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ERIC Number: EJ1479364
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Sep
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0361-0365
EISSN: EISSN-1573-188X
Available Date: 2025-08-06
Local Labor Market Alignment of Short-Term Certificate Programs
Research in Higher Education, v66 n6 Article 33 2025
Short-term certificate (STC) programs at community colleges represent a long-standing policy priority to align accelerated postsecondary credentials with job opportunities in local labor markets. Despite large investments in developing STCs, little evidence exists about where and when STCs are opened and whether community colleges open new programs of study in coordination with labor market trends. Using public workforce and postsecondary data, I examine health and manufacturing STC program openings to understand alignment with labor market activity in related industries. I find that STCs are spatially aligned across labor markets within a state, but not necessarily temporally aligned with county-specific trends. One additional STC per college is associated with labor markets that had 2-3% points more total employment and new hires in related industries. Large launches of clustered STC programs occurred before periods of growth in health employment but declines in manufacturing. Large launches preceded earnings growth of 2-5% points in both sectors.
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Florida State University, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Tallahassee, USA