Career and Technical Education Trends and Statistics

Student Enrollments

• Most undergraduates seeking a credential majored in career fields in 2004: 81 percent of students in certificate programs, 64 percent of students in associate’s degree programs, and 60 percent of students seeking bachelor’s degrees reported having career majors in this year. This translates into about 1.0 million certificate seekers, 4.4 million associate’s degree seekers, and 5.3 million bachelor’s degree seekers with career majors. Undergraduates who chose academic or other majors were in the minority at each credential level (6–30 percent).
• Overall, business and marketing was the most common career field in which students majored in 2004, with 28 percent of credential-seeking undergraduates reporting a major in this field. Another 22 percent majored in health care fields and 12 percent majored in education.
  The most common career major fields in 2004 varied somewhat depending on the credential students sought. Among bachelor’s degree seekers, business and marketing was the most common major field (33 percent), followed by education, health care, and engineering and architectural sciences (11–15 percent).
  In contrast, health care was the most common major field among students in associate’s degree programs (30 percent), followed by business and marketing (25 percent), education (10 percent), and computer sciences (9 percent). Health care was also the most common field (40 percent) among certificate seekers, followed by personal and consumer services (16 percent), trade and industry (13 percent), and business and marketing (11 percent).

Career Education Trends

• The total number of less-than-4-year institutions offering CTE declined in the late 1990’s, then increased each year between 2001 and 2006, resulting in a net increase of 3 percent over the 9-year period between 1997 and 2006 (from 3,706 to 3,833).
• Public 2-year institutions’ share of all subbaccalaureate CTE credentials declined over the 9-year period (from 59 to 58 percent). In contrast, for-profit less-than-2-year and for-profit 2-year institutions’ shares increased (18 to 19 percent and 12 to 17 percent, respectively) from 1997 to 2006.
  
  In the three smaller sectors, public less-than-2-year institutions’ share declined from 7 percent in 1997 to 3 percent in 2006. The percentage of subbaccalaureate CTE credentials awarded by private not-for-profit 2-year institutions declined by 1 percentage point (from 3 to 2), while that of private not-for-profit less-than-2-year institutions remained constant at 1 percent.
• The number of career majors increased between 1990 and 2004 among both associate’s and bachelor’s degree seekers (from 3.8 to 4.4 million and from 4.2 to 5.3 million, respectively), while the number of certificate-seeking undergraduates majoring in career education decreased (from 2.1 to 1.0 million). Over the same period, there was no measurable change in the percentage of bachelor’s degree seekers with career majors (59–60 percent), although the percentage of associate’s degree seekers with career majors decreased (from 69 to 64 percent) as did the percentage of certificate seekers (from 87 to 81 percent).
• Changes between 1990 and 2004 in the percentage of students majoring in different career fields varied across credential levels. For example, the percentage of students majoring in the health care field increased at the associate’s degree (from 19 to 30 percent) and certificate (from 17 to 40 percent) levels, but did not change measurably at the bachelor’s degree level (12–14 percent in each year). In contrast, the percentage of computer sciences majors showed a measurable increase only at the bachelor’s degree level (from 6 to 9 percent). Over the same period, the percentage of students majoring in business and marketing declined at all three credential levels (from 37 to 33 percent of bachelor’s degree seekers, 36 to 25 percent of associate’s degree seekers, and 25 to 11 percent of certificate seekers).