Students with both an associate degree and a certificate in information technology (IT) had the strongest employment outcomes in terms of likelihood of employment, hours worked, and earnings, according to a recent Community College Research Center (CCRC) issue brief that examined Washington state students.
The Employment Outcomes of Community College Information Technology Students explored the role of community colleges in educating IT workers and examined two key issues:  students’ employment outcomes by the type of community college IT preparation they complete, and the type of employers that tend to hire community college IT students. CCRC assessed data on students who were enrolled in an IT program at any Washington State community and technical college during the 2000-01 academic year and who completed their program or left college by the spring of the 2004-05 academic year.
The students who followed in likelihood of employment, hours worked, and earnings were those with an IT associate degree, and then followed by students with an IT certificate. Students who earned no credential but focused their studies in IT had the weakest employment outcomes, according to the brief.