Are A.A. degrees enough for employment?

Getting an associate’s degree may not be on most students’ radar when they aim for a high paying job.

According to an article written by Paul Fain titled “Graduate, Transfer, Graduate,” about 60% of community college students transfer to a four-year university. Others can get just the associate’s degree and find a job without having to transfer to another school if they wanted to.

Cuesta College offers a whole list of degrees best suitable for each student’s major and goals. Some degrees offered are centered on arts, legal studies, liberal arts, and journalism, just to name a few.

If some choose to go to a community college but not go to a four year, what jobs could be offered to those who get their associate’s degrees? Are there jobs like that out there?

The answer is plenty.

Some places looking to hire require an associate’s degree to qualify for employment. Cuesta College can offer many different degrees fitting to each student’s major. 

“Some jobs just have an associate degree as the minimum requirement for education,” said Heidi Webber, an academic counselor at Cuesta College. “So attending a community college to get the degree is a great first step.”

Those jobs include welding, nursing, auto body, and many more, and all of which are offered at Cuesta College. These positions could also be provided locally.

A common pick out of those three would be the nursing program. According to GetEducated, while obtaining a bachelor’s degree is most common, the associate’s degree is a faster and more affordable route. It could take about two years or more to attend a community college, including summer classes, for students to get their associates’ degrees in nursing.

The salary for a registered nurse ranges at about $70,000, and the number of jobs that are offered is about 3,000,000 in the United States. 

Some more job choices could be an air traffic controller, which has an average salary of $124,540, a radiation therapist with a salary of $80,570, or a computer programmer with a salary of $82,240. All of which require an associate’s degree.

The list for jobs requiring an associate’s degree ranges over a variety of choices which leaves it up to the student for what they want to major in. Depending on which path a student takes, earning that associate’s degree could guarantee a job in that field.