DEED's Graduate Employment Outcomes (GEO) Tool provides actual employment and wages of college program completers. This blog focuses on less-than-two-year programs offered in the Northwest that have the largest number of completers working in the Northwest region. The tool also provides the same information for two- and four-year degree programs, and for completers working anywhere in Minnesota. However, certificate and diploma programs – often called vocational programs – provide the shortest on-ramp to many careers that require postsecondary training.

Table 1 features three vocational areas of study at each local college in the 26-county Northwest region. These three were selected because they have the largest number of completers, and more completers who are working in Northwest Minnesota than anywhere else in Minnesota. Thus, these programs often provide opportunities for those that want a good job close to home without spending years in college. These are also the programs that quickly provide many trained workers to local employers.

The "Completers that Reported MN Wages in 2023" column indicates the number of program completers employed in Minnesota in a job covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI), which is the source of these data. Those working in a different state are not available in DEED's wage records, nor are self-employed and contract workers. On that note, many completers will work in North Dakota, especially for programs at Northland (with the largest campus in East Grand Forks) and Minnesota State Community and Technical College (M State) with the largest campus in Moorhead.

Conversely, many completers from North Dakota educational institutions also work in Minnesota. The Grand Forks, ND – East Grand Forks, MN and Fargo, ND – Moorhead, MN metropolitan areas each are contiguous labor markets. Supplying workers on either side of the state border serves the combined labor market. However, we do not have program completion information for those who finished post-secondary programs in North Dakota.

There are also completers that are in wage records two years after completion, even if some of these are continuing their education. The GEO tool has this information for those continuing their education in Minnesota. For example, of the Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants completers, 3.2% of Alexandria, 4.8% of Central Lakes, and 26.9% of M State are continuing their education in Minnesota. No doubt most of these are pursuing a Registered Nursing or other health care program to further their career.

This points to another advantage of the vocational programs: academic credits apply toward an associate degree. While vocational programs are a "fast track", they can also allow a continuing path to two-year or four-year degrees, and from there graduate or professional programs.

That said, completers would not have to continue with more education to get a job. Instead, these programs almost always train for occupations that are in high demand. Table 2 features all the "Five Star" occupations in demand (OID) for these instructional programs from DEED's OID Tool. These are ranked in the top 20% of all 467 OID in Northwest Minnesota. These occupations also have many projected openings. Note that I have included "First line supervisor" positions, which show a potential future promotion for workers who complete theses instructional programs.

For comparing median wages in Table 1 keep in mind that these are based on the actual earnings of instructional program completers in the second year after program completion. Workers would have less than two years' experience at that point. The comparable hourly median for all occupations is $21.67. For all occupations that require no more than high school, the median hourly wage is $20.09.

These training programs also prepare completers for relatively high wage jobs, as shown in Table 2. By comparison, the median wage for all occupations in Northwest Minnesota is $21.67 per hour. However, it is more useful to compare to the median wage for all occupations that require no more than a high school education to see how much more one can earn completing a vocational program. Nearly all the occupations compare very favorably, with the lowest pay for Nursing Assistants, and the Nursing Assistant training is a minimum 75-hour program in Minnesota.

Clearly vocational programs provide a fast track to high demand, high pay careers in Northwest Minnesota. They are certainly worth considering if one has the need for speed in landing a job within the region.

For More Information

Contact Anthony Schaffhauser at anthony.schaffhauser@state.mn.us.