It’s no secret that community colleges are in some kind of trouble. The model for these institutions, which Congress initially developed in 1917, was a negative response to immigration from Asia and Europe. Coupled with another piece of Legislation, The Immigration Act of 1917, the Smith-Hughes Act sought to eliminate the influx of highly skilled workers by substituting existing citizens. The only problem, of course, was that the existing citizenry wasn’t highly skilled.
Community colleges, junior colleges, trade schools and other vocation-oriented institutions sprang up in response to the influx of supportive federal dollars. Although community colleges were born out of the nationalistic hate that permeated the US at the time, they have – for the most part -risen above its less-than-humble beginnings.
Today, that model of providing low-cost, high-value vocational education isn’t working. Or at least it’s not working well enough to attract the student population that employers have come to depend on. Challengers still see opportunity in vocational and occupational education and hope to fill the space that community colleges have inexplicably abandoned. They’re doing a pretty good job of it, too.
According to the Credential Engine, an educational data project funded by the Strada Education Network, The Gates Foundation, and the Walmart Foundation, in 2022, there were 1,076,358 discrete post-secondary credentials available in the United States. That’s an increase of 11.22% over 2021. In other words, the knives are out, and just about everyone is trying their hands at post-secondary education in one form or another.
Community colleges not among growth sectors in education
The largest class of credential is the non-degree certificate. In 2022, a range of providers offered 656,505 of these credentials, an increase of 19.4% over 2021. It is also the second-fastest growing type of credential available.
Traditional education providers offer the second- largest class of credential. This includes accredited schools like community colleges ad universities. In 2022, these institutions offered 350,412 such credentials. This is a 2.59% decline in the number of degrees and certificates they offered just one year earlier.
The third largest class of credentials comes from secondary education institutions. These credentials are not standard high school diplomas. Instead, they represent alternative education certificates and GEDs. The number of these institutions increased by 14.8% year-over-year, making them the third-fastest growing type of credential available.
The smallest class of credential is known as the MOOC, the Massive Open Online Course. In 2022, there were 13,014 MOOCs available, providing micro-credentials, non-degree certificates, badges, licenses, and other types of certifications. The number of MOOCs increased by more than 38% between 2021 and 2022. Far and away, this is the fastest growing type of post-secondary credential right now.
Note that the only type of credential that’s losing ground are those offered by the traditional post-secondary institutions. The Credential Engine report divides these degrees and certificates into four types: Title IV Degrees, Title IV Certificates, Non-Title IV Degrees, and Non-Title IV Certificates. The Title IV designation indicates whether the institution is eligible or ineligible to receive federal financial aid. According to the report, the number of Title IV and Non-Title IV degrees and Non-Title IV certificates all increased between 2021 and 2022.
Alternative credentials growing in popularity
The number of Title IV certificates declined by nearly 56%. The report authors identify problems with the data collection related to their ability to identify these programs correctly. Additionally, they speculate that COVID-19 had a significant impact on the completion rates of these certificates. Some of these programs may not have been able to transition successfully to online learning. In some cases, the authors speculate that the programs were simply paused and not recovered. Because these degrees and certificates are lumped together, it is difficult to know with certainty whether the number of these credentials is truly declining, and if so, by how much.
What is known, however, is that the number of alternative credentials is growing and apparently at a rapid rate. The availability of alternatives to traditional post-secondary degrees likely accounts for some decline in enrollment at traditional post-secondary institutions. Whether these alternatives hold value for employers remains to be seen, but their growth clearly indicates their value to students. It also further reinforces the idea that the traditional post-secondary model is breaking. In the case of community colleges, the model may already be broken.
Photo Credit: Underway in Ireland , via Flickr
