Over the past several decades, the demand in California for college-educated workers has grown. But the supply of college graduates has not kept pace with demand, and it appears that this “workforce skills gap” will not only continue but widen. This study examines the causes, magnitude, and likely consequences of the potential mismatch between the level of education the future population is likely to possess and the level of education demanded by the future economy. The author concludes that if current trends continue, California will experience a serious shortfall of college graduates by 2025, unable to meet its needs even through the migration of college graduates from other states.

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Via: Public Policy Institute of California

Career/Technical Education Statistics and Data

This Statistics in Brief uses data from the 2005 High School Transcript
Study (HSTS) to examine the career/technical education (CTE)
coursetaking of
public high school graduates using new indicators of participation.
These
indicators examine the extent to which students participate in CTE and
in
specific occupational areas (such as agriculture and business) broadly
(many
students earning credits) versus deeply (many credits earned by
participating students).

First, the brief looks at student participation across the three main
CTE
curriculum areas (family and consumer sciences education, general labor
market preparation, and occupational education). Second, the brief looks
at
coursetaking within occupational areas, including occupational
concentration. Finally, the brief examines coursetaking across
occupational
areas, including the areas that students tend to combine.

Findings indicate that high school graduates’ use of the CTE curriculum
is
generally broad rather than narrow in the sense that most (70 percent)
earn
credits in both occupational education and either general labor market
preparation or family and consumer sciences education, and most (58
percent)
earn credits in more than one occupational area. Five occupational areas
had
the broadest participation (i.e., had the greatest number of graduates
earning credits in the area): business; communications and design;
manufacturing, repair, and transportation; consumer and culinary
services;
and computer and information sciences). The occupational areas with the
deepest levels of participation were manufacturing, repair, and
transportation; agriculture and natural resources; health sciences; and
construction and architecture. Finally, some occupational areas were
more
likely than others to be taken together. For example, marketing
coursetakers
were more likely than other occupational !
coursetakers to earn credits in business.

To view, download and print the report as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009038

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