The Dispatch

Colleges in the country’s major cities aren’t graduating enough people trained for good-paying jobs available to workers without bachelor’s degrees.

That’s according to analysis from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce which found that colleges in the 55 biggest metros are producing only about 30% of the graduates needed to fill these jobs through 2034.

The report highlights jobs open to people with an associate’s degree or certificate that pay well from the jump, such as operations managers, electricians, firefighters, and police officers. Early-career workers in those roles have a median income of $42,500 a year, an amount that increases by 59% when they reach mid-career.

Just 15% of workers with an associate’s or certificate are working these jobs in the cities the center studied.

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The findings show that while upward mobility exists for some workers without bachelor’s degrees, these jobs are “the exception, not the rule” and employers, colleges, and policymakers have to do more to connect students to them, Jeff Strohl, the center’s director, said in a statement.

To be sure, workers with bachelor’s degrees earn more on average and have better job prospects than people without them. But the report notes that most American workers don’t have a four-year degree, so it’s important to know where opportunities exist.

Some employers are trying to improve the situation. The Lowe’s Foundation announced this month that it has brought together employers including Bank of America, AT&T, and General Motors to train 1 million people for skilled trades within the next decade.

📚 Read more: Dual enrollment has boomed. Now what? (via Open Campus)

Indianapolis is the only metro whose colleges are producing more graduates overall than employers need to do these jobs — about 143 graduates for every 100 openings. Nashville is at the other end of the spectrum, producing about 9 graduates per 100 openings, with a significant need for workers in transportation jobs, such as truck drivering.

Charlotte, where I live, produces about 15 graduates per 100 openings, with gaps in office and administrative support. You can look up your own metro area here.

Colleges and employers should connect students to internships that expose them to these types of roles. Just 34% of adults with an associate’s degree have completed an internship, compared to more than half of bachelor’s degree holders, according to the report.

Claire Rafford, our reporter at Mirror Indy, recently wrote about 16 Tech, a nonprofit-run innovation hub in downtown Indianapolis, that is trying to knock down the barriers that tend to keep low-income students from pursuing internships. It connects students to paid opportunities and helps with housing and transportation.

“I’m a firm believer that opportunity is everywhere, access is not,” Tracey Jackson, a vice president at 16 Tech, told Claire. “If you can make opportunity accessible, we can create a strong talent pipeline of future leaders.”

We’re co-hosting a breakfast event with our partner Wisconsin Watch on Oct. 6 to explore the rapidly changing landscape of education and training and what that means for families, communities, and the future of the state.

Join us in Madison or virtually.

Thanks to Ascendium’s Education Philanthropy and The Joyce Foundation for supporting this event.

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Elsewhere on Open Campus

Students in Pima Community College’s emergency medical technology course listen on the first day of class at the Tucson-based school. The course was one of just nine submitted by schools across the state seeking Workforce Pell certification. (Molly Bohannon/AZCIR)

From Arizona: Arizona community colleges initially identified more than 60 programs that might benefit from Workforce Pell, federal financial aid that’s new available for low-income students seeking short-term credentials. But they ended up submitting just nine for state review, and three are now advancing for federal approval.

The dropoff comes from the program’s strict requirements and a tight implementation window, writes Molly Bohannon from our partner the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.

“(Workforce Pell) is not going to be the panacea I think some people had maybe hoped for,” Erin Hart, the governor’s policy adviser on higher education, said at a May Workforce Arizona Council meeting.

++ Read more about how we’re covering Workforce Pell around the country.

From Illinois: There’s a growing number of people in Illinois prisons who are waiting for access to college courses, reports Charlotte West, who covers higher ed in prisons at Open Campus. (This story was published in partnership with WBEZ Chicago’s Prisoncast!, an audio journalism project made specifically with and for incarcerated people and their loved ones.)

Since last year, the state’s waitlist has increased by 80%, to 3,700. That’s more than the number of people who are currently enrolled in college inside, according to Department of Corrections data. Danville Correctional Center now has the longest average wait in the system, at nearly 5.5 years.

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