When Alexander Trayah left the Army last spring after 10 years of service, he felt kind of scared.
“It's a pretty daunting thing to kind of restart over again at 30. But I knew that I, you know, wanted to work with my hands,” he said.
So, he enrolled in the HVAC program at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Nashville. He expects to graduate in January, with multiple certificates ready to enter the workforce as an HVAC technician.
He’s not alone. While the most common undergraduate credential is the bachelor’s degree, more and more students are now going for certificates, which helps get them into the workforce faster.
According to a report out Thursday from the National Student Clearinghouse, the number of students earning a certificate rose by more than 11% in the 2023-2024 academic year compared to the year before. Meanwhile, the number of people earning bachelor's and associate's degrees each fell by about 1%.
And the workforce is ready for workers like Trayah, according to Doug Shapiro, who leads the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
“There's been growing demand for workers with these types of vocational skills,” he said.
The jump in certificates is being driven by employers who want to be certain that the workers they’re hiring have a specific skillset, Shapiro said. “Certificates really put a finer point on that and say, ‘Here are the things that this person has actually learned to do.’”
Shapiro added that students are also attracted to certificates’ lower cost and shorter time frame compared to higher degrees. Some take just a few months.
