Who takes High-earning CTE Pathways?: A report from the Career and Technical Education Policy Exchange examines which students enroll in high-earning CTE pathways.
The researchers analyzed data on CTE concentrators from five school districts across the country to find that gender is the strongest predictor of earnings potential. Across all five school districts, female CTE students were more likely to enroll in Career Clusters associated with lower earnings such as Education & Training and Human Services as well as the higher earning Health Science Cluster. Meanwhile, male students were more represented in high-paying Clusters such as IT, STEM and Finance.
Smaller but noteworthy differences were also found between racial/ethnic groups. Black and Hispanic CTE students tend to enroll in Clusters that are associated with slightly lower earnings than white students, but the researchers noted that these gaps are much smaller than the national pay gaps between Black, Hispanic and white workers. CTE students from low-income households enroll in Clusters with similar wages compared to high-income students, and differences by disability status were mixed.
Some College, No Credential Outcomes: A report and data dashboard from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center examines the current population of some college, no credential (SCNC) individuals. Major takeaways from the report include:
- At the start of the 2023-24 academic year, the total SCNC population under 65 years of age was 37.5 million, a 2.2% increase from the previous year.
- Most institutions saw reductions in the number of students leaving postsecondary education; notably, community colleges saw a 10.7% reduction in the number of stopouts compared to the previous year.
- More than one million SCNC students re-enrolled in postsecondary education in 2023-24, and the share of re-enrollees who earned a credential in their first year of re-enrollment increased by 4.7%.
- Community colleges are the primary destination for returning SCNC students, with nearly three in five re-enrolling in a community college.
- Approximately one-quarter of SCNC credential earners attained a credential without re-enrolling, possibly owing to state/institutional policies aimed at awarding credentials to learners who had previously stopped out.
- Although white and Asian students earned credentials at higher rates compared to other SCNC re-enrollees, all racial/ethnic groups saw gains in re-enrollment and credential attainment.
Gen Z's Limited Awareness of Non-college Pathways: A report from Gallup, the Walton Family Foundation and Jobs for the Future surveyed over 1,900 Gen Z high school students and their parents/guardians as well as adults nationwide to better understand Gen Z’s experiences and awareness of non-college pathways.
The researchers found that:
- Fewer than three in 10 students feel very prepared to pursue any pathway after high school. Apprenticeship programs rank the lowest, with only 8% of students feeling very prepared to pursue them.
- Only 15% of Gen Z students received information from their schools on career pathways that do not require a college degree, only 24% reported being prepared for an apprenticeship program, and only 39% reported that their schools prepared them to pursue an internship.
- Gen Z students and their parents know very little about pathways other than college. Despite this, nearly half of all high school students reported interest in pursuing a pathway other than a job or a bachelor’s degree.
- Students are much more likely to express interest in a pathway if their parents have talked with them about that pathway. For instance, students are 37 percentage points more likely to express interest in pursuing an apprenticeship if their parents have talked to them about apprenticeship.
2025 Post-graduation Readiness Report: A report from YouScience examines the pathways high school graduates from the class of 2024 pursued and the career guidance that they received.
The report finds that graduates are increasingly pursuing non-baccalaureate pathways – from 2019 to 2024, the percentage of graduates who pursued a bachelor’s degree dropped by 20 percentage points. Over the same period, graduates were 15 percentage points more likely to be working toward a specific career goal, reflecting a shift toward more skills-based pathways.
Despite this, 70% of graduates reported lacking confidence in their post-graduation career plans. In addition, students reported the following:
- 50% said that their schools could have offered more work-based learning opportunities.
- 39% wished that they had participated in more CTE courses.
- 38% wished that they had participated in an internship, job shadow or part-time work.
- 27% wished they had done more research on other postsecondary options.
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