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This report uses data from the 1995-96 to 2001 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study to examine three questions concerning students pursuing postsecondary certificates or associate's degrees in career related fields (referred to here as occupational students): (1) who enters postsecondary occupational education, (2) to what extent do occupational students persist in postsecondary education and attain their credential goals, and (3) what are the labor market outcomes for occupational students who earn credentials? Occupational students were found to be more likely than academic sub-baccalaureate students to be female, Black, older, have lower educational backgrounds, and self-identify as 'enrolled employees' rather than 'working students'. Most of these differences were due to differences between occupational certificate students and the two groups of occupational and academic associate's degree-seeking students. No differences were found in the rates at which occupational and academic sub-baccalaureate students persist in postsecondary education and attain a credential, although occupational students were more likely to 'downgrade' to a postsecondary certificate. Finally, no differences were found in the rates at which occupational completers (those who earned a credential) and non-completers were employed or in their average salary; however, among students who entered a job related to their field of study, average salary increased with the years of education completed.

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This report examines the relationship between educational attainment and the rates at which adults are unemployed or underemployed (working involuntarily part time or involuntarily in a temporary job). Findings show that adults who had not completed high school had higher rates of both unemployment and underemployment, compared to adults with higher levels of educational attainment. Adults with relatively high levels of educational attainment had higher rates of underemployment than unemployment, while the reverse was true for adults with relatively low levels of educational attainment.

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This report is the fourth in a series of volumes published periodically by [National Center for Education Statistics] NCES to describe the condition of vocational education (now called 'career and technical education' or CTE) in the United States. Based on data from 11 NCES surveys, the report describes CTE providers, offerings, participants, faculty, and associated outcomes, focusing on secondary, postsecondary, and adult education. Findings indicate that against a backdrop of increasing academic coursetaking in high school, no measurable changes were detected between 1990 and 2005 in the number of CTE credits earned by public high school graduates. At the postsecondary level, the number of credential-seeking undergraduates majoring in career fields increased by about one-half million students, although they made up a smaller portion of undergraduates in 2004 compared with 1990. At both the secondary and postsecondary education levels, student participation increased in health care and computer science and decreased in business between 1990 and the mid-2000s.

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