Going to a university degree can represent a significant investment of time and money. If training for a rewarding career is your goal, it’s definitely worth it. But how do you know that you are training for a career field that is growing and will have opportunities in the future?
America’s accredited career and technical schools have the same concerns as you. They know that their success is measured by how many of their graduates can find good jobs in areas where there is growth and opportunity. A high job placement rate means that the university is succeeding in its mission. But if its graduates don’t get jobs, the university’s reputation will suffer. When schools train students to succeed in growing career fields, everyone wins.
How do professional schools decide which programs to offer? Mainly by studying trends and statistics. The best source of employment statistics is the United States government. The Department of Labor has a division called the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS publishes large amounts of employment information and data on its website. It is free and available to anyone.
In the “Occupational Outlook Handbook” publication, the BLS tracks and evaluates hundreds of occupations, including medical assistant, truck driver, carpenter, accountant, cosmetologist, motorcycle repair, law enforcement, graphic design, and many more. A description is provided for each job, along with information on training and advancement opportunities.
There is also a section called “Job Outlook.” This section provides the BLS projection of the future potential of the work. That’s what professional colleges want to know.
Growing careers
For example, here is what the 2010-2011 Edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook predicts for dental assisting:
“Employment is expected to grow 36 percent from 2008 to 2018, much faster than the average for all occupations. In fact, dental assistants are expected to be among the fastest-growing occupations during the 2008 projection period -18”.
This is a very positive expectation. It means that despite difficult economic times where the unemployment rate is unacceptably high, the dental assisting field is expected to continue create new jobs. Career colleges use this type of information to help them plan their study plans. Many professional schools offer dental assisting programs because they are confident that their graduates will be able to find opportunities in that field.
Career Fields That Are Shrinking
Let’s look at another example: file clerks. File clerks classify, store, retrieve, and update office information. In many small offices, they often have additional responsibilities, such as word processing, data entry, mail sorting, and operating copiers or faxes.
Does training to be a file clerk sound like a good idea? Here’s what the 2010-2011 Edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook says about opportunities for file clerks:
“Employment is expected to decline rapidly. Employment is expected to decline due to productivity gains from office automation and the consolidation of white-collar jobs.”
The job outlook for file clerks is terrible! Professional colleges recognize this. The career college or technical training school you’re interested in most likely won’t offer a file clerk program. If they trained students to be file clerks, their graduates would enter a job market with few opportunities.
Find the career college for you
Career schools are not employment agencies and cannot guarantee you a job. But when you choose a program at a reputable career college, you can be sure that the school has done the research and offers educational programs that reflect today’s job market. And that’s good to know!
So how do you choose a college major? The best way is to start online. You can read the Occupational Outlook Handbook online at http://www.bls.gov/oco/. See which careers are expected to continue to grow. Then go to a reputable college directory website, such as Education-For-Careers. You will find a search engine that allows you to specify your search terms and obtain information on the schools that are right for you. A good college directory website will have information on online programs (also called distance learning), financial aid, job placement services, and much more.
Choose four or five schools that offer what you are looking for. Compare the programs and then contact them. You can apply to as many schools as you want. Once you are accepted, apply for financial aid. When you have all the information you need, make your choice. One thing is for sure: no matter which accredited career school you choose, the school has most likely researched what careers are growing and crafted its curriculum to meet employer demands.