Increasing enrollments in community colleges and technical institutes indicate the continuing appeal of these institutions to a broad range of individuals with a variety of purposes. For those who think that students "voting with their feet" are well-informed about the prospects before them and are evidently making the decisions that are right for them, burgeoning enrollments are a sign of success. However, there are several reasons to remain concerned about the effectiveness of these institutions in providing access to sub-baccalaureate labor markets.
One obvious problem is the lack of information, for students and institutions alike. We uncovered very little information about the experiences of students in these institutions--about their rates of completion, their placement in positions related to employment, their earnings in the short term and the long run--with which students could make reasoned choices among alternative programs and alternative institutions. Community colleges and technical institutes do not collect such information--or occasionally, they collect it in such a way that its validity is highly suspect. Most employers are unable to provide even the most primitive guess of which local institutions are best and worst, save in some cases within Cotooli where employers have evaluated several institutions in setting up co-op programs. Although there may be a good deal of informal information at the local level--for example, in the generally high reputation of some community colleges or in statements like "everyone knows that XYZ College has a good electronics program"--the quality of this information is mediocre because reputations are imprecise, memories are selective, and information about occupational success over time as individuals move from job to job is almost completely lacking. As a result, potential students cannot get the information they need to make rational decisions about the different occupational areas and the institutions among which they can choose. While we have no direct information about the ways they make occupational choices, we can only surmise that they make many of their decisions serendipitously.
The problem of poor information emerges in several specific practices. One, highlighted by comments of employers about the unrealistic expectations of students, is that many students underestimate how difficult it is to enter the sub-baccalaureate labor market: The requirement of experience rather than (or in addition to) formal education, the fact that entry-level positions are poorly paid and relatively unskilled, and the period of time and performance required for moving up job ladders are all characteristics of sub-baccalaureate jobs that are not widely appreciated. A second problem comes in the mismatch between the offerings at educational institutions and the realities of the jobs that are available: The disjuncture between the large programs in business occupations and the fact that very few employers have positions suitable for such amorphous preparation and the fact that computer science and accounting programs in community colleges generally prepare individuals for clerical rather than professional positions are two obvious examples. Still another difficulty comes in the uncertain advantages of sub-baccalaureate credentials: The many employer comments about the fact the credentials alone will not get anyone hired--except perhaps in "organized" labor markets like the health professions or in areas like electronics where some employers have made the associate degree a prerequisite--corroborate statistical information about the varying returns to certificates and associate degrees. Many community college programs are outdated or are perceived by employers as too theoretical--but they still attract enrollments from students who cannot know how employers perceive the preparation in such programs.
Still another problem emerges in the kinds of programs students put together in educational institutions. With few exceptions, short-term job training programs--those lasting eight to sixteen weeks, for example, and provided by area vocational schools for adults and by JTPA and JOBS programs for welfare clients and other disadvantaged individuals--were virtually invisible to the employers we interviewed. They do not hire from these programs particularly because they are concerned that the individuals in them have deficient basic skills. Neither do they tend to hire individuals with small amounts of community college education except when they are looking for specific capacities--knowledge of a particular spreadsheet program, for example, or experience on a specific type of machine. Their ideal employee is one who has a range of abilities--specific job-related abilities (including the variety of skills required of flexible workers), sufficient related academic (or basic) skills, as well as the personal characteristics related to motivation, teamwork, and the like. It is therefore difficult to see how just a few postsecondary courses--the kind of programs many students construct when they enroll in a community college for just a few courses but in which they do not complete a certificate or associate degree--can provide much benefit or can provide entry to more than the lowest-level, routinized work. Indeed, those employers that do hire directly from community colleges rather than looking for experience almost uniformly require the completion of programs--in positions as electronics technicians that require associate degrees, in the health occupations requiring completion of a specific program, and in the co-op programs in Cotooli. We continue to think, therefore, that completion of coherent programs, rather than of individual courses, is important in the sub-baccalaureate labor market.[105] However, with a few exceptions,[106] community colleges have not established the mechanisms that would push students to complete coherent programs. As the director of the placement center at a prominent community college in the Palmdale area said,
We have so many students here that are just sort of wandering, taking classes without any sort of cohesive plan to those classes--a hundred years at [this college] that leads to nothing. And it's like they say, "Well, nobody told me"--well--what they need to do.
Despite these problems, it is still incorrect to say--as some critics of community colleges have claimed (e.g., Brint & Karabel, 1989)--that educational providers in the sub-baccalaureate labor market are worthless. From our interviews, it is clear that some employers have established prerequisites for associate degrees, especially in electronics; occupations in organized labor markets like health care require sub-baccalaureate credentials; some employers prefer applicants with a combination of experience and postsecondary education; and others interpret postsecondary education as an indication of persistence and determination, giving an edge in an increasingly competitive labor market to those who have attended community colleges and technical institutes. The limited statistical evidence also corroborates the value of such education. The problem remains, however, that these advantages are varied and uncertain: They are more substantial for associate degrees than for certificates, more substantial for completed credentials (i.e., coherent programs) than for a few courses, more substantial for health and technical fields than for other occupational areas, and more substantial when individuals find related employment. No doubt they vary in many other ways which have not yet been investigated. From the viewpoint of students deciding where to enroll or administrators trying to identify weak programs to improve, information should be much more detailed than is now available.
[105] The statistical work in Grubb (1992b, forthcoming-b) corroborates this conclusion, though Kane and Rouse (1992), relying on results about wage rates rather than annual earnings, are more optimistic about the benefits of individual course-taking.
[106] For example, Miami-Dade Community College has established a student tracking and warning system to encourage students to complete the programs they establish for themselves (described in Roueche & Baker, 1987, Ch. III) and California has developed a system of matriculation intended to promote completion.