South By North Strategies, Ltd.

A new report from the N.C. Budget and Tax Center documents the individual and economic benefits of postsecondary educational credentials, particularly those awarded at the sub-baccalaureate level.

Research shows that certificates and other such credentials can play an important role in enabling students to achieve success in the workplace and can make attainment of a degree more accessible and likely, especially for adult workers. Credential attainment can have positive effects on labor and social outcomes if the educational programs are tailored to the labor market and are long‐term—and if the credential represents one year or more of study. Of the 38,181 sub‐baccalaureate certificates awarded in North Carolina in 2007‐08, only 6,789 required more than one year of study.
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Credentials are a tool for providing “rapid post‐secondary attainment and portable skills and knowledge.” However, whether credentials requiring less than a year of study are providing such benefits to North Carolina workers is an open question in need of more data and research.