Congress has left Washington for the annual August congressional recess, following Senate completion of a rare weekend session to negotiate and advance a budget reconciliation package with climate change and health care proposals. Lawmakers also focused on passing veterans’ health care legislation and final passage of the CHIPS Act during the past two weeks. The House may return from recess as soon as August 12 to vote on the Senate’s budget reconciliation package, but both chambers will then be in recess until after Labor Day. For now, Members of Congress are focused on holding events in their states and districts, which provides an excellent opportunity for you to engage with your representatives about supporting CTE! As we await the return of lawmakers to Washington, here are some news and notes:
- Bobby Scott Tours Virginia Workforce Development Program: On August 3, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) toured the Peninsula Workforce Development Center on the campus of Virginia Peninsula Community College (VPCC) to meet with employers and job seekers and announce the award of $11 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Good Jobs Challenge. Read more about the visit here.
- President Biden Signs CHIPS Act into Law: On August 2, President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS Act) into law, allocating $280 billion in funding and tax incentives to boost domestic production and innovation in the semiconductor industry and broader science and technology-related industries. Read more about the bill here.
- Senate Releases FY23 Appropriations Bills: The Senate Committee on Appropriations has released its first drafts of its fiscal year (FY) 2023 appropriations proposals, including the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill. Although the bill gives a more modest increase to education funding overall than the House bill and the President’s request, it proposes a $60M increase for the Perkins Basic State Grant.
- House Education and Labor Committee Holds Child Nutrition Bill Markup: On July 27, the House Committee on Education and Labor advanced the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act on a 27-20 vote. The bill would reauthorize and update federal child nutrition programs by investing in school meal programs, modernizing the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), addressing food insecurity during the summer, improving school meal capacity and sustainability and strengthening the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).
- Department of Commerce Announces Good Jobs Challenge Winners: On August 3, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced grant awards to 32 workforce training partnerships across the country as part of the $500 million Good Jobs Challenge funded by the American Rescue Plan. The Good Jobs Challenge seeks to increase the supply of trained workers and help workers secure jobs in 15 key industries that are essential to U.S. supply chains, global competitiveness and regional development. You can read the complete list of award winners here.
- Nasser Paydar Confirmed as Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education: On August 4, Dr. Nasser Paydar was confirmed as the Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education at the Department of Education. Dr. Paydar is the former chancellor emeritus of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Read more from Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona here.
- National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Releases Data on Student Recovery: The Department of Education’s NCES has released new data about school responses to the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2021-22 school year and supports available to students. Read more about the data here.
- Department of Education Hosts Career Pathways Summit: On August 4, the Department of Education held a webinar to discuss current dual enrollment state policy and practice, the future of dual enrollment and the role of federal policy.
- Secretary of Commerce Raimondo, Secretary of Labor Walsh Launch Job Quality Toolkit: The Department of Commerce has launched the Job Quality Toolkit, which provides strategies and actions to help small-and-medium-sized organizations recruit and retain a high-performing workforce. The Toolkit’s strategies are organized around eight drivers, or essential elements, of a good job: Recruitment & Hiring; Benefits; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Accessibility (DEIA); Empowerment & Representation; Job Security & Working Conditions; Organizational Culture; Pay; and Skills & Career Advancement. Read more about the toolkit here.
- Department of Education Releases Draft Higher Ed Rules: On July 28, the Department of Education published draft regulations to implement several changes to federal financial aid programs, including the “90/10” rule and rules for prison education programs. The draft regulations can be viewed in the federal register and public comments are due on August 26, 2022.
CTE Outcomes for Students with Disabilities: In March, Georgia Policy Labs at Georgia State University published a report that analyzed participation, graduation rates and postsecondary outcomes for high school students with identified disabilities (SWD) who concentrate in CTE. Researchers examined student data from Massachusetts, Tennessee and Washington and shared the following findings:
- Across all three states, students with specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia are more likely to concentrate in CTE than any other disability category. In contrast, students with autism and low-incidence disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities or multiple disabilities, are less likely to concentrate.
- CTE SWD are 10 to 15 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than non-CTE SWD.
- Of the three states examined, only Tennessee has higher postsecondary attendance rates for CTE SWD than non-CTE SWD.
- CTE SWD are 5 to 10 percentage points more likely to be employed at least part-time one year after graduation than non-CTE SWD. However, this trend isn’t consistent across all disability categories.
Female CTE Concentrator Outcomes: An article by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development analyzes the outcomes of female Minnesota students who take high school CTE coursework. The analysis is highly detailed but concludes that, for many female CTE concentrators, high school CTE is not enough to attain a family-sustaining wage. However, when combined with a postsecondary credential, female CTE concentrators can reap benefits.
Improving Access and Success for English Learners: Recently, Advance CTE released a brief that describes challenges English learners (ELs) may encounter in CTE programs. In the 2018-19 school year, over 520,000 secondary and nearly 122,000 postsecondary CTE participants were ELs. Barriers to access and success these learners may face include a lack of personalization; entrance exams that test language ability as well as content knowledge; out-of-school commitments, such as supporting one’s family; and a lack of data on ELs and feedback mechanisms to learn more about EL students’ needs.
Career Planning Supports: A brief published by MDRC describes lessons learned from a pilot career planning program for recent high school graduates. In 2021, MDRC partnered with the Regional Youth Adult Social Action Partnership, an organization that serves young people in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to implement the Park City Career Pathways (PCCP) program. Partnering with key stakeholders, PCCP aimed to connect 300 to 400 Bridgeport high school graduates and non-graduates from the class of 2020 and 2021 with career planning supports as well as postsecondary, work-based learning and employment opportunities. The brief highlights some of the challenges PCCP faced regarding building partnerships, program promotion strategies and follow-up support for participants that may be useful for communities implementing similar initiatives.
On July 14, news reports stated that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would move to consider a standalone package of funding for semiconductor manufacturing, now known as the CHIPS Act, as soon as Tuesday, July 19 after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) halted conference negotiations on the bipartisan and bicameral America COMPETES/USICA. The status of several provisions under negotiation, including the JOBS Act and College Transparency Act (CTA), are still unclear, as lawmakers seek to bypass the conference negotiations in hopes of passing the bill before the August congressional recess. The America COMPETES Act and the USICA contain several provisions with implications for CTE, most notably the expansion of Pell Grants to short-term programs through language similar to the JOBS Act in the America COMPETES Act.
Now, lawmakers are lobbying congressional leadership to include their personal priorities in the bill. We need your help in putting pressure on your Members of Congress to include the JOBS Act language in the text of the CHIPS Act!
If you reside in Arizona, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Washington or California, your Members of Congress are in a key position to impact negotiations, making it crucial that CTE advocates in these states weigh in now as the negotiations quickly shift in a new direction.
ACTION NEEDED: Contact your policymakers in the House and Senate to ask them to support the extension of Pell Grant eligibility to high-quality, short-term CTE programs as they negotiate the CHIPS Act.
If you have a direct contact in your representative’s or senator’s office, such as from a meeting with a staff member during NPS or at another time, we urge you to call or email directly. You can also call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, and an operator will connect you to your requested congressional office. Please contact your senators and representatives today!
Last week in Washington was another quiet week for CTE. Lawmakers focused on considering the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), looking for a path forward on the America COMPETES Act/USICA negotiations, passing veterans’ benefits legislation and negotiating a potential budget reconciliation package with key members of the Senate. Both chambers will be in session for the rest of the month, where there is expected to be a procedural motion in the Senate to begin consideration of a standalone bill that contains funding for semiconductor manufacturing and investment tax credits. There is currently no plan to hold appropriations bill markups in the Senate, while the House may put its version of the FY 2023 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill on the floor as soon as the week of July 18. As we await more details, here are some news and notes from Washington:
- White House, Department of Education Highlight American Rescue Plan Funding: On July 13, the White House held an event titled, “White House Summit on the American Rescue Plan and the Workforce,” to highlight how American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding has been used to support pandemic recovery and workforce-related initiatives, particularly in the public health and infrastructure fields. Additional ARP funding was also released to high-need postsecondary institutions. Read more about both here.
- America COMPETES/USICA Update: On July 14, news reports stated that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would move to consider a standalone package of funding for semiconductor manufacturing as soon as Tuesday, July 19, after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) halted conference negotiations on the bipartisan and bicameral America COMPETES/USICA. The status of several provisions under negotiation, including the JOBS Act and College Transparency Act (CTA) are still unclear, as lawmakers increasingly appear likely to bypass the conference negotiations in hopes of passing the bill before the August congressional recess. ACTE will continue to monitor any new developments as they come.
- Department of Labor Awards Funding to Support Job Exploration and Training Options for Young People: The Department of Labor has awarded grants to out-of-school time organizations to connect with local and state workforce boards, organizations and education partners to introduce young people to career possibilities and provide education, training, supportive services and work experience to better prepare young adults for careers. Read more about the grants here.
- Department of Labor Announces First Cohort of Apprenticeship Ambassadors: The Department of Labor has announced 207 officials and organizations were chosen to serve as the first cohort of Apprenticeship Ambassadors to share their experiences and collaborate with the department’s Office of Apprenticeship to support apprenticeship opportunities. The chosen ambassadors include community-based organizations, educators, employers, equity partners, industry, labor and state associations, program sponsors and workforce partners. View the full list of Apprenticeship Ambassadors here.
- NCER Awards Education Research Grants: The National Center for Education Research (NCER) has awarded new grants under its Education Research Grants Program. Two grants were awarded for CTE-related projects, titled “CTE Teacher Labor Markets, Attributes, and Student Outcomes” at Georgia State University and “Exploring Noncredit CTE Program Factors that Strengthen Workforce Pipelines” at the University of California, Irvine. Awards were made to 35 institutions in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
- Department of Education Announces Engage Every Student Initiative: The Department of Education has announced a public-private partnership with Afterschool Alliance, The National Comprehensive Center, the National League of Cities, The National Summer Learning Association and the School Superintendents Association who will work with over 20 allied organizations to ensure that students have access to out of school time (OST) learning opportunities year-round. Read more about the initiative here.
State Dual Enrollment Policies: Recently, Education Commission of the States compiled dual enrollment policies across all 50 states to create a comprehensive resource that lets users explore and compare states’ policies. Included in the resource is information on student access, eligibility requirements, course offerings, funding and program quality. The following outline broad-level findings:
- About 48 states and D.C. have state-level dual enrollment policies and 28 states have created multiple dual enrollment programs through state policy.
- Approximately 27 states require secondary and/or postsecondary institutions to notify students and their families of at least one of their state-level dual enrollment programs.
- Among 41 states that have student eligibility criteria, the most common types were students’ grade level, meeting the postsecondary institution’s entrance requirements and having a recommendation from a school official.
- Of 42 states that have instructor qualification requirements, the most common were meeting the postsecondary institution’s faculty requirements, meeting institutional accreditor requirements and having a graduate degree.
P-TECH 9-14 & Dual Enrollment: New York City’s P-TECH Grades 9-14 model prepares high school students for STEM careers through dual credit courses at the City University of New York (CUNY), which allows them to earn an applied associate degree within six years. To qualify for dual enrollment in New York, students must pass the New York State Regents exams. In a report by MDRC, researchers compared P-TECH students with students from other New York City high schools and found the following differences:
- About 42% of P-TECH students passed the Regents English language arts exam with a qualifying score compared to 25% of students from other high schools.
- By grade 10, the dual enrollment rate for P-TECH students was significantly higher than for other high school students, with the gap growing larger each consecutive year of high school.
- P-TECH students attempted and earned more dual enrollment credits than other high school students. By graduation, on average, P-TECH students had earned 6.4 more college credits.
- In both P-TECH and other high schools, female students took dual enrollment courses at higher rates than their male counterparts.
Dual Enrollment Access for English Learners: A blog post by the Community College Research Center describes how Anne Arundel Public Schools and Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) in Maryland are pursuing efforts to grow the number of English learners in dual enrollment courses, which has led to the pairing of a noncredit Capstone Grammar and Editing course with a one-credit Student Success Seminar for dual credit EL students. Recently, 19 ELs from Anne Arundel Public Schools applied to AACC and registered for the two classes, almost matching the total number of ELs statewide (23) who were dual enrolled in 2017-2018.
High School Students’ Perspectives on CTE: Between February 2020 and January 2022, ECMC Group conducted five national surveys of more than 5,000 high school students to understand their perspectives on their education and career plans. The following detail findings from the surveys that are particularly relevant to CTE:
- Almost half of students believe that postsecondary education should last less than four years, and skills should be taught by hands-on or on-the-job experiences.
- Roughly 22% of students stated they are more likely to attend a postsecondary CTE institution because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a 10-percentage point increase from May 2020.
- Many careers that students are thinking of pursuing are aligned with CTE pathways; however, only 20% believe that CTE can lead to the career they want. This could be attributed to the fact that more than half of students surveyed don’t understand what CTE is.
- About 74% of students say it’s important to have a career in mind before graduating and 55% of students state that they have already begun exploring their career options during high school.
Trends in Financial Aid: Recently, the National Center for Education Statistics published a report covering trends in student financial aid during the 2017-18 academic year. After examining financial aid data by type and source across 1,900 Title-IV-eligible institutions, researchers shared the following findings:
- Roughly 55% of students at community colleges received some type of financial aid, with the most common form being grants or loans, and were awarded $5,300, on average.
- Among community college students that received financial aid, 47% received federal aid, 24% received state aid and 6% received institutional aid.
- For students at public less-than-two-year institutions, 41% received some form of financial aid and they were awarded $5,500, on average.
- About 42% of community college students received Pell grants and 28% of students at public less-than-two-year institutions received Pell grants. ACTE supports the expansion of Pell grants to cover high-quality short-term programs so that more students at these institutions can access education and training for careers.
Analyzing Equity in Postsecondary Education: The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education and the University of Pennsylvania collaborated to publish a report on equity trends in the postsecondary education system. The report reviews national and state data on equity as well as historical data on Federal TRIO programs, which are outreach and support services programs targeted at individuals from underrepresented backgrounds, with the goal of identifying policies and practices that improve overall postsecondary education attainment and equity in postsecondary outcomes.
Prospective and Current Students’ Perspectives: As postsecondary institutions seek ways to enroll and retain students, a report by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation provides helpful insights from prospective and current students. In 2021, researchers surveyed adults enrolled in an associate or bachelor’s degree program, adults with some postsecondary education who stopped out, and adults who never enrolled in postsecondary education. Some of their key findings are detailed below:
- Among adults who have never enrolled in postsecondary education, 40% have considered enrolling. In addition, 85% of those who stopped out in the past few years have considered reenrolling. For these adults, associate degrees and certificates were the top credentials of interest.
- Most enrolled students report that they are pursuing postsecondary education to obtain knowledge and skills, pursue a more fulfilling career and obtain a higher paying job.
- About 41% of associate degree students said they considered stopping out in the past six months with many citing emotional stress as a cause. However, about half report that financial aid and the value of their degree were important factors in helping them remain enrolled.
Postsecondary Education in Southern States: This May, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) published a factbook that provides a comprehensive overview of postsecondary education in the 16 SREB states. The book addresses statistics on the population and economy, enrollment, completion, affordability, faculty and administrators, and revenue and expenditures. In addition, the book includes over 100 tables of data related to these topics.
Financing Postsecondary Education: Recently, the State Higher Education Executive Officers association (SHEEO) released this year’s State Higher Education Finance Report, which gives a detailed analysis of state and local postsecondary education funding, tuition revenue and student enrollment during the 2021 fiscal year. The following are selected statistics about public two-year institutions from the report:
- Total state and local support for public institutions was $9,347 at two-year institutions, 88.6% of the amount at four-year institutions ($10,555).
- About 29 states increased state financial aid for full-time students at public two-year institutions. State aid for these students grew by 4.6%, reaching $510 per full-time student.
- Total education revenue for public two-year institutions averaged $11,928 per full-time student, which is an 8% increase from 2020.
COVID-19 and CTE Perspectives: This March, EdChoice conducted a national survey of high school students and their parents to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted their views on post-high school plans and learning experiences. The following highlight the survey’s CTE-related findings:
- Since the pandemic started, the number of students planning on attending an in-state technical school increased from 3% to 6%.
- More than half of parents and students agreed that learning skills for future employment is the main purpose of high school education.
- Roughly 20% of parents stated that CTE is the most important subject for their child to learn before graduating high school.
- About 40% of students and 64% of parents say that apprenticeships would be useful right now.
K-12 Pandemic Learning: The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently published a report that discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted K-12 learning during the 2020-21 school year. Researchers surveyed teachers and parents to uncover the following findings about learning obstacles and strategies to prevent learning loss:
- Virtual and hybrid learning teachers were about 21 percentage points more likely than in-person teacher to state that their students had more difficulty learning than a typical school year.
- Nearly 75% of all teachers had more disengaged students than a typical school year, with high school teachers and virtual teachers experiencing higher levels of disengagement.
- Teachers that used live in-person instruction were significantly more likely to say it improved academic progress for at least half their students than teachers that used live virtual instruction or asynchronous instruction.
Relatedly, the Institute of Education Sciences released new data for the School Pulse Panel, a study that surveys K-12 public schools each month to assess the impact of the pandemic on a variety of topics. Detailed below, the latest survey findings from March and April touched on mental health, staff concerns and updates to school health policies:
- K-12 staffs’ top concerns included getting their students to meet the school year’s academic standards, a shortage of substitute teachers, and students’ social, emotional and mental health.
- About 70% of schools said that the percentage of students seeking mental health services has increased since the start of COVID-19 and 29% of schools reported the same for K-12 staff.
- In April, 30% of schools needed to quarantine one or more students due to COVID-19 exposure, symptoms or a positive test, which is a 64 percentage point decrease since January.
Postsecondary Pandemic Impacts: Recently, the Federal Reserve Bank released its annual Economic Well-being of Households report, which contains survey findings about adults’ financial challenges and opportunities related to employment, education and income. This year’s report included the following findings related to postsecondary education, the workforce and the COVID-19 pandemic:
- While K-12 schools largely returned to in-person instruction, more than 75% of postsecondary students said their classes were partly or completely virtual.
- Technical college and associate degree students prefer virtual education more than bachelor’s degree students, likely due to a greater adult population who may have other responsibilities.
- Around 31% of those with some postsecondary education said the benefits from their education exceeded the cost compared to 46% of associate degree and 67% of bachelor’s degree holders.
- Although the percentage of adults aged 25 to 54 that are not working increased, adults who said they were not working because they couldn’t find work returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Supporting Community College Students: As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt students’ academic and personal lives, the Hope Center published a study that demonstrates how community colleges can raise awareness of support services. Throughout the 2020-21 academic year, researchers sent two types of text messages to Dallas College students: one offering information about resources and another offering both information and language to reduce stigma. The information-only texts increased emergency aid applications by five percentage points and outreach to college navigators by one percentage point. In contrast, the texts reducing stigma were successful at empowering students but did not increase support-seeking behaviors.
The International Technology and Engineering Educators Association published a free, downloadable book that provides research findings on teacher and student safety training, school district safety policies, facility safety and accidents in CTE and STEM programs with the purpose of helping educators advocate for better safety practices. The authors studied educator responses from the 2020 Technology and Engineering Education – Facilities and Safety Survey to learn the following:
- About one-third of respondents did not receive any form of safety training in their undergraduate teacher education coursework.
- Only 32% of educators received safety training from their school district upon being hired.
- Over half of respondents were unsure about or stated their school district did not have an annual safety audit.
- While 57% of educators indicated their largest class had 25 or more students enrolled, only 26% said they had a facility large enough to hold this number of students.
- More than half of the teachers in this study reported that lab stations or workbenches were not wheelchair accessible.
- Around 80% of educators experienced one or more minor safety-related accidents in the 2019-2020 academic year, and 12% experienced one or more major accidents.
- Respondents reported student behavioral issues as one of the top causes of accidents.
- 24% of teachers reported not requiring student safety testing before conducting a hazardous activity or using a hazardous item.
The above is just a sampling of the wealth of findings included in this book, which also touches on findings about safe use of specific equipment such as table saws, soldering and welding tools, and 3D printers as well as data on specific injuries and the activities most associated with injuries.
The report concludes with recommendations to provide a safer teaching and learning experience when facilitating CTE and STEM activities including developing a school district lab safety policy, providing mandatory teacher and student safety trainings, conducting annual safety inspections, sanitizing personal protective equipment, creating accessible workspaces for students with disabilities and ensuring proper air ventilation.
Last week in Washington was another quiet week, as Congress wrapped up its Memorial Day recess. The Senate will return on June 6, with the House following on June 7. Conference committee negotiators are continuing to resolve differences between the House-passed America COMPETES Act and the Senate version of the legislation, known as the USICA, and work is continuing on legislation in response to gun violence and other economic issues. As we await more details on next steps, here are some news and notes:
- Department of Health and Human Services Holds Early Childhood Workforce Development Webinar: On May 25, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Early Childhood Development, within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), hosted a webinar with the Department of Labor and the Department of Education to highlight approaches to utilizing registered apprenticeships to support the child care and early childhood education workforce. You can watch the full webinar here.
- CTE Program Enrollment Data Released: Recently, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center released its postsecondary enrollment estimates for the spring 2022 semester. While overall enrollment dropped compared to the spring prior, with community colleges representing more than half of enrollment declines, freshman and CTE program enrollment at two-year institutions increased significantly. Read more about the data here.
- Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants Funding Deadline Extended: The Department of Labor has announced a new deadline for $50 million in funding to help marginalized and underrepresented populations access CTE programs they need to be connected to good-paying jobs. The department will award grants of up to $1.6 million for single institutions and up to $5 million for consortiums, with up to $5 million designated to fund at least one affinity consortium grant. You can apply for the funding here. Applications are now due Oct. 14, 2022.
Supporting Learners with Disabilities: Although CTE coursework can improve employment opportunities for learners with disabilities, many face barriers to access and success in CTE programs. A recent Advance CTE brief examines survey responses from state CTE directors to determine how states are leveraging Perkins V to support learners with disabilities. The following summarizes some of the survey’s key findings:
- About 84% of state CTE directors plan to leverage Perkins V to improve access and success for learners with disabilities. The top-reported strategies include partnering with state special education offices, providing training on learner recruitment and reviewing disaggregated data.
- While most state CTE directors reported state and local collaboration with special education offices, they were less likely to take such actions as braiding funding or conducting cross-agency training.
- Barriers to enrolling students with disabilities in CTE programs include lack of coordination with special education, lack of educator training, hesitancy related to behavioral plans and safety, and admissions requirements.
- Only 13% of state CTE leaders share data by disability type with local recipients.
- Less than half of state CTE directors reported providing accommodations to learners with disabilities for credential examinations.
Although the findings uncovered challenges, they also revealed CTE leaders’ desire to improve outcomes for learners with disabilities. To act on this, the brief recommends fostering relationships with special education offices through Perkins V, providing decision-makers with CTE data disaggregated by disability type, creating cross-training opportunities with special education agencies, and utilizing accommodations to help learners succeed.
Barriers to Skilled Trades Careers: According to a survey by Stanley Black & Decker, 85% of young people value a skilled trades career, but only 16% are very likely to consider such a career. The survey interviewed high school sophomores, juniors and seniors; parents of students in these grades; and skilled trades professionals to gain a better understanding of misconceptions and factors that prevent youth from entering skilled trades careers. The following highlight the survey’s key findings:
- Only 42% of young people believe skilled trades workers earn at least $50,000. In reality, half of skilled trades workers with less than 10 years of experience earn at least $50,000 upon starting.
- Many young people don’t have an accurate idea of the required skills. For example, 23% said that skilled trades jobs don’t use cutting-edge technology when most workers stated they do.
- Underrepresentation of women in the industry plays a role. Young women were 15 percentage points less likely to report considering a skilled trades career.
- About 37% of young people reported never having a conversation with anyone about careers in the skilled trades, signifying a lack of exposure to these career options.
Keeping Pace with Workplace Innovations: The Community College Research Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology interviewed over 200 administrators, faculty and staff at eight community colleges with strong workforce programs to determine how community colleges are adapting their programs in response to workplace innovation, including changing skill demands and equity-related concerns. The report uncovered that workforce programs are making greater use of digital technologies, partnering with industry professionals, aligning short-term and long-term programs, and providing scholarships for short-term certificate programs in high-demand fields.
