A workforce gap among middle-skills workers — those with certificates and associate degrees — can present an opportunity to diversify workers and provide a pathway to good-paying jobs in growing fields, according to a new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
The 73-page report outlines the challenges and opportunities for middle-skills workers, who generally have relatively limited access to high-paying work. In fact, only 29% of middle-skills credentials offer a path to occupations that are high-paying for middle-skills workers, the report says.
However, researchers identified four occupational groups with significant workforce gaps over the next seven years that could provide high-paying jobs for early-career workers with middle skills. The occupational groups include STEM, blue-collar (such as construction supervisors and mechanics), management and professional office, and protective services.
Healthcare was also listed as a high-paying sector for early-career middle-skills workers, but it does not face the same workforce shortfall, partly because many healthcare organizations opt for bachelor’s degrees for many entry-level positions.
Using the opportunity
Stakeholders need to do more to open pathways to good-paying middle-skills jobs, the Georgetown center says.
“While the costs associated with attaining middle-skills credentials are relatively low — as these credentials require just a few years of additional investment in postsecondary education and training — too few people are seizing the opportunity to earn these credentials,” the report says. “More needs to be done to boost the pursuit and attainment of credentials that align with high-paying middle-skills occupations and to smooth the transition from school to employment.”
The report noted it’s also an opportunity to bridge more underrepresented groups, particularly women, into those occupations. Almost half (48.5%) of middle-skills workers in high-paying occupations are White, while workers in lower-paying middle-skills occupations are much more likely to be women and from marginalized racial/ethnic groups (70.3%). For example, researchers found that women account for less than a third of workers in high-paying middle-skills management and professional office occupations and less than 15% in STEM occupations.
The center recommends a handful of key changes in policy and practice to open up pathways to good-paying middle-skills, ranging from better collection and use of labor-market data to help students decide what credentials to pursue, to connecting better with middle and high school students to expose them to middle-skills career options, and more.
