Workforce and Technical Skill Education and its Assessment

Abstract

Education is all, to some extent, workforce development. Whether students major in engineering or English, successful outcomes tend to be those where students find a successful career. Yet, there are programs which are especially targeted for the workforce that can be assessed differently than traditional college programs. Workforce and technical skill programs are focused programs with the intent of program graduates immediately transitioning to related occupations. This chapter uses SLDS data to estimate the returns to education for workforce and technical programs. The author illustrates how this data can be used in accountability.

Keywords: returns to education, community college, statewide longitudinal data systems, Iowa

JEL Classification: I20, J31