College Degree Not Always Required

Lou Glazer of Michigan Future Inc. often tells audiences about good-paying jobs that do not require a college degree. However, audiences are generally skeptical.

“They tell me, ‘There is no such thing,’ ” he said.

Yet when he speaks with employers, they tell him, “We have lots of skills and trade jobs,” which pay better than occupations requiring a college degree, “and very few people capable of doing them.”

So Glazer’s Ann Arbor, Mich., nonprofit group funded a University of Michigan survey to get the facts.

And, guess what? “The employers’ perception is accurate,” he said.

This troubles Glazer.

“This is where all the job growth is occurring, and no one’s preparing for it,” he said.

Currently, one job in four is of the skilled trade or technician type. Most projections say that in 10 years 50% to 60% are going to be these types of jobs.

“Most people believe that the only reliable path to good-paying work is by obtaining a four-year college degree or more,” said Donald Grimes, labor economist at the University of Michigan, who collaborated with Glazer on the survey.

“But it’s just not true. Most people who have middle-class salaries don’t have college degrees. We’re doing a disservice to students, and [the myth] creates shortages in other fields. We’re discouraging people from these other career options,” Grimes said.

The drumbeat about the value of a college degree is incessant. At some high schools, students hear little else.

Yet only 23% of young people earn college degrees, said Vance Grant of the National Library of Education in Washington.

According to Grimes, you don’t need a bachelor’s degree to land jobs with salaries that will put you in the upper half of wage-earners in your community.

Grimes and Glazer studied 54 job fields across the Midwest with median annual earnings of at least $33,000, which is 10% over the median income for the region of $30,000. They report 23 fields do not require a four-year college degree.

After sifting data from 158 occupations in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, the researchers say median pay for non-college jobs includes:

Railroad and ship workers, $41,415; production workers’ supervisors, $39,600; purchasing agents, $39,506; police, $38,301; electrical equipment repairers, $37,223; mail carriers, $35,369; tool and die makers, $34,587; plumbers, $34,531; electricians, $34,080; auto sales representatives, $33,560; firefighters, $33,125; and engineering technicians, $33,000.

Typical annual earnings for the above jobs, they said, compare with what you can earn in such “bachelor’s degree-dominated” occupations as scientists, insurance agents, financial managers, computer programmers, registered nurses, accountants, counselors and teachers.

Other occupations that do not require a bachelor’s degree but pay moderately well--from $27,000 to $33,000 a year--include real estate sales, machinists, truck drivers, production coordinators, heating and air-conditioning specialists, and stock and inventory clerks.

To move up in the 23 “good-paying” occupations that do not require a college degree, training is usually required beyond high school, typically in one of three ways, Grimes said:

“First, an associate degree, through which you’d become more of a technician; second, an apprenticeship program in a skilled trade; and third, through on-the-job training.”

Another boon for many of those who choose the technical route is that they will typically begin earning paychecks four years ahead of the college student, with none of those hefty loans to repay.