Salary tracker shows earning power of community college grads – often more than graduate degree holders

With the right major, California community higher graduates can out-earn workers with bachelor's and master'south degrees – often by a lot.

Salary Surfer, an online consumer guide released by the Community Higher Chancellor's Function Wed, lets prospective students and everyone else look up the median earnings for graduates of the 179 most pop subjects at customs college campuses and check to see which colleges offer those programs.

The interactive information system is the offset of its kind in California to track salaries of bodily community higher students to see how much they're earning two and five years after graduation and compare that with what they earned two years before graduation.  Several other states, notably Florida and Virginia, track graduates of two- and 4-year colleges.  Salary Surfer adds another component to the state community higher systems' attempt to amend pupil services and success rates. In April, the chancellor'south office went online with a new, user-friendly version of its scorecard, which allows the public to track campus measures such as graduation and transfer rates, while giving colleges more information on where their students need intervention to assistance them succeed.

View of the pull downwards carte du jour on Salary Surfer showing the overall subjects. Within these are 179 individual courses of study. (Source: California Customs College Chancellor'due south Office). Click to enlarge.

The highest-paying fields don't necessarily require a two-year associate'due south degree, the guide shows. V years after earning a certificate in electrical systems and power manual, the people who repair and maintain electric lines and test power metersearn a median salary of more than $123,000 a year. Nurses, physicians' assistants and fire academy graduates took home a median salary betwixt $78,000 and virtually $96,000. Certificate programs tin can require as few every bit six units (two classes), or every bit many every bit 68 units (2 or more years) for nursing, which requires meaning knowledge and skills.

To put that in perspective, the median annual wages for a worker with a main'southward degree is $60,200 – with political scientist at the elevation with a median income of more than $107,000 a year – according to the U.S. Agency of Labor Statistics. Tap into Salary Surfer and it shows about 45 percent of community higher graduates earned more than $54,000 a year.

"The motivation behind this is very simple; we desire to restore the access and nosotros desire to dramatically improve success of students in our colleges," said Community College Chancellor Brice Harris during a telephone interview with reporters.

In contempo years, as EdSource Today has reported, enrollment has dropped by 470,000 students in the 112-campus system equally a result of budget cuts that forced campuses to reduce the number of classes offered. Even though the Legislature approved a budget last week allocating more than than $200 million in boosted funding for customs colleges next year, the perception remains that the schools are the weaker link in California'due south public higher education arrangement.

Salary Surfer should help modify that paradigm, said David Rattray, senior vice president of education and workforce development for the Los

Chemistry pupil at San Diego Mesa College. Co-ordinate to Salary Surfer, community college chemistry majors earn a median salary of $51,453 five years after graduation. Source: California Community Higher website. (Click to enlarge)

Angeles Chamber of Commerce. "I think the ability of this tool is the 360-degree reality to information technology. Markets piece of work better when there's perfect transparency or knowledge past all of the players in that market."

Salary Surfer is another piece of the community college systems' effort to improve student services and success rates. In Apr, the chancellor'southward office went online with a new, user-friendly version of its scorecard, which allows the public to track campusmeasures such as graduation and transfer rates, while giving colleges more information on where their students need intervention to aid them succeed.

Salary Surfer also provides a strong incentive for students to stay in school, according to community college officials.

"We recollect students are going to look at these tools and it'due south going to help keep them in form, continue them focused on their goal considering they tin see that if they do stay true to their educational goals that at that place will exist a payoff at the end," Harris said.

How information technology works

The interactive plan uses Social Security numbers to link customs college graduates with the land Employment Evolution Section, or EDD. The EDD sends back salary figures for each educatee for three points in time: two years before the pupil graduated and 2 and 5 years subsequently graduation. Students' names are not attached to their Social Security numbers in the community higher database, officials said; the chancellor'south office receives only the aggregate salary information.

The data isn't bachelor on an individual campus basis; however, each major does link to every customs higher that offers that program of study. The survey also does non include all 288 curricular areas in community colleges considering at that place has to be a minimum of ten graduates for the statistics to be valid. That's not always the instance with some very local document programs, said Paul Feist, vice chancellor of communications.

"They're very specific things tied to a local manufacture," Feist said. "There's 1 upwards at Butte Community Higher they refer to as Almond Knockin'; they employ tree vibration equipment to harvest from almond trees."

Other groups that aren't factored into the wages are graduates who work for the federal government, those in the war machine and anyone who is still in college, either as a transfer to a four-year school or in another community higher program. Vice Chancellor Patrick Perry, who oversaw evolution of the system, said it nonetheless includes data culled fromtens of thousands of graduates.

California State Academy and the University of California also have the ability to lucifer graduates and wages with the EDD, just haven't done it so far. A spokesperson for UC said they're currently discussing whether and how they could launch a like programme. Cal State spokesman Michael Uhlenkamp said each campus already shares information on the median income of its graduates on their public good pages, a data mine of demographics, high-demand majors, financial aid, tuition and fees, and pay scale of graduates. He said the customs college salary tracker is "an interesting projection" that CSU will follow to run across what is learned from the information collected.

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Source: https://edsource.org/2013/salary-tracker-shows-earning-power-of-community-college-grads-often-more-than-graduate-degree-holders/33818