FEATURE STORY
Survey Shows High School Students Increasingly Interested in Career Education
Did you know that nearly 1 million high school students expressed an interest in a degree or program offered by career colleges, but only about a quarter of those students actually ended up enrolling at a career college?
The path to a successful career for high school students, according to some popular opinion, involves the pursuit of a degree from a traditional four-year college or university. However, new data from almost 5.5 million students attending over 20,000 high schools nationwide showed many students do not share that opinion. The fact that a relatively low percentage of students who expressed interest in career education actually enroll in a career institution shows that many high school students are not fully aware of their different education options.
The new data, collected by NRCCUA, the nation’s leading authority on high school attitudes and aspirations, revealed the top-growing career interests of surveyed students, which included nursing/healthcare, business administration, art, culinary/chef, and dental health. Several interesting things were also revealed about how high school students gather information on colleges they are interested in. Both male and female high school students reported that they turn to a college’s web site for information more than any other source. However, less than 15 percent of students said that they attend college nights to find information.
While the new data shows striking differences in how students and some administrators view career education, it is clear that students are increasingly looking for a wide variety of resources to make their college decision. For information on career college resources for your students, visit http://www.imagine-america.org/scholarship/00-bookstore.asp. If you would like more information on the results from this survey or are interested in attending an upcoming seminar, please contact Chris Carroll at chrisc@imagine-america.org.
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