High schoolers are earning career credentials, but most have no value

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 22
2 min read

High school students are earning career credentials in greater numbers than ever before, writes Patrick O'Donnell on The 74. But there are "massive mismatches between the credentials students are earning and what employers seek."

South Tech High School near St. Louis offers auto repair and other career classes.

According to Credentials Matter, only one of every eight career credentials leads to higher pay.

Employers value Microsoft Office Specialist certifications, or nursing, electrical and commercial drivers’ licenses, researchers say. They're looking for young people with technical certificates in auto repair, construction or welding.

But "over a quarter of all high school credentials only provide workplace readiness skills such as digital and financial literacy," writes O'Donnell.

States are encouraging schools to add career classes, but few recommend only credentials with labor-market value, reports Advance CTE. Students often spend time in classes without knowing whether companies are hiring in that field, what credentials are required or what pay they might earn. “Credentials that don’t lead to viable employment opportunities fail to open doors for students, leaving them unprepared for the realities of the job market and potentially dead-end opportunities.”

"The ultimate goal — tracking the jobs students land and how much they earn after receiving a given credential — is still difficult for states," writes O'Donnell. Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota and South Dakota are the only states able to look at that data, Advance CTE reported.

Ohio does a good job of identifying the most valuable credentials and informing students, says the Credentials of Value report. But low achievers are earning less rigorous, low-value credentials to qualify for a diploma.

Most Ohio students are earning OSHA safety, CPR and retail and customer service certificates of little value, while only 16 percent earn high-value certificates. Cleveland students are especially likely to use RISE UP customer service and retail skills certificates, which require no workplace training, to satisfy graduation requirements, writes Fordham's Jessica Poiner. There is little or no employer demand.

In neighboring Parma, Chuck Caldwell, who heads district CTE programs, said several local stores, including Wal Mart and Target, pay students with the RISE UP credentials $1 more per hour, writes O'Donnell. It can be a building block for higher-level jobs. But the district is steering more students to Microsoft Office training.

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JKBrown

Sep 23

Rated 1 out of 5 stars.

So the certs are as valuable as the high school diplomas? I will grant the diploma does get the checkoff on the HR lady's spreadsheet

But it's a long term problem

Col. [Robert G.] Ingersoll*, with characteristic force, says:

"I agree perfectly that the hand and head must work together. Nothing excites my pity more than a man who has given fifteen or twenty years of his life to study—who is the graduate of a University and yet knows nothing of importance--knows nothing that he can sell—knows nothing by which he can make a living. HIs poor head is stuffed with worthless knowledge—with declensions and conjugations—in other words he has spent his whole life learning the names of cards and…

Bruce Smith

Replying to

Virtually no one is studying Latin "declensions and conjugations" these days.

Unified school districts, nonexistent in the 19th century, are today's worst kind; at best they might focus on compulsory education, yet most municipalities would be better off absorbing their assets, while passing on their liabilities to the state education agencies that have enabled their incompetence, while also delaying the beginning of vocational education & training via the tedious requirements of the typical comprehensive state high school.