Sense of Belonging (Strayhorn)
Category: Pathways to and Through Postsecondary
States increasingly use financial aid policy to steer students into designated high-demand workforce fields, yet evidence on whether these fields offer stronger labor-market pathways remains limited. We study Virginia's Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3) initiative, which provides tuition-free community college to income-eligible students in high-demand workforce areas. Using linked community college and quarterly earnings records, we compare 2016--2020 first-time-in-college entrants in workforce programs that later became G3-eligible with entrants in non-G3 workforce programs. Student fixed-effects event-study models show that initially-designated workforce fields are associated with higher post-entry earnings for men, especially in skilled trades/manufacturing and public safety, but not broad employment gains. Women experience limited earnings gains and employment declines in several future G3 fields. Program-aligned employment increases for both women and men, suggesting more consistent alignment than earnings gains and highlighting gendered transitions from college to work.
Keywords
community colleges, labor-market outcomes, career and technical education, workforce, financial aid
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/cnf7-mv86
