Who Advises Vocational Students About Their Major?
A bachelor's or graduate degree is
not the only route to a financially rewarding career. There are good-paying technical jobs
in fields like healthcare and other skilled trades that require some postsecondary
training, experience or education, but not a college degree. Policy leaders,
including the
National Academies of Sciences, have made it a priority to better understand how to prepare more adults
for work in these fields.
New data from Gallup and Strada Education Network's
Education Consumer Pulse shed light on who advises students in vocational programs about their
field of study, and how helpful students find that advice. The data are
from 506 adults living in the United States aged 18 to 65, interviewed
between June 16 and Aug. 5, 2017, who attended a vocational, trade or
technical program. These results are further compared with survey data
used in a larger research
publication, which have been collected since January 2017 for those who have an associate
degree, have a bachelor's degree, or attended college but do not have a degree.
Students who attended technical, trade or vocational programs are much
more likely to mention receiving advice about their major from informal
work-based sources -- such as employers, colleagues or people with experience
in their field -- than are students who have attended a degree program:
33% vs. 20%, respectively.
At the same time, technical or vocational program participants are much
less likely than those who received a degree to mention getting advice
from school-based resources, such as counselors -- on the formal side
-- and teachers or coaches, on the informal side.
Source of advice about major for adults who attended a technical, trade
or vocational program compared with those who attended degree-earning
programs at a bachelor's level or lower
Attendees of tech, trade or vocational programs
Attendees of degree programs at bachelor's level or lower
%
%
Informal social network
51
55
Informal work-based
33
20
Formal
28
44
Informal school-based
25
32
Did not receive advice
2
2
Other
2
2
Don't know
1
2
The columns report the percentage of respondents who mentioned a source
of advice when given up to three choices. Degree programs at the bachelor's
level or below includes those with some college and no degree and those
with an associate or bachelor's degree.
Education Consumer Pulse
Regardless of occupation, participants in technical or vocational programs
who received advice on their field of study from a work colleague or an
expert in the field tend to receive higher pay than those who got their
advice elsewhere.
Workers in Skilled Trades Least Likely to Look to Formal Sources
Among adults attending vocational, trade or technical programs, those in
skilled trades -- including construction, production, installation, maintenance
and repair, transportation, and agriculture -- are more likely than those
in professional or service jobs to report getting informal work-based
sources of advice (40% vs. 38% and 31%, respectively). Workers in skilled
trades who attended vocational programs are also the least likely to mention
receiving advice about their major from formal sources, such as high school
guidance counselors.
Source of advice for adults who attended a technical, trade or vocational
program, by broad occupational group
Not working
Skilled-trades workers
Professional
Service job
All
%
%
%
%
%
Informal social network
48
59
52
48
51
Informal work-based
25
40
38
31
33
Formal
32
22
21
38
28
Informal school-based
23
23
27
26
25
Did not receive advice
2
1
5
0
2
Other
4
0
2
0
2
Don't know
1
2
1
0
1
Education Consumer Pulse
Technical or Vocational Program Students See Informal Sources as Most Helpful
When asked to assess the helpfulness of each source of advice, students
who attended technical, trade or vocational programs generally rate any
source of advice as "very helpful" or "helpful" and,
for the most part, at higher rates than those who attended programs that
earn a two- or four-year degree. Those who attended vocational programs
rate informal school-based sources as the most helpful. They are also
much more likely than degree recipients to regard formal sources of advice
-- from high school and college counselors -- as helpful. Both groups
give high ratings to work-based sources of advice.
Percentage of adults who attended tech, trade or vocational programs who
describe the source of advice they received about their major as either
"helpful" or "very helpful", by source
Attendees of tech, trade or vocational programs
Attendees of degree programs at bachelor's level or lower
%
%
Informal social network
86
72
Formal
79
64
Informal school-based
91
78
Informal work-based
81
83
Degree programs below the bachelor's level include those with some
college and no degree as well as those with an associate or bachelor's degree.
Education Consumer Pulse
Bottom Line
The U.S. Department of Education data show that there were nearly
900,000 technical, trade or vocational awards given out in 2016 below the associate
degree level. Many who pursue this level of education work in relatively
high-paying occupations that demand technical skills, while others end
up in low-wage occupations that require very little training or experience.
Helping students select the right field for them could potentially have
a large impact on their earnings.
These findings illustrate how students who pursue higher earnings pathways
in vocational, trade or technical programs are heavily influenced by their
work experiences, but not by professional advisers such as counselors.
This points to a potentially important role for career and technical education
programs at the high school level and an opportunity for counselors to
suggest these and related career pathways to larger numbers of students.
