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The US needs more workers with non-bachelor’s credentials
Two recent research reports, one from Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) and another from Ivy Tech Community College, in collaboration with TEConomy Partners, LLC, focus on credential shortages that are keeping many jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree unfilled.
The CEW study examines high-paying middle-skills career worker shortages nationwide, a category that encompasses jobs requiring an associate's degree or certificate and paying more than $55,000 per year. Researchers concluded that the U.S. must produce 712,000 additional certificates and associate's degrees to prepare the workforce for these opportunities. They emphasized that filling these shortages could present significant opportunities for men and women of all races and ethnicities to gain high-paying middle-skills occupations. Shortages are expected to persist through 2032.
The Ivy Tech-TEConomy report also reports on the need for non-bachelor's education to prepare the workforce, but through a slightly different lens. It considers the specific workforce needs in Indiana through 2035, focuses on non-credit credentials, and includes jobs below the $55,000 threshold. They looked at workforce needs trends in the state's key industry sectors (advanced manufacturing; business, logistics, and supply chain; healthcare; and technology) and found that 69% of job openings in these sectors will require some form of postsecondary education and training. Over the next decade, Indiana will need to upskill or reskill more than 82,000 working adults annually through non-degree credentials to meet these evolving workforce needs.