vital_signs_2015_web

WHAT IS REQUIRED OF OUR
LABOR FORCE TO CONTINUE
OUR PROSPERITY?
What’s working:
Work that remains:
What we should do:
• In the 17-county joint Nashville-Clarksville
region, 40.6 percent of people hold at least an
associate degree.
• The region currently outpaces the state and
nation on the percentage of adults with a
bachelor’s degree.
• Twelve of 15 counties increased their high
school graduation rates from 2013 to 2014.
• Eleven of 15 counties improved the
percentage of students scoring at least a
21 on the ACT – an important hurdle for
being eligible for the lottery-funded HOPE
Scholarship – from 2013 to 2014.
• Minorities, people who speak a language
other than English at home and those living
in poverty are less likely to have completed
postsecondary education.
• Residents with a high school education or
less are three times more likely to have had
trouble affording basic needs in the last year,
such as housing, adequate food, home heating,
or health care services.
• Leverage Tennessee Reconnect, Gov.
Haslam’s initiative to help adults enter higher
education and gain new skills to advance in the
workplace, to increase education attainment
rates for adults.
• Share best practices throughout the region to
ensure Tennessee Promise students complete
their associate degree or credential.
• Continue commitment to K-12 reforms,
including rigorous standards, aligned
assessments and accountability for results.
REGIONAL POLL RESULT
According to the 2015 Vital Signs regional poll,
Education attainment levels are increasingly important to a region’s
respondents with a high school education or less were
economic competitiveness. According to the Georgetown University Center
three times more likely than college graduates to report
on Education and the Workforce, at least 55 percent of jobs in Tennessee will
they had trouble affording basic needs, such as housing,
require postsecondary education over the coming years. In Middle Tennessee,
adequate food, home heating or health care services, over
employers are requiring higher skill levels among the new workers they hire. Jobs
the last year.
that do not require education after high school are quickly disappearing, and
individuals without additional postsecondary education will find fewer and fewer
opportunities in the job market. The limited opportunities they will have access
to will mean they will earn less in their lifetime than their peers and have a harder time affording basic necessities. According
to the 2015 Vital Signs regional poll, respondents with a high school education or less were three times more likely than
college graduates to report they had trouble affording basic needs, such as housing, adequate food, home heating or health
care services, over the last year.
While the percentage of adults in our region who have obtained education after high school has increased in recent years, the
region does not yet produce enough graduates with the needed skills to fill jobs being created in Middle Tennessee.