A bachelor's degree may not be necessary to land a well-paying job, according to a recent University study.
The study listed as many as 23 occupations that do not require a four-year degree but pay a median salary of at least $33,000 annually.
Louis Glazer, one of the study's researchers, said he was not surprised by the findings.
"We weren't shocked, because we had been hearing this from employers for years," said Glazer, a member of Michigan Future Inc., a non-profit organization designed to help society move from the industrial age to the information age by teaching residents about Michigan's changing economy.
In recent years, employers have been scrambling to fill positions that do not require a bachelor's degree, Glazer said. These jobs still demand adequate levels of education, however.
"It wasn't something where people would get a high school diploma and get one of these jobs," said Donald Grimes, a researcher at the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations who worked with Glazer on the study.
"Overall, they did tend to have higher levels of training," Grimes said, adding that he was "marginally shocked" at the study's findings.
The training for people without a bachelor's degree ranged from a two-year degree at a community college to an apprenticeship.
Even though the study showed that significant success rates are possible for non-college graduates, LSA Dean Edie Goldenberg said she still sees value in a college education.
"There are individuals without college degrees who have very successful careers, but the overwhelming evidence of many reputable studies through the years shows that college education adds real and substantial value, on average, to lifetime earnings," Goldenberg said. "Of course, a college education adds immeasurably to life in many other non-monetary ways as well."
The study considered 158 occupations in the Great Lakes region and then narrowed them down to 54 that exhibited annual earnings of $33,000.
Glazer said he and Grimes used data gathered in a 1995 census of households. They did not compare or contrast these findings with any other year. This was merely a "point-in-time study," Glazer said.
The study only took into consideration full-time, year-round jobs. From these jobs, 23 were found to provide good pay to people without bachelor's degrees.
Some of these jobs included police officers, electronic equipment repair, mail carriers, plumbers, fire fighters and engineering technicians.
Railroad- and ship-worker positions, which earned an average of $41,415 annually, were high-paying jobs for workers without a bachelor's degree.
Glazer said he estimated that 22-25 percent of the workforce has at least a bachelor's degree.
The study also revealed that younger workers were just as likely to be hired for non-college jobs as older workers. In addition, more than a third of younger workers who held jobs that didn't require a degree earned more than $30,000 annually.