A new Fordham Institute publication by Dr. Matt Giani, entitled “How Attaining Industry-Recognized Credentials in High School Shapes Education and Employment Outcomes,” provides a timely and much-needed overview as to the how industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) may benefit individuals once they leave high school. The popularity of IRCs across the country is continuing to grow as high schools look for ways to better prepare students for both college and career. However, prior to this report, little was known about how these credentials related to college and career outcomes.
While Giani covers an extremely wide range of outcomes—including college enrollment and persistence, early career earnings, and descriptions of IRC earners—there are two specific findings that warrant greater discussion.
First, there is a huge difference in outcome, whether related to college or career, depending on the field in which the IRC was earned. In general, as the author states, “IRCs are weakly related to increases in short-term employment, while a few specific IRCs are positively related to increases in short-term earnings.” However, these benefits tend to be concentrated among high school graduates who go straight into the labor market. In other words, IRCs are more beneficial for students who don’t attend college immediately after high school.
Specifically, IRCs in cosmetology, transportation, and health science provide the largest and most reliable earnings boost. Interestingly, both cosmetology and transportation are the IRCs most strongly related to decreased chances in attending any college, though health science is most strongly related to higher chances of attending college. While these findings in themselves provide valuable information, one of the broader takeaways should be that this work highlights the importance of analyzing the unique fields of IRCs, and other career-related education opportunities, as opposed to viewing them as a single entity.
A second major finding that is worth discussing in more detail relates to the idea of alignment between an earned IRC and later field of study or employment. Essentially, do students go on to study or work in a field that is directly related to the IRC they earned in high school? Giani largely finds the answer to be no. With respect to alignment between college major and IRC, public safety is the only IRC for which more than one-third of students are in an aligned field of study. Meanwhile, for IRCs in fields such as architecture and construction or cosmetology, fewer than 5 percent of students choose to study in an aligned field in college. There is similar misalignment related to career outcomes. For half of the identified IRC fields, fewer than 5 percent of students are employed in a related career field. Cosmetology is the only IRC field that boasts career alignment for more than one-quarter of students.
Each of the two above findings align with prior work I’ve done related to participation in career and technical education (CTE) coursework in high school. Specifically, I have found that there is a great deal of variation in early career earnings based on the field in which they concentrate (earn three or more credits). Similar to the findings related to IRCs, health science and trades (e.g., transportation, manufacturing, architecture and construction) were related to higher earnings.
With respect to alignment, I have found that there is some alignment between CTE course-taking and later participation in aligned fields in postsecondary education by field of study. Specifically, there is evidence that students who take courses in a given CTE field in high school are more likely to both take courses and later earn a credential in that same CTE field in college. Again, there are very clear differences based on field of study, with health science, info tech, business, and public service having the strongest connections—fairly similar to IRCs.
These findings bring up a handful of important considerations. Chief among them—what is the purpose of IRCs? Giani provides interesting context in conversations with students regarding their decisions to pursue a given IRC, and many students talk about reasons that have nothing to do with college or career. There is certainly an argument for allowing students to pursue knowledge for their own personal knowledge and benefit. There is also something to be said for helping students to choose a path by allowing them to identify fields they don’t want to pursue. There is also the possibility that students learn skills by completing these IRCs that are generalizable beyond the specific field.
But again, this brings us back to the original question—what is the purpose of IRCs? If we identify the purpose as a way to encourage career exploration and allow students to engage in interesting course material, then perhaps IRCs are doing exactly what they should. If we want IRCs to serve as a direct pathway from high school into college and career, then perhaps we need to reconsider how to make this a reality.
