Introduction

To better align both secondary and postsecondary education with the nation's economic and workforce needs, the federal government provides funding to states, institutions of higher education (IHEs), and local education agencies (LEAs) to support career and technical education (CTE). CTE, sometimes referred to as vocational education,¹ provides occupational and non-occupational² preparation at the secondary and postsecondary levels. A CTE program of study³ is often designed to have an immediate practical application in the workforce while also developing broadly applicable skills such as writing and effective communication.

This report provides an overview of CTE, beginning with discussion of the history of federal support, CTE as defined at the secondary and postsecondary levels, and the most recent enrollment and completion data. The second half of the report discusses challenges with CTE program implementation and access, strategies and resources that have been used to address these challenges, and outcomes associated with participating in and completing CTE programs of study. The Appendix provides additional information on the specifics of career clusters and career pathways referenced throughout the report.

Federal Support for Career and Technical Education

The federal government has a long history of supporting CTE. The Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862 (7 U.S.C. §301 et. seq.) supported the development of the current system of land-grant colleges to teach the agricultural and mechanical arts to the "industrial classes."⁴ At the secondary level, federal involvement began with the passing of the Smith-Hughes Act in 1917, which provided federal aid to the states for the purpose of promoting vocational education in agriculture, industrial trades, and home economics.⁵ The Smith-Hughes Act was among the first federal efforts focused on supporting the education of students aged 14 and older and was passed with unanimous support on the eve of World War I.⁶

Federal involvement in CTE has often been preceded by Congress's desire for the nation to remain economically competitive internationally and to address perceived skill deficits⁷ in the nation's workforce. Rationales for funding CTE over the past century have relied on shared benefits to both the nation's and individual citizens' economic well-being. In 1917, vocational education was termed "vital to national defense and prosperity."⁸ Other efforts have focused on retraining individuals whose occupational skills had become obsolete, or who did not have educational opportunities. For example, the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962 (MDTA; P.L. 87-415) was intended to prepare individuals for employment who could not reasonably be expected to secure full-time employment without training.⁹ The MDTA was a policy response to the perceived negative effects of automation on the existing workforce.

Nearly 50 years after the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act, the federal government's role in CTE policy further expanded with the Vocational Education Act of 1963 (VEA, P.L. 88-210), which supported vocational education schools; vocational work-study programs; and research, training, and demonstration programs related to vocational education. Whereas the Smith-Hughes Act focused on secondary schools, the VEA substantially increased funding for postsecondary and adult education. Additional legislative actions since the VEA have focused on serving students with disabilities and other special populations who have historically been underserved.¹⁰

Today, the federal government remains active in CTE, although appropriations have declined over the last several decades. Perkins V is the largest source of federal funding for CTE at the secondary and postsecondary levels. After adjusting appropriations for inflation, Figure 1 demonstrates the extent to which funding for CTE via Perkins V has declined since FY1980¹¹, though this decline has plateaued in recent years. In FY2021, the federal government invested $1.3 billion less in CTE than in FY1980 (after adjusting for inflation).

Figure 1. Inflation-Adjusted U.S. Department of Education Appropriations for CTE FY1980–FY2021

Source: Prepared by CRS based on U.S. Department of Education, Education Department Budget History Table: FY1980 - FY2021; accessed March 28, 2022, at https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/history/index.html. Inflation adjustments relied on the non-seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) with FY2021 as the base year; accessed March 28, 2022, at https://www.bls.gov/data/home.htm. Notes: The FY2006 and FY2007 appropriations include the one-time emergency supplemental funds appropriated for recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. ED spending through federal student aid is not included.

As shown in Figure 2, the percentage of ED discretionary educational appropriations represented by CTE funding via Perkins V has also declined since 1980. Since 2010, the proportion of federal education funding represented by CTE has remained below 2% despite slight increases in recent years.

Figure 2. CTE Appropriations as an Overall Percentage of Discretionary Appropriations of the U.S. Department of Education FY1980–FY2021

Source: Prepared by CRS based on U.S. Department of Education, Education Department Budget History Table: FY1980 - FY2021; accessed March 28, 2022, at https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/history/index.html. Notes: The FY2006 and FY2007 appropriations include the one-time emergency supplemental funds appropriated for recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. To adjust for inflation, CRS averaged the monthly non-seasonally adjusted CPI-U for each of FY1980 through FY2021. The resulting value for FY2021 was used as the base year.

A decline in CTE secondary school enrollment mirrors the decline in federal funding. According to the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) High School Transcript Study (HSTS), graduates earned 0.5 fewer CTE credits in 2019 compared to 1990 (3.3 and 3.8 credits, respectively). Declines in CTE credits earned were larger among Black and female graduates.¹² According to data from ED, nationwide CTE participation at the secondary level decreased from 8.9 million students in 2018-2019 to 7.6 million in 2019-2020, though postsecondary CTE participation remained roughly the same at 3.5 million for both academic years.¹³

Within the context of these national trends, this report serves as a CTE primer in order to support and inform discussion of workforce development.

Overview of CTE

CTE is offered by high schools, area CTE centers, community colleges, vocational schools, and employers through apprenticeships and on-the-job training. Generally, CTE occupations require two years or less of postsecondary education or training. CTE integrates knowledge from the liberal arts with a practical or applied purpose, such as nursing, business administration, culinary arts, automotive maintenance, software programming, engineering technology, and cosmetology. The goal of CTE is preparation for employment, and a key measure of success is the achievement of industry-recognized credentials.

The scope of CTE coursework is organized into career clusters and career pathways to facilitate educational program design and effective use of resources and to foster alignment with business and industry. Non-occupational CTE includes family and consumer sciences (i.e., courses that prepare students for roles outside of the paid labor market) and general labor market preparation (i.e., courses that teach skills such as word processing).

Career Clusters and Career Pathways¹⁴

Because of the breadth of subjects covered by CTE, practitioners have organized it into career clusters and career pathways to facilitate CTE program development and to help students understand related opportunities. Career clusters contain occupations that are in the same field and require similar skills. They were developed by ED and various stakeholders and have been used for over two decades.¹⁵ Practitioners have developed a broad curriculum framework for academic and technical instruction around each career cluster to support the preparation of students for additional education, employment in a career area, or both.

There are 16 career clusters, which demonstrate the scope and breadth of CTE (see the Appendix for a full list and additional detail). For example, the agriculture, food, and natural resources career cluster comprises the development of agricultural products, including plants, animals, food, textiles, and other consumer products. Because even a single career cluster covers several areas, career clusters are further disaggregated into career pathways.

Career pathways are a series of connected education and training strategies and support services that enable individuals to secure industry relevant certification and obtain employment within an occupational area and to advance to higher levels of education and employment in that area. For example, the agriculture, food, and natural resources career cluster is divided into seven career pathways: food products and processing systems; power, structural, and technical systems; plant systems; natural resource systems; animal systems; environmental service systems; and agribusiness systems. (The Appendix includes the related career pathways for each career cluster.)

CTE providers may focus on a limited number of career clusters in order to maximize resource efficiency. For example, schools and school districts use the career clusters and pathways to organize small learning communities and career academies because offering programs in some of the clusters, such as manufacturing, can be resource-intensive. Career guidance and academic counseling programs use the career clusters to help students and parents understand and explore broad career pathways within and among the clusters. Students can choose a career cluster in which to explore or specialize while gaining valuable, related skills.

Figure 3 depicts the different career clusters and the number of students concentrating (e.g., students who have taken a threshold number of high school courses or earned a threshold number of postsecondary credits) in those clusters at the secondary and postsecondary levels for CTE programs supported by Perkins V. At the postsecondary level, the most popular cluster is health science, whereas the most popular cluster at the secondary level is human services.

Figure 3. Enrollment of CTE Concentrators by Career Cluster at the Secondary and Postsecondary Levels Program Year 2018-2019

Source: Created by CRS based on U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, Perkins Data Explorer. Accessed December 23, 2021, at https://perkins.ed.gov/pims/DataExplorer. Notes: These data are based on participation in CTE programs supported by Perkins V funds; thus, they may not represent total enrollment or concentration in career clusters across the nation. Career clusters are based on the National Career Clusters Framework at http://www.careertech.org/career-clusters. Each career cluster represents a distinct grouping of occupations and industries based on the knowledge and skills CTE students require. The definitions of a CTE concentrator at the secondary and postsecondary levels are provided in the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V; P.L. 115-224). A concentrator at the secondary level is a student who has completed at least two courses in a single CTE program or program of study. A concentrator at the postsecondary level is a student who has earned at least 12 credits within a CTE program or a program of study, or completed a program that encompasses fewer than 12 credits or the equivalent in total. The data provided in this table include the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Republic of Palau.

According to the NAEP HSTS, at the secondary level from 2010 to 2019, health science, information technology, and hospitality and tourism have grown in popularity, while the largest declines are in business and marketing, architecture and construction, and manufacturing.¹⁶ At the postsecondary level from 2010 to 2019, finance, information technology, and manufacturing have grown in popularity, while the largest declines are in health science; business and marketing; and law, public safety, and security.¹⁷

Industry-Recognized Credentials (IRCs)

CTE provider collaborations with business and industry have enabled the development of education programs that lead to or prepare individuals for IRCs. IRCs are awarded to individuals who demonstrate skills, experience, knowledge, and/or a set of competencies that are recognized as necessary or desired for a particular occupation by the relevant industry. "Within the context of education, workforce development, and employment and training for the labor market," DOL defines "the term credential [as] a verification of qualification or competence issued to an individual by a third party with the relevant authority or jurisdiction to issue such credentials (such as an accredited educational institution, an industry recognized association, or an occupational association or professional society)."¹⁸ Some IRCs are required in order to work in an occupation, while others may increase income or employability in the occupation.

There are different types of IRCs and different requirements. IRCs include postsecondary degrees, postsecondary certificates, licenses, certifications, and Registered Apprenticeship certificates. Standards may be developed by an industry, industry association, state government, or product manufacturer. IRCs may require a certain amount of formal classroom instruction, hands-on experience, and/or a licensing or certification test. Some IRCs are recognized nationally, while others are recognized only regionally or locally. Examples of IRCs include heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) repair; programming in computer languages such as Java; heavy machinery operation; and phlebotomy.

Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs)

CTSOs are nonprofit organizations that often provide co-curricular programs to give students practical experience, instruction, and opportunities to network with industry and business leaders. The organizations are generally led by national officers through state and local chapters. Local chapters are often advised by a local CTE teacher.

In 1950, Congress chartered one of these CTSOs, the Future Farmers of America (now known as the FFA).¹⁹ If requested by the board of directors, the Secretary of Education may make ED personnel, services, and facilities available to promote, administer, or assist in the administration of the activities of the FFA.²⁰ Other major CTSOs that specifically relate to one or more of the 16 career clusters include the following:

• Business Professionals of America (BPA);
• DECA (formerly Distributive Education Clubs of America);
• Future Business Leaders of America—Phi Beta Lambda;
• Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA);
• HOSA-Future Health Professionals;
• SkillsUSA; and
• the Technology Student Association (TSA).²¹

CTE at the Secondary Level

Secondary school level CTE provides students with opportunities to explore a career while learning a set of technical and employability skills that integrate into or complement their academic studies. Secondary school level CTE is meant to connect with and lead to postsecondary programs of study or additional training after high school, which may include more specialized technical instruction.²² Occupational CTE at the secondary level may prepare an individual for immediate labor market entry after high school completion, or postsecondary education may be required before the individual is prepared to enter the labor market. CTE is seldom offered at the elementary school level.

Secondary schools often offer occupational and non-occupational CTE, the latter of which includes family and consumer sciences education and general labor market preparation. Family and consumer sciences education prepares students for roles outside the paid labor market, while general labor market preparation teaches skills such as word processing and introductory technology skills. Occupational education prepares individuals for specific fields.

Secondary CTE providers include

• public and private comprehensive high schools,²³ including Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools;
• career academies that are within comprehensive high schools and organize a multiyear academic and CTE curriculum around a particular career theme;
• area CTE schools, which are specialized schools or departments of secondary or postsecondary schools, used exclusively or principally for the provision of CTE;
• CTE-specific schools that teach core academics in the context of specific career pathways;
• juvenile justice facilities; and
• cooperative programs with technical or community colleges.

CTE was offered by the overwhelming majority (98%) of public school districts according to a nationally representative survey conducted in 2017,²⁴ but the delivery models for these programs varied widely. Most (83%) CTE programs were offered at the district's regular comprehensive high school, while 12% of districts offered programs at CTE-focused high schools that students attended full-time. CTE program opportunities also varied by geography. For example, urban districts were more likely to offer work-based learning than rural districts.

According to the most recent available data tracking over 23,000 9^th-grade students from 2009 to 2013, 77% of all high school students earned at least one credit in CTE.²⁵ White students were the racial/ethnic group most likely to participate (80%), while Asian students were the least likely to participate (71%). Female students were less likely to participate than male students (73% compared to 80%). Though most students participated in CTE, 37% decided to concentrate in CTE. American Indians/Alaska Native students were the racial/ethnic group most likely to concentrate (45%), while Asian students were the least likely to concentrate (27%). Female students were less likely to concentrate than male students (33% compared to 40%).²⁶

CTE in Postsecondary Education

CTE at the postsecondary level consists of subbaccalaureate postsecondary programs designed to impart relevant knowledge and skills that relate to the requirements of specific occupations or careers. CTE students may pursue an associate's degree, an IRC or other certificate, noncredit courses to improve knowledge and skills or signal knowledge to employers, noncredit training customized for a particular employer, or continuing education credits to maintain licensure or certification.

Postsecondary CTE providers include

• technical colleges (public and private less-than-two-year);
• community colleges (public two-year) and private two-year colleges;
• public and private four-year universities;
• employers, labor organizations, and industry groups through pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, and other training programs;
• regional training centers (RTCs), which are public or nonprofit centers coordinating workforce development, education, and training;
• adult workforce education centers, which provide customizable, labor market-driven, postsecondary workforce education and training services; and
• detention centers and correctional facilities.

Some CTE programs are terminal, while others may be used as a stepping stone to obtain a more advanced credential (i.e., stackable credentials). While a terminal CTE program is designed to lead directly to employment, many highly specialized courses are not transferable for credit toward a more advanced credential.²⁷ In contrast, DOL defines a stackable credential as "part of a sequence of credentials that can be accumulated over time to build up an individual's qualifications and help them to move along a career pathway or up a career ladder to different and potentially higher-paying jobs."²⁸ For example, an associate's degree in respiratory therapy can lead to employment as a respiratory therapist, or it may be transferred toward a bachelor's degree in respiratory therapy.²⁹

Figure 4 presents the top 10 most popular subject areas in which CTE graduates received associate's degrees or subbaccalaureate certificates from IHEs that participated in Higher Education Act (HEA) Title IV federal student financial aid programs during the 2019-2020 academic year.³⁰ The figure does not include subbaccalaureate certificates earned at other educational institutions or training establishments. The largest proportion (over 20%) of graduates completed programs in the health professions and related fields, followed by the 14% of graduates completing programs in business, management, and marketing. These 10 fields represented 83% of all associate's degrees and certificates awarded.

Figure 4. Percentage of Associate's Degrees and Subbaccalaureate Certificates Awarded in the 10 Most Popular Subject Areas, by Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Codes July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020

Source: Figure prepared by CRS based on data downloaded from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) on institutions in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico that participated in the federal student aid programs authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA), as amended. Notes: Numbers indicate the total numbers of degrees and certificates awarded. The following CIP codes that represent the liberal arts (non-CTE) were excluded from the graph: Liberal Arts and Sciences—General Studies and Humanities; Social Sciences; English Language and Literature/Letters; Theology and Religious Vocations; History; Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender, and Group Studies; Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics; and Philosophy and Religious Studies. Precision production trades include occupations such as woodworking; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) services; and metalworking. The data do not reflect completions at institutions that are not Title IV-participating and are distinct from the data presented in Figure 3, as these are credentials awarded instead of initial enrollment.

Figure 5 shows the types of IHEs at which individuals completed CTE programs during the 2019-2020 academic year. Individuals who completed programs through trade schools, apprenticeships, RTCs, workforce education centers, correctional facilities, and other postsecondary institutions are not reflected in the figure. The vast majority (90%) of CTE associate's degrees and subbaccalaureate certificates were awarded by public two- or four-year institutions and private not-for-profit four-year institutions. For-profit institutions (either four-year, two-year, or less-than-two-year) made up 8% of awards.

Figure 5. Percentage of CTE Program Completions for Associate's Degrees and Subbaccalaureate Certificates, by Institution Control Degrees and Certificates Awarded from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020

Source: Figure prepared by CRS based on data downloaded from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) on institutions in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico that participated in the federal student aid programs authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA), as amended. Notes: Numbers indicate the total numbers of degrees and certificates awarded. The following CIP codes that represent the liberal arts (non-CTE) were excluded from the graph: Liberal Arts and Sciences—General Studies and Humanities; Social Sciences; English Language and Literature/Letters; Theology and Religious Vocations; History; Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender, and Group Studies; Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics; and Philosophy and Religious Studies. Precision production trades include occupations such as woodworking; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) services; and metalworking. The data do not reflect completions at institutions that are not Title IV-participating and are distinct from the data presented in Figure 3, as these are credentials awarded instead of initial enrollment.

CTE Program Challenges

This section discusses challenges that CTE program providers have experienced with program delivery, increasing student access, and replicating evidence-based practices, as well as resources that have been used to address these challenges.

Delivery, Access, and Replication Challenges

In FY2021, Congress requested that GAO conduct interviews with state officials, CTE program providers, and other stakeholders, including representatives from business and industry, to determine existing challenges with CTE at both the secondary and postsecondary levels.³¹ These included challenges with providers delivering CTE programs, students accessing these programs, and states and providers replicating best practices in the programs.

Delivery challenges at both the secondary and postsecondary levels included

• securing adequate funding, especially for leading edge technology and replicating effective program models³²;
• staff capacity issues, particularly for rural schools with fewer staff to provide career counseling, navigate employer partnerships, and pursue federal grants;
• difficulty recruiting diverse teachers with experience in hard-to-staff subjects such as computer science and math;
• retaining industry-experienced CTE teachers once hired, as they often earn lower wages while also needing training to support the transition from industry to the classroom; and
• negative perceptions of CTE, specifically that CTE is only for students who underperform academically, or that CTE will lead to low-wage jobs.

Access challenges included

• a lack of transportation for work-based learning³³;
• language barriers, such as state websites only being available in English;
• a lack of support services such as childcare;
• inflexible scheduling³⁴;
• program screening criteria, such as tests that act as barriers to enrollment; and
• financial challenges, such as accessing federal financial aid for postsecondary nondegree education.

Replication challenges centered on

• limitations with long-term outcome data, making it difficult to examine whether students who progress through a career pathway eventually work in that field; and
• limited information on evidence-based strategies, such as not knowing how many hours a student should participate in work-based learning in order to have a quality experience.

Some state and CTE program officials struggled to link data across state systems in order to follow students through their education and career trajectories. Program providers wanted more information on evidence-based strategies to reach specific student populations, including students with disabilities.³⁵ Rigorous studies on such topics are limited.³⁶

CTE Teacher Staffing Shortages

There is little reliable data on the extent of CTE teacher shortages, as states are only required to identify areas for which there are shortages to ED and do not have to specify the number of empty positions.³⁷ Furthermore, rather than reporting a teacher shortage, a CTE provider may instead change its program offerings in response to teacher vacancies by eliminating programs of study.

Advance CTE,³⁸ the longest-standing national nonprofit organization that represents state CTE directors and state leaders responsible for secondary and postsecondary CTE, conducted an annual survey of its members on the issue of CTE teacher shortages from 2008 to 2017 (this survey represents the most recent available data). The survey found the largest reported shortages in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), health sciences, and manufacturing, with over 50% of state CTE directors reporting shortages in these areas every year. Similar to limitations with official ED data, the survey did not ask directors to quantify the number of vacant positions.

Resources and Strategies Used to Address Challenges

To address the above challenges with delivery, access, and replication, ED supports CTE programs through the administration of grants, technical assistance to states and CTE program providers, partnerships with DOL, and research and dissemination of evidence-based strategies.

According to the 2022 GAO report, key ED grants that CTE providers reported using included

• Adult Education State Grants³⁹;
• Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants⁴⁰;
• Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants⁴¹; and
• Perkins Innovation and Modernization Grants.⁴²

Technical assistance to states and CTE program providers includes resources through the Perkins Collaborative Resource Network (PCRN),⁴³ such as webinars on different CTE topics. The PCRN is a virtual hub for CTE programs, with a learning center, reports, and other resources to assist with implementation of CTE programs. For state policymakers, the PCRN offers information on other states' plans and outcomes via the Perkins Data Explorer as well as strategies for collecting data on work-based learning opportunities.

Partnerships between ED and other departments and agencies include

• youth apprenticeships and other workforce initiatives, such as monthly calls with DOL's Employment and Training Administration staff to discuss activities related to career pathways;
• community-based rehabilitation programs with the Department of Justice, including a diversion project to help redirect young adults from arrest, prosecution, sentencing, or incarceration to community-based rehabilitation programs; and
• cybersecurity training via a professional development initiative for secondary CTE teachers, developed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Security Agency.

To address the limitations of existing CTE research, particularly research focused on evidence-based strategies, ED's Institute of Education Sciences is undertaking new studies of work-based learning,⁴⁴ career development, and counseling strategies, with publication expected by 2025. This work is to be included as part of a national evaluation of CTE.⁴⁵

To address CTE teacher shortages, states and localities can leverage Perkins V funding to recruit, train, and retain qualified teaching staff.⁴⁶ ED has pursued a variety of strategies to address teacher shortages, though these initiatives have not specifically targeted CTE subject areas.⁴⁷

Benefits of CTE Credentials

This section describes the benefits to students of participating in and completing CTE programs. The first section describes broad education and labor market returns with a discussion of the median annual wages for occupations that require a postsecondary CTE nondegree award, followed by the latest evidence on wage returns to nondegree certificates. The second section discusses the findings of state-level secondary studies that track students over time.

Education, Wages, and Employment

There is a robust evidence base for the economic returns of earning a bachelor's degree.⁴⁸ Earnings generally increase with educational attainment. A bachelor's degree holder earns in excess of 1 million dollars more on average over their lifetime compared to a high school diploma or GED holder.⁴⁹ Although wages are substantially lower for nondegree certificate holders than for those with bachelor's degrees or higher, wages for nondegree certificate holders are still higher than wages for high school degree or GED holders.

According to the most recent available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), higher education continues to be related to higher average pay and a reduction in unemployment. In 2021, workers age 25 and over who attained less than a high school diploma had the lowest median weekly earnings ($626) and the highest unemployment rate (8.3%). Workers with some college, such as a nondegree certificate, made $90 more weekly on average and had 0.7% higher employment than those with only a high school diploma, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Earnings and Unemployment Rates by Educational Attainment, 2021 Median Usual Weekly Earnings ($) and Unemployment Rate (%)

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm Notes: Data are for persons age 25 and over. Earnings are for full-time wage and salary workers.

People with less educational attainment can earn more. For instance, 23.1% of those with only some college, such as a nondegree certificate, earn more than the median bachelor's degree holder. 28.2% of those with associate's degrees earn more than the median bachelor's degree holder.⁵⁰

Proponents of CTE as occupational preparation point to the high wages and growth of some CTE occupations, which can exceed the wages of some bachelor's degree holders. Proponents of CTE also note that not everyone wants to or has the capacity to pursue a bachelor's degree. On the other hand, others point to downsides to earning nontransferable CTE credits, particularly if students earn credits in lower wage or non-growth occupations.

Median Wages for Postsecondary Nondegree Recipients

Though the median wage returns to bachelor's degrees—whether in CTE or a non-CTE field—are higher than sub-baccalaureate degrees, certificates may allow graduates to realize positive labor market returns at a fraction of the cost, and they can be completed within a relatively short time frame. These returns may be particularly robust and durable over time in fields with high growth potential and high median wages, though not all of these fields employ high numbers of workers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics categorizes occupations that typically require a postsecondary nondegree award and provide median annual wages, as shown in Table 1. The fastest-growing among such occupations include several in the health science career cluster (medical assistants and phlebotomists) as well as in human services (makeup artists, manicurists, and massage therapists). The largest projected growth in job openings, in terms of percentage change, is for wind turbine service technicians, while the highest median wage among these occupations is earned by makeup artists. Both of these occupations employ a relatively small number of workers, however, and the fields with the largest numbers of workers with CTE nondegree credentials (e.g., personal services such as cosmetologists) have median annual wages below $30,000.

Nondegree Certificate Wage Returns

Compared to the robust evidence on the wage returns of bachelor's degrees, there are fewer rigorous studies on the wage returns of nondegree certificates. Findings vary widely depending on institutional sector, geographic area, program length, and program of study. Overall, vocational certificates are more sensitive to economic fluctuations across industries and occupations than associate's or bachelor's degrees.⁵¹

A synthesis of findings across eight studies conducted in Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, California, Ohio, Virginia, Washington, and Arkansas revealed an average annual earnings gain of $2,120 for male students and $2,960 for female students who completed any certificate program. However, different types of certificates in different states yielded different returns. The length of certificate programs in these studies also varied widely, making it difficult to generalize across certificate programs and types.⁵²

For example, one of the above studies conducted in Virginia and North Carolina examined first-time community college students from 2006-2009 (comprising 165,884 students in North Carolina and 67,735 students in Virginia). The authors defined short-term certificates as those taking less than one year of full-time study to complete, and long-term certificates as taking one year or more of full-time study to complete. Findings were not consistent between these two states. In North Carolina, short-term certificates were related to a $1,112 annual increase in earnings, but in Virginia, the increase was $612. Long-term certificates yielded larger gains—$3,812 in North Carolina and $800 in Virginia. Associate's degrees yielded even higher returns—$5,024 in North Carolina and $3,092 in Virginia.

These results also varied widely by program of study. In North Carolina, allied health long-term certificate holders saw large earnings gains of $7,296 annually even as information science, communication, and design long-term certificate holders in the same state saw a decline of $3,272 compared to students who attended community colleges but exited without earning any credential.⁵³ Considering these wide variations, it is difficult to draw any conclusions about the wage returns of certificates nationally without examining specific programs of study and local labor market conditions.

For-Profit Institutions Versus Public Institutions

Findings are more consistent when directly comparing for-profit to nonprofit certificate-granting institutions as "the vast majority of studies on employment and earnings gains for students in for-profits find worse outcomes for for-profit students relative to similar students in other sectors," particularly relative to community colleges.⁵⁴

One often-cited 2019 study that included nearly all federally aided students who exited a for-profit postsecondary institution between 2006 and 2008, as well as nondegree students in other sectors, found that certificate-seeking students at for-profit institutions were 1.5% less likely to be employed than certificate-seeking students at public institutions.⁵⁵ Those who were employed had 11% lower earnings than students who attended public institutions. These results incorporated all certificate-seeking students, including students pursuing non-CTE certificates and those who dropped out. The top 10 most popular fields, representing 83.7% of all enrollment at for-profit institutions, were in CTE.

Wage returns for those pursuing health diagnostic certificates at for-profit institutions were the lowest among the top 10 fields of study,⁵⁶ resulting in $6,021 less in annual earnings compared to health diagnostic certificate earners at public institutions. Dental support certificate earners earned $3,736 less. Among the top 10 most popular fields, higher earnings at for-profit institutions compared to those earned at public institutions were experienced only by students in cosmetology, who saw a $271 annual wage increase. Beyond this exception, wage returns were higher for students who attended public certificate-granting institutions.

State-Level Studies of CTE in Secondary Education

This section briefly reviews the findings of selected states that have leveraged longitudinal data systems to examine the effects of CTE over time. The federal government has incentivized the creation of state longitudinal data systems through two grant programs: the Workforce Data Quality Initiative and the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Program.⁵⁷ The goal of these grants is to collect and analyze the data necessary determine the impact and efficacy of CTE investments over time.

This section is not a comprehensive literature review; instead, it focuses on studies with large sample sizes that have been published since 2016. There are limitations to the estimates presented because students typically are not randomly assigned to enroll in CTE programs, and studies do not typically employ experimental designs. The results may not be replicable under differing circumstances with different students. Furthermore, the definition of CTE concentrator varies across these studies.

Overall, these studies find positive relationships between CTE concentration and graduation, enrollment, employment, and earnings outcomes, although the results are not always particularly large in magnitude. In some cases, positive outcomes are limited to male students only.

Arkansas

Arkansas provides an interesting case study of CTE policies because of statewide changes made effective in 2014 that require all high school students to take six units of "career focus" coursework to graduate, which they can fulfill with CTE. The number of students taking CTE increased in anticipation of the 2014 requirement; most students (89%) across the three cohorts that graduated in 2012, 2013, and 2014 took at least one CTE course in high school.

An examination of over 100,000 9^th grade students across these three cohorts⁵⁸ revealed CTE concentrators⁵⁹ were 21% more likely to graduate from high school, 1% more likely to enroll in a two-year college, 1% more likely to be employed, and better compensated by $45 per quarter in the year after high school compared to comparison groups of similar non-concentrators. Male students saw slightly larger wage benefits than female students—a difference of $89 quarterly.⁶⁰

Connecticut

Similar to Arkansas, Connecticut's longitudinal data system enabled the tracking of nearly all (95%) 8^th graders who applied to a technical high school from 2006 to 2014. The 16 stand-alone CTE high schools within the Connecticut Technical High School System (CTHSS) use a strict cutoff score when deciding which applicants to admit. This scoring process allowed researchers to compare admitted students with scores just above the threshold to non-admitted students whose scores were just below it.

Among 57,658 8^th grade students from 2006 to 2014, male students who were admitted to the CTHSS were 10% more likely to graduate from high school, and they had average quarterly earnings that were 32% higher⁶¹ than those who just missed the minimum admissions score. A key critique of CTE is that it provides specific skills at the expense of general skills, meaning that labor market gains may be temporary. But for CTHSS graduates, these large earnings gains persisted for male students in the sample who were age 23 or older. However, female students saw no earnings increases.⁶²

Indiana and Minnesota

In both Indiana and Minnesota, the state education agency, state higher education agency, and state workforce agency partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest to examine whether public high school graduates in each state had different college and workforce outcomes depending on whether they concentrated in CTE. Across 333,380 graduates in Indiana and 350,191 graduates in Minnesota from 2013 to 2018, the study found that high school CTE concentrators⁶³ were more likely to enroll in two-year rather than four-year colleges.⁶⁴ For the 2012-2013 cohort, six years after their high school graduation date, concentrators earned a bachelor's degree at a lower rate than the comparison group of graduates with similar demographics who did not concentrate in CTE. However, concentrators were more likely than non-concentrators to earn a certificate or an associate's degree.

In both states, CTE concentrators had higher employment rates and earnings than non-concentrators during the first five years after high school graduation. CTE concentrators earned $2,631 more in Indiana and $1,536 more in Minnesota annually than non-concentrators, and they were 3.2% and 4.1% more likely to be employed, respectively.

North Carolina

In North Carolina, eligible high school students can earn credentials and college credits tuition-free from North Carolina colleges and universities through Career & College Promise (CCP), a statewide dual enrollment program.⁶⁵ Participating students choose among three CCP pathways:

• 1. College Transfer, where students take dual enrollment classes that lead to an associate's degree to meet the general education requirements of a four-year college;
• 2. CTE, where students take dual enrollment classes to earn college credits leading to credentials or workforce-based careers; or
• 3. Cooperative Innovative High Schools, where students earn an associate's degree or two years of college credit at an approved high school partnered with a college or university.

A study of 525,000 students in grades 11 and 12 compared students who participated in North Carolina's CCP CTE Pathway from the 2012-2013 to 2018-2019 school years with those who did not participate. Students who participated in CCP over seven years earned six times more college credits than the comparison group, were 2% more likely to graduate from high school, and were 9% more likely to enroll in any college. These graduation and enrollment gains were slightly larger (3% and 11%, respectively) for economically disadvantaged students. Female students were slightly more likely than males to participate in CTE dual enrollment during the 2018-2019 school year; 10% of all female students participated compared to 8% of all males.

Appendix. Career Clusters and Career Pathways