Skills, not just degree levels, affect graduate wages
- February 15, 2015
- / Rick Harper
- / early-learning,report-pensacola-education-2015-part-1
In 2012, State Sen. Don Gaetz passed legislation requiring Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity to report annually on the wages earned by recent graduates of the many programs offered by our public colleges, universities and technical schools. The purpose was to improve the information families have when choosing where to enroll and what to study. The 2014 report was published six weeks ago. In it one can see easily that it is not just the level of degree attained (whether an associate or bachelor’s degree), but it is competencies that matter most. Scarce and job-specific skills pay better than more general qualifications. Consider: — Some 21,526 students completed an associate of science degree in nursing over the 2007-08 to 2011-12 school years. Of those, 87 percent were employed in Florida in the year after they graduated. Those 18,810 employed grads earned an average of $49,700 during their first year. — About 70 percent of the associate of science grads with child care provider/assistant degrees were employed a year after graduation, and at an average wage of $25,308. — There were almost 240,000 associate of arts graduates over the five years that were examined. Their average first-year earnings were $26,936. — The average bachelor’s degree graduate had first-year earnings of $33,432. Among the popular majors, biology came out at the lower end with wages of $25,680; accounting was at the top of the heap with an average wage of $40,286. Psychology is the most popular major, but had first-year earnings that were about $4,000 lower than the average across all majors.