We have too many people in college. This is a sentiment I have recently heard repeated in several different venues. It is a well-intentioned thought; generally followed by a comment about more students being prepared to go to work without needing a degree. Here are two reasons why those ideas miss the mark.
First, we actually have too few Arkansas students who go on to college. Arkansas is currently 49th of the 50 states in post-secondary attainment, meaning that we have the second lowest percentage in the country of adults with an education beyond a high school diploma. Beyond this, only 21 percent of Arkansans hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, a statistic which also places us among the lowest in the nation.
But we don’t need more degrees just for the sake of having a better educated population. Jobs are at stake. A recent national publication projected that 59 percent of Arkansans will need a post-secondary credential by 2020 to meet employer needs.
This means more technical certificates are needed to train welders and truck drivers and machinists. More associate’s degrees are needed to prepare nurses and computer technologists and mechanical system technicians. More bachelor’s degrees are required for engineers, computer scientists and teachers.
Arkansas Department of Higher Education estimates indicate that as many as 263,000 adults in our state are under-educated based on these job projections. To close this gap between future employer needs and current college-going and college-completion results, we should encourage more high school graduates to earn a post-secondary credential and encourage more adults to enroll in college. It will take efforts on both fronts to change the educational attainment landscape in our state.
This leads to the second issue with the well-intentioned but misplaced argument that too many Arkansans go to college.
For many, there is a lack of understanding of what college means. We often think of college as four years of study leading to a bachelor’s degree. This is true but our colleges and universities prepare students for jobs through many other programs, some of them a semester or shorter in length. Here is a random sample of programs available to Arkansas students:
- Certificate of proficiency in commercial driver training at Arkansas State University–Newport. A program that can be completed in four weeks.
- Robotics technology, a nine-credit-hour certificate of proficiency that can be completed at University of Arkansas at Fort Smith in one semester.
- Technical certificate in database applications at Rich Mountain Community College, which can be completed in two semesters.
- Associate of applied science degree in industrial control systems, a two-year degree program available through Arkansas Tech University–Ozark.
Each of these is representative of the programs available throughout the state that can be completed in less than four years and lead directly to available jobs. For some, these or similar programs are the best pathway to high-paying jobs. For others, a bachelor’s degree or graduate degree is the best option. The fact is, we need certificate holders, associate’s degree holders, bachelor’s degree holders and graduate degree holders.
Job creation is a key to future economic development and those new jobs will only occur if there is an educated and qualified workforce waiting for them. Arkansas’ future gets brighter with each post-secondary certificate or degree awarded.
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Dr. Brett Powell is the director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. This column originally appeared on his blog, Higher Ed Insights. Email him at Brett.Powell@ADHE.Edu |
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