Community college noncredit training programs are proving valuable for job seekers, with participants experiencing earnings boosts and higher employment rates, according to a new study.
Students who participate in short-term, job-focused noncredit training programs at community colleges see significant financial and employment benefits, according to new research published in the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.
Conducted by Peter Riley Bahr from the Strada Institute for the Future of Work and Rooney Columbus of E&E Analytics, the study found that within two years of completing their training, participants on average earned approximately $2,000 more annually — a 4% increase after adjusting for inflation. Additionally, these individuals were nearly 4 percentage points more likely to be employed than those who did not undergo training. For those who were initially unemployed before their training, average earnings increased by nearly $4,000 per year, illustrating the dual impact of training on wages and employment rates.
Millions of community college students enroll in noncredit workforce training programs each year. The landscape for these programs is poised for significant growth following the recent expansion of Pell Grant eligibility to include short-term training.
Bahr and Columbus’ research offers the first comprehensive statewide earnings data for noncredit occupational training. Using administrative data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Workforce Commission, they tracked over 128,000 students — mostly adult learners — who enrolled in noncredit vocational courses at Texas public two-year colleges from fall 2011 to fall 2014. They followed these students’ employment and earnings for five years before and after their training.
“Whether noncredit occupation training pays off for students has been an open question for some time,” Bahr, a vice president of employer alignment at Strada Education Foundation and managing research director of the Strada Institute for the Future of Work, said in a news release. “We find that earnings gains are quite robust in some fields.”
The study highlighted that the length and type of noncredit programs significantly impact earnings outcomes. Longer programs exceeding 150 hours generally resulted in higher earnings. Standout fields included transportation programs like commercial driving, engineering technology programs such as occupational safety, and construction training like plumbing technology. Extended programs (300+ hours) related to nursing and protective services also showed above-average earnings gains.
Conversely, business and information science programs yielded minimal earnings gains, regardless of program length. However, this may be due to many such programs meeting certification or licensing needs, without directly boosting wages.
“We have to be careful about claims that noncredit occupational training in a given field does not pay off for students simply because the students see little or no wage gains after the training,” added Bahr. “Some noncredit programs help individuals complete ongoing training necessary to keep their jobs, and we generally would not expect to see earnings gains for those types of programs.”
The research also uncovered gender-based discrepancies. Men benefited equally from employer-sponsored and self-paid programs. For women, however, employer-sponsored programs led to significantly higher average earnings increases.
“Average gains for women are a fraction of the gains for men, and the gap doesn’t appear to be entirely a result of difference in the fields of study that men and women tend to choose,” Bahr added. “There seem to be distinct gender dynamics at play in noncredit training and related workforce opportunities, which need to be investigated more closely.”
Moreover, the timing of noncredit training plays a crucial role. Those who changed jobs around their training period experienced more pronounced gains, suggesting that enrollment timing may influence outcomes.
“More research is needed to understand what drives students to enroll in noncredit training, why they choose noncredit training over similar credit programs, the extent of alignment between training and employment opportunities across fields of study, and how these dynamics shape wage outcomes,” added Bahr.
While noncredit programs typically require a modest time investment, and many students remain employed while enrolled, prospective students are advised to seek detailed information from colleges about both the costs and the potential returns in terms of employment opportunities and wage growth.