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Filling America's Skilled Worker Shortage: the Role of Career Colleges

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  » Career colleges could fill approximately 61% of annual job openings in the electrical engineering technology field.

  » Career colleges could fill approximately 73% of annual job openings in the surgical technology field.

  » Career colleges could fill approximately 89% of annual job openings in the medical records and health information technician field.

According to the U.S Labor Department, in the next decade, nearly two-thirds of the estimated 15.6 million net new jobs created in the U.S. will be in occupations that require some postsecondary education or considerable on-the-job training. The U.S. will need to fill job openings for nearly 3 million healthcare professionals and over 950,000 engineers.

Career colleges in the United States play an important role in preparing students to fill these needed positions. The Imagine America Foundation has released its newest study – Filling America’s Skilled Worker Shortage: the Role of Career Colleges – to analyze this issue. This report presents a comprehensive review of the U.S. labor force skills shortage by industry, and the role of career colleges in meeting the high demand for industries such as business and management, computers and communication, education, healthcare, legal and personnel, and culinary. It also contains an overview comparison showing which educational sectors are currently providing the training for the different specialties, and the increase expected over the next ten years of the number of new jobs resulting from growth and replacement of workers leaving each industry on a national and state profile basis.

Filling America’s Skilled Worker Shortage is an important tool for education administrators, policymakers, investor groups, and college owners and operators to assess current and projected labor trends facing the U.S. labor force.

To view a PDF of the executive summary of Filling America’s Skilled Worker Shortage: the Role of Career Colleges, click here.

The full report is available for purchase through the Imagine America Foundation for only $49.95. To place your order, complete our order form and fax it back to 202.408.8102.  For additional information about Filling America’s Skilled Worker Shortage: the Role of Career Colleges, contact Foundation staff member Jenny Faubert at 202.336.6743 or jennyf@imagine-america.org.

Economic Impact of America’s Career Colleges

The Imagine America Foundation’s Economic Impact of Career Colleges is the first comprehensive study completed of the economic impact of the career college sector. This study estimates that career colleges generate $38.6 billion in annual economic impact. This total includes $14.6 billion in direct institutional impact, $4 billion in related student fees and expenses, $3.5 billion in higher career college graduate starting salaries and other benefits, and $16.5 billion in indirect economic activity associated with the industries in which the graduates are employed.

Notable findings in the study are the following:

Direct Impact
In educating students (37 percent of whom are minorities) for high demand jobs, the career college sector generates significant economic activity as a result.

• A total of 2,694 career colleges (for-profit, Title-IV eligible institutions) in the 2004-2005 academic year produced $14.6 billion in total revenue. Institutions spent nearly $8 billion on compensation of employees and $5.6 billion for goods and services, including real estate, administrative and support services, construction and other needs;
• During 2005, career colleges employed 137,041 full-time equivalent faculty and staff;
• While the federal and state subsidy to not-for-profit institutions of higher learning is approximately $22,000 per student, students at career colleges receive approximately $6,500 in student assistance.

Career colleges include for-profit postsecondary schools, colleges and universities that offer market-driven, career-specific training in over 200 fields. They differ from most public and non-profit postsecondary institutions in their emphasis on providing students with skills most in demand by employers. Career college students are predominantly working adults. Almost 50% are the first generation in their families to pursue higher education.

To obtain a free preview of this study, visit our research archives .