The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006
and
High Demand, High Wage or High Skill Occupations

One of the major purposes of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act passed in August of 2006 is to develop more fully the academic and technical skills of students in career and technical education. One of the ways to do this is by building on the efforts of states and localities to develop challenging academic and technical standards and to assist students in meeting these standards. This includes preparing students for high demand, high wage or high skill occupations.

High demand, high wage or high skill occupations are mentioned in the first two paragraphs of the Act and are mentioned many times thereafter. Clearly training students for employment in high demand, high wage or high skill occupations is something that interests Congress and the federal government. In addition, there is particular interest in providing special populations with activities that will prepare them for employment in high demand, high wage or high skill occupations. Special populations are defined as individuals with disabilities, the economically disadvantaged, single parents, displaced homemakers, the academically disadvantaged, those with limited English proficiency, and men and women in nontraditional fields.

Each state has been encouraged to develop their own definition of "high demand, high wage or high skill occupations." Below are the criteria currently being used by the Technical College System of Georgia.

Methodology for Georgia:
Possible Criteria for High Demand, High Wage or High Skill Occupations

High Demand Criteria: A greater than average annual job growth rate for Georgia (which is currently 1.7%) or at least 100 annual average job openings.

High Wage Criteria: An average wage greater than the state of Georgia average wage for jobs requiring postsecondary career technical education (currently $31,595) or an average wage that is at the high end of the middle wage range for that occupation.

High Skill Criteria: The occupation requires completion of an associate degree, postsecondary career technical education, more than 12 months of on-the-job training, or a combination of work and formal training or at least half of the 10 basic O*NET skills for this occupation are ranked at or above 50% in importance and at least 5 of the other O*NET skills required for this occupation are at or above 50% in importance.

For comments or discussion, please contact:
Barbara Landay, Senior Research Analyst
Technical College System of Georgia
404.679.1664 or blanday@dtae.org