Statistics in the Citrus College Educational and Facilities Master Plan, a plan to assist the Board of Trustees to project the needs of educational and facility programs in the future suggest a surge of some middle-skill jobs by 2028 in Southern California.
The EFMP said 22 of the 35 highest projected jobs are available programs at Citrus College.
Citrus student Evander Smith, currently going for his nursing associates said he’s “hyped” to know his major will get him into one of the professions with high projections in the future.
“The fact that information like this even exists is cool,” Smith said.
All 35 jobs are ones Southern California employers are projected to need requiring at least a related associate’s degree, providing 510,000 jobs to the Southern California region by 2028.
Citrus offers majors to obtain a four-year degree that jobs require, such as registered nursing, market research analysis, software development and accounting.
Citrus student Daniel Robles, who’s undecided on his major, said having the knowledge of professions with greater demand in the future can be essential for deciding a major,
“This is a cool look into what I can expect when choosing what my major will be in the future,” Robles said.
Statistics compiled by the Economic Modeling Specialists Intelligence Company state the top five highest projected jobs are registered nurses, medical assistants, licensed practical and vocational nurses teaching assistants and nursing assistants.
If a student’s current major is in a related field, that may be a good sign for things to come in that area.
Registered nursing is the top occupation that requires at least an associate’s degree portraying the greatest number of potential job openings in the EFMP projections.
At the start of 2018, 134,329 job openings were available in Southern California in the registered nursing profession. The EMFP estimates the number of jobs will increase by 18% or 158,213 job openings by 2028.
The other four occupations with the greatest projected growth are nursing assistants, licensed practical and vocational nurses, teaching assistants and medical assistants. And like a registered nursing occupation, you would need at least a post-secondary certificate with other forms of education, depending on which job you would like to go for.
In 2018, nursing assistants had 47,802 job openings, with an estimated increase of 24% with 59,343 job openings by 2028. People would need at least a certificate to be a certified nursing assistant.
Teaching assistants had 69,359 job openings in 2018 with an estimated increase of 10% or 76,471 job openings by 2028. People would need at least a teacher’s assistant certificate to apply for this profession.
Licensed practical and practical vocational nurses had 33,545 job openings in 2018 with an estimated increase of 18% or 39,625 job openings by 2028. People would need at least an associate’s degree in applied science to apply for this job.
Medical assistants had 42,021 jobs, with an estimated increase of 20% or 50,233 job openings by 2028. People would need a minimum, at the college level, a certificate program in medical assistance to apply for the profession.
Although the COVID-19 outbreak has caused a surge in current job loss in the United States, it’s been noted that short-term occupational trends resulted from unexpected events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This will not affect the long-term data for the EMFP and plans would be adjusted accordingly in response to the virus.
“If labor market data in the coming months suggests that there will be a growing demand for middle-skills manufacturing jobs as the economy recovers from COVID-19, Citrus college is prepared to meet that demand by developing new programs related to our existing Automotive/Diesel/Power Generation Programs,” Michael Wangler, Dean of Career, Technical and Consulting Education at Citrus said in an email.
