"The College Payoff: More Education Doesn't Always Mean More Earnings" explores how lifetime earnings vary by education level, field of study, occupation, industry, gender, race and ethnicity, and location. The lifetime earnings of a full-time full-year worker with a high school diploma are $1.6 million, while workers with an associate's…

We study employers' perceptions of postsecondary degrees using a field experiment. We randomly assign the sector and selectivity of institution to fictitious resumes and send them to real vacancy postings on a large online job board. According to our results, a bachelor's degree in business from a for-profit "online" institution is 22…

This paper presents the results of a study designed to meet the goal of assisting health occupations education planners to provide education relevant to the needs of students and employers. The objectives of the study were (1) to determine and clarify major issues and concerns of Illinois health care employers; (2) to determine, with the input of…

This notebook of career counseling materials is a compilation of career information on nursing and the allied health fields. The first section provides general information useful in choosing a health career on such topics as career planning, career mobility, employment prospects, financial aid, terminology in health job titles, and an annotated…

This executive summary of a comprehensive study of health occupations education and employment in Illinois contains data on eighty-nine allied health and nursing occupations. Job definitions, educational requirements, licensing and certification, training programs, salary ranges, and job availability in these occupations are summarized in both…

This guide begins with background information useful to understanding Illinois' framework for implementation and evaluation of Programs of Study. It starts with a visual depiction of the relationships between activity at the federal, state and local levels that evolved to the creation of Illinois' Career Cluster Model. This Model, which is based…

This study was designed to provide the College of Lake County with data to promote critical thinking and discussion about the revision of the present admission criteria for the practical nursing program. Subjects were the coordinators/directors of the 36 approved schools of practical nursing in Illinois. A letter and a questionnaire comprised of a…

Since President Obama took office, he has repeatedly called for the United States to significantly improve its postsecondary education performance. One goal in particular has gained wide attention: the President's declaration that in an ever more competitive global marketplace, the United States must once again lead the world in college…

These cluster matrices provide duties and tasks that form the basis of instructional content for secondary, postsecondary, and adult training programs for health occupations. The eight clusters (and the job titles included in each cluster) are as follows: (1) dental assisting (dental assistant); (2) dental laboratory technology (dental laboratory…

The proceedings cover a conference of representatives of all the community colleges in the southern part of Illinois and one in Kentucky with representatives from the School of Technical Careers at Southern Illinois University. The conference objectives were to discuss common problems and issues related to closer coordination of effort among the…

These task lists contain employability skills and tasks for the following health occupations: radiologic aide, activity aide, physical therapy aide, and optometric assistant. The duties and tasks found in these lists form the basis of instructional content for secondary, postsecondary, and adult occupational training programs. Employability skills…

The current status of postsecondary education in Illinois is reviewed and recommendations offered for improving it. This Master Plan Phase Four, like the preceding ones, charts a general direction for postsecondary education over the next decade. It indicates that Illinois postsecondary education will continue to be committed to: expanding…

Implementation and expansion of class offerings was the primary focus of the second year of a project (in Evansville, Indiana) to determine the feasibility of establishing a center for continuing education for vocational level health occupations workers within the department of vocational education of a metropolitan school corporation. (The first…

A pilot project profiled and compared the influence of the major environments of supply and demand, education, practice location and incentives, licensure and regulation, and planning and analysis on the health workforce in and among 10 states (California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and…

These skill standards for the nursing cluster are intended to be a guide to workforce preparation program providers in defining content for their programs and to employers to establish the skills and standards necessary for job acquisition. An introduction provides the Illinois perspective; Illinois Occupational Skill Standards and Credentialing…