Community colleges are often considered the most undervalued educational resource. Though they often go overlooked, they can offer key skills and training at an affordable price, and can lead to a lucrative career. Students can graduate with an associate degree at community colleges, which typically require two years of coursework, and also earn certificates, which often take less time, sometimes as little as a few months.
A Certificate Program Resource
In Massachusetts we’re fortunate enough to have 15 community colleges with a range of certificate program offerings. And I worked with others to create a resource that lays out the different types and the details of each one. Started by Catherine Chiu, Director of Guidance at Boston Public Schools, the listing was shared with Dr. Tim Poynton, Associate Professor at University of Massachusetts Boston, who passed it along to me. As Dr. Poynton’s Graduate Assistant, I organized and updated the resource to become a comprehensive catalog of all the community colleges in Massachusetts that offer certificate programs, all of which require coursework of less than two years. It also includes programs at Quincy College, a 4-year school that offers certificates.
Program Details
The information in the spreadsheet is organized by several tabs: Links, Colleges, Advanced Certifications, Career Clusters, and Online Programs. Each sub-sheet will bring you to a list of colleges and their certifications, as well as links for direct access. In addition, it includes the number of credits each certificate requires to complete the program and the approximate amount of time it will take to achieve the certification.
We hope this resource will help students who are looking to concentrate their studies on a particular career and searching for the best program for their education. You can contact each individual community college for details about their program offerings. And to learn more about the 15 community colleges in Massachusetts, visit MEFA’s full list here.
Grace Heald is a second-year graduate student in the School Counseling program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She earned her B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Vermont in 2020. Following graduation, she worked at a special education school, where she discovered her passion for education. After earning her master’s degree, she plans to pursue a career as a high school counselor.
