Study Predicts California Facing Shortage of College Graduates for Workforce

California has one of the lowest college enrollment rates in the nation, and that's a statistic that could come back to haunt it. According to a report released yesterday, by 2025 California may face a shortage of up to a million college graduates needed to support the state's skilled workforce demands.

Unless policy changes are made, only 35% of the state's working-age adults will hold a four-year degree that year, even as a college education will be required for at least 41% of job-holders, the study by the Public Policy Institute of California found.

The state's three public college systems -- the California Community Colleges, California State University and the University of California -- educate 2.3 million students annually, and an additional 360,000 students attend private top colleges and universities. But the numbers mask a huge gap between the state's youth population and its college-going and graduation rates, the report found.

The study indicated that, as opposed to the 62% national average, only 56% of California's high school graduates go on to college; the state also ranked low for 25-34 year olds with university degrees and noted that many who had started college didn't manage to graduate in the usual 4-5 years. Problems seem to be ulterior problems like high costs of living within the state, because tuition at California's public university systems is very low by nationwide standards.

Faced with the findings of this study, California college and state officials are expected to work harder than ever to help students transfer from two-year to four-year institutions and address the outlying problems preventing students from reaching their education goals.