates hover at 33 percent for most students, and at 17 percent for low-achieving students. Students tend to leave them with no credentials, few payoffs and new debts.

Although “college-level academic skills” are considered necessary for the BA, they aren’t necessary for many jobs or occupational programs—for which students only need ninth grade skills or less. As one faculty member reported to us, “The math part in business is really basic arithmetic—nothing beyond sixth grade math.” Similarly, health and computer jobs require strong arithmetic skills, but only ninth grade algebra or less. Many employers also report similar needs.

Instead of advanced academic skills, these occupations require other qualifications—such as analytical thinking, technical and soft skills (such as communication, social skills, and task organization), which students learn in occupational programs. Even in technical fields, employers regularly tell faculty, “don’t send any more geeks,” or “if I can put that person in front of a customer, I’ll pay them 40 percent more.” To teach both technical and soft skills, health faculty role-play patients, computer classes require projects tailored to clients’ needs, and business classes simulate a series of crises which students must learn to analyze and fix. Through group projects, students learn teamwork. As one student says, “I became comfortable talking and interacting with people.”

A quick certificate or AA can give students confidence to pursue BAs. Those with certificates or associate degrees said they were likely to pursue higher degrees, and many do so. Occupational programs offer interim credentials and valuable skills that can yield quick job payoffs on the way to higher degrees.

Occupational programs provide a viable alternative to the one-size-fits-all view of college.

Discovering Interests and Abilities

While colleges expect students to choose programs based on prior interests and abilities, occupational programs help students discover new interests and abilities. In phlebotomy class, students learn to take blood on a rubber arm, and then they practice on one another. As they become confident, a teacher reported, they become like “little vampires,” and they bring friends and family members to class, proudly showing off their new skills.

In a three-week accounting project, students do business-related work for a hypothetical company, “and they’ve got to know all of the formulas to make all that work.” In another class, students visit animal shelters to balance the books and conduct audits, applying their new skills. A business student reports, “all my life I’ve hated math and numbers. I never thought I would eventually develop an…interest for finances…I’m shocked.”

A computer networking class provides a box of electronic components, and students build useful objects, like LED displays and clap-light switches. A part-time faculty member who does computer consulting shows students computer simulations of his work for clients. Students construct websites for customers, or take computers apart and reassemble them, and are so engaged that they are eager to continue their studies.

Occupational programs offer students new occupational options. Many of these students did poorly in high school and were never before engaged in their studies. In these programs, students discover new skills and interests that relate to specific careers. “When you find what you want to do,” said one student, “it’s kind of overwhelming, how exciting it is.”

German apprenticeships are widely admired for preparing 18-year-olds for professional work roles. In the United States, occupational programs similarly transform youth into professionals, creating a structured mix of instruction and work-related tasks where students see good jobs, and where they can assess their qualifications, interests and abilities, and learn professional roles and standards. After 15 months, formerly immature teenagers are handing scalpels to surgeons. Whenever companies trust that their finances are done correctly, when computer networks are secure, when patients are prepared for surgery, clients depend upon the professional judgment of people with certificates.

Although not as highly paid, these jobs have many attributes of professional jobs, as defined by sociologist Richard Ingersol: “rigorous training and licensing requirements, clear standards for practice, substantial workplace responsibility, positive working conditions, an active professional organization or association.” Faculty report that if students learn professional skills and standards, they will perform roles with responsibility and authority, even in stressful or ambiguous situations.

Our “BA blinders” prevent us from seeing jobs that do not require bachelor’s degrees.

These occupations entail substantial responsibilities. Computer networks must be secure so that health care organizations and schools are legally compliant, and businesses follow data protection laws. Computer networking professionals not only design systems, but also have responsibility and authority to teach clients how to comply. In the allied health fields, where actions can have life-or-death impact, teachers show students how to keep operating room equipment sterile “because it’s not ‘oh well, that is sterile enough.’” In business, many decisions are subject to legal constraints, which professional accounting assistants must know. In small firms, they may be the only employee who knows and understands these standards.

Occupational programs identify new professional roles. Many students, who never before had important work responsibilities, gain new professional identities by learning professional standards, making real-life decisions, and being responsible for important consequences. “I’ve become a lot more responsible,” said one 19-year-old student. Another student spoke of his newly learned time-management skills. After a two-year computer networking program, a 21-year-old graduate reports the thrill of being an expert and having people ask her advice.

Taking Off BA Blinders

Occupational choice has always been difficult, and rapid labor market changes pose even greater challenges today. But policymakers are thinking too narrowly about college degrees. College graduates believe they know what college is, what good jobs are, and what qualifications are needed. Although half of the labor market consists of mid-skill jobs, our BA blinders prevent us from seeing post-secondary options and jobs that do not require bachelor’s degrees.

In occupational programs, young adult workers discover that many good jobs may require only certificates or AAs. Contrary to the meritocratic model, which assumes that high-achieving youth choose highly paid jobs, occupational programs conceptualize the labor market in multidimensional ways, valuing jobs in relation to rewards besides earnings, and valuing qualifications in relation to attributes besides simply academic skills.

Although policymakers often view occupational programs narrowly as skills training, such programs also shape students’ understanding of labor markets, leading students to make better career choices and also have the option to study for their BAs. Moreover, their new skills may provide advantages even if they change fields. By age 20, students with a certificate can find a responsible job and gain valuable career experience, while pursuing further degrees. Moreover, if they shift fields, employers may value their professional experience, the computer skills of networking technicians, the financial and organizational skills of accounting clerks, or the social skills and calm professionalism of medical workers. Many employers seek these skills.

Rather than ask whether every student should attend college, we should ask what type of college they should attend, what credentials they should seek, and in what sequence they should pursue those credentials.

BA blinders prevent good policy. Many community colleges do not encourage occupational programs, mistakenly assuming that they lead to dead-end credentials and bad jobs. This may have been true 30 years ago, but today such programs often lead to good careers and offer pathways to BAs. Certificates require fewer academic skills, fewer remedial courses, fewer years to complete, and have lower odds of failure. They may also be stepping-stones to a bachelor’s degree. Unfortunately, students rarely know about these options, and many drop out with no credentials, little payoff, and heavy debt.

Rather than ask whether every student should attend college, we should ask what type of college they should attend, what credentials they should seek, and in what sequence they should pursue those credentials. But first we must remove our BA blinders, and the one-size-fits-all model of college they support.