Alignment Between Community College Credentials and Middle-Skill Jobs in Advanced Infrastructure and Energy
This brief introduces an inventory of advanced infrastructure, energy, and agriculture (AIREA) jobs and identifies regions with well-aligned job demand and credential production to help policymakers support community and technical colleges in developing and expanding programs where trained workers are needed most.
Who Rides Out the Storm? The Immediate Post-College Transition and Its Role in Socioeconomic Earnings Gaps
Using administrative data from a large, urban, public college system, this paper documents large gaps in earnings five years after graduation by SES and the extent to which differences in the first job transition can explain these gaps.
State Policy for Expanding Access to High-Demand Jobs: The Role of G3, GO Virginia, and Virginia’s Community Colleges
This ARCC Network brief examines two statewide workforce-focused initiatives, G3 and GO Virginia. The authors present a snapshot of how these initiatives interact on the ground and describe opportunities for more deliberate and strategic efforts to better align their goals and investments.
What’s the Value of a Master’s Degree?
Using administrative data from Ohio, this Third Way brief compares master’s degree completers’ earnings before and after graduate school and finds that, on average, earning a master’s degree increases earnings, though returns vary by field and student demographics.
Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead? Evaluating the Effects of Virginia’s Workforce-Targeted Free College Program
Using two quasi-experimental methods, this paper estimates the causal impact of Virginia’s Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead initiative on financial aid and academic outcomes of community college students.