How Short-Term Community College Courses Help Boost Your Salary
Completing a short-term noncredit program at a community college can unlock a quick wage boost, a new study found.
While a large body of research exists on the relationship between wages and postsecondary degrees, much less attention has been paid to occupational training programs offered by community colleges that can be completed in a few hundred hours or less.
Successfully completing one of these occupational programs typically nets workers a pay increase of 3.8%, according to a new article published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Educational Research Association.
"Whether noncredit occupation training pays off for students has been an open question for some time," coauthor Peter Riley Bahr, vice president of employer alignment at the Strada Education Foundation, said in a release. "We find that earnings gains are quite robust in some fields."
The release of the study comes as some career and technical education programs are expected to grow in the coming years, thanks to a legislative provision that expands Pell Grants for workforce job training programs.
Beginning July 1, 2026, some workforce training programs between 150 and 599 hours in length are becoming eligible under a section in the GOP tax law passed earlier this year. States are still sorting out the rules and determining which workforce training programs may be eligible for the federal need-based aid program. The amount of the awards will depend on the program's length and student's financial need, but they could reach up to about $4,000 and in many cases would be enough to cover most, if not, all of a program's tuition.
Over 4 million students already participate in noncredit programs per year, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. But it's worth noting that figure includes non-workforce education programs like English as a second language courses.
Must Read
Noncredit occupational training programs boost wages: Study
The new research finds "modest but statistically significant" earnings gains for students completing short-term workforce training programs. It documents an average earnings increase of about $2,000 per year (in 2019 dollars) within two years of finishing the training, the article says.
Not all programs deliver the boost in outcomes. The study, which looked at data from Texas programs, found that wage benefits vary by field, among other factors. Transportation and engineering technologies programs deliver returns that "are two to four times greater than the average." However, the wage gains in programs in business and marketing, information sciences, communication and design "are statistically indistinguishable from zero."
The dataset covers nearly 130,000 students who "participated exclusively" in noncredit programs at community colleges in the state and enrolled between fall 2011 and fall 2014. The researchers also stress that program costs vary significantly, which influences the net payoff of the training, though that data was not explored in the study.
The bottom line: The research builds on a still-limited but growing literature on the outcomes of shorter-term workforce training programs. The good news? There is definitely potential to see your wages grow after completing a noncredit program. But with some returning little-to-no financial benefits, it's critical that you research programs thoroughly before enrolling.
More from Money:
What Happens to Student Loans if Trump Shuts Down the Education Department?
College Costs Were Flat for Many Years. Now They're Back on the Rise
Researchers Find Pay Transparency Laws Really Do Raise Wages (and Not Just for New Hires)