Interest in short-term credentials, which can often be earned in a year or less and at a fraction of the cost of a four-year degree, is surging. In 2022, nearly 60,000 academic and workforce providers offered more than a million secondary and postsecondary credentials, many of those programs eligible for federal financial aid.

Given the high cost of a higher education, growing skepticism about the return on investment of a traditional four-year college degree, and state leaders’ desire to boost adult enrollment to achieve state educational attainment goals, it’s easy to see why short-term credentials are increasingly seen by many students, employers, and legislators as a cost-effective option that can quickly get people into higher-paying jobs that require more than a high-school degree.

Yet while short-term credentialing programs provide a valuable entry point to a higher education when they’re designed with students’ needs in mind, responsive to job demands, and connect students to employers that provide pathways to sustainable wages, their value varies greatly, and outcome disparities persist along racial lines. Black and Latino students are overrepresented in short-term credentialing programs, even though bachelor’s degree holders earn more, on average, than those with a high school diploma.

And while short-term credentials can be worthwhile if they lead to jobs that pay more than a high school diploma, labor market outcomes for these credentials are mixed. Credentials that aren’t well aligned with the needs of students, employers, and state workforces can leave students no better off — or, in some cases, worse off — than they were before.

Further study is needed to track how effective and cost-effective these programs are. With that in mind, our team of EdTrust researchers examined the cost of attendance of subbaccalaureate programs and how costs vary across different types of training and program durations.

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