Supply of Skilled Trades Workers

This section uses existing educational data to evaluate the educational pipeline of skilled trades workers, including the distribution of graduates across various categories of institutions, and across the regions of the Commonwealth.

DATA AND METHODS
The data used in this portion of the analysis were obtained from three sources. Data on graduates with two-year Associates degrees or one-year or less postsecondary certificates were taken from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Database System and are for the 2004-2005 academic year. These data include all graduates from four-year, two-year, and one-year, public and private colleges, universities, and postsecondary schools operating within Virginia.

Data on graduates from registered apprenticeship programs were provided by the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry and are for calendar year 2005. These data include all graduates from registered apprenticeship programs within Virginia, including military sponsored programs. Registered apprenticeship programs combine classroom education with on-the-job training provided by a sponsoring employer.

Data on graduates from Career Studies programs were provided by the Virginia Community College System. These data are for the 2004-2005 academic year. Career Studies certificates are a one-year or less postsecondary vocational certificate that is unique to individual colleges within the Virginia Community College System.

To quantify the educational pipeline of skilled trades workers we use a crosswalk developed by the National Crosswalk Service Center to “map” occupations into the prerequisite education and training program(s) necessary for entry into that occupation.¹⁸ The analysis is then further refined by using a classification scheme developed by the BLS to sort occupations according to the minimum degree or award required for employment in that occupation.¹⁹ Through this combination of steps, we are able to link postsecondary education graduates from specific programs and degree levels to specific occupations. This enables us to quantify the pipeline of graduates associated with individual skilled trades. Detail on the specific postsecondary educational programs (identified according to their U.S. Department of Education Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) designations) associated with each skilled trade evaluated in this report is provided in Table A2 of the Appendix. In addition, a listing of Virginia postsecondary education institutions, the Workforce Investment Areas they serve, and the skilled trades related graduates they produced in 2005 is provided in Tables A3 and A4 of the Appendix.

OVERVIEW
Table 14 details the educational pipeline associated with the twelve skilled trades evaluated in this portion of the study. For each skilled trade, Table 14 provides data on: 1) the education and training level typically required for entry into that occupation, 2) the number of related graduates produced in Virginia in 2005, disaggregated according to whether they received a certificate or Associate’s degree from a Virginia college or university, were a graduate of a Virginia Registered Apprenticeship Program, or received an associated Career Studies certificate from a Virginia Community College, and 3) the number of those related graduates who met the education and training level requirements for the occupation (e.g., a two-year Associate’slevel degree, a one-year certificate-level degree, etc.).

In total, there were 375 individuals who graduated from a Virginia college or university with a one-year or less postsecondary certificate in 2005 that was related to a skilled trade, 822 individuals who graduated with a related two-year Associates degree, 552 individuals who graduated from related Registered Apprenticeship programs, and 134 individuals who received a related one-year or less Career Studies Certificate from the Virginia Community College System. Of these graduates, a total of 1,671 met the required education and training threshold for entry into the related skilled trade.