Two-Years, Five-Years, Six-Figures
Why RPCC's process technology pathway is one of the best investments Louisiana can make, for both the graduates and the state
Until recently, it was taken for granted that a four-year degree was the most direct path to a high-wage job in an in-demand field. After the Great Recession, the labor market changed, and workforce experts recognized that there were many “new collar” industrial, health care, and tech jobs that could offer individuals six-figure incomes with only a certification or associate’s degree. This holds true in the Capital Region, where positions like welding, software development, or various nursing roles can all lead to six-figure salaries without a bachelor’s degree.
But based on recently available data, one pathway stands out – the industrial production technician associate’s degree at River Parishes Community College (RPCC). Based on numbers compiled by the federal government, graduates of this program not only earn wages twice as high as the state’s median household income, but also nearly every graduate stays in-state, ensuring those earnings support the regional and state economies.
How the Pathway Works
This degree program, which leads to jobs in a field sometimes referred to as “process technology” or “P-TEC,” trains the people who run industrial plants: the operators who monitor, adjust, and troubleshoot the systems that turn raw inputs into finished chemicals, fuels, and fertilizers. RPCC built the program to stack, meaning that students are workforce ready after a shorter training regiment, but also take additional courses that could lead to better workforce outcomes. A student can start with a short career and technical certificate, continue to a certificate of technical studies, and finish with a two-year associate of applied science (AAS) degree. Roughly 700 students are already enrolled in process technology at RPCC1, with hundreds more in adjacent electrical and instrumentation programs.
The initial certificate has value on its own, but the real story is the pathway. RPCC offers a credential a working adult can start at night, stack one piece at a time, and carry all the way to an associate degree. While the training certificate itself leads to wage outcomes that eclipse median household income, there is a wage premium for those who complete the degree program.
A Look at the Wages
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) data tracks real earnings of graduates by school and program. For RPCC’s associate graduates in Industrial Production Technologies/Technicians, median earnings reach $134,767 five years after graduation. Graduates of the college’s Electromechanical Technologies/Technicians programs reach $117,625.
Two comparisons put those numbers in perspective. First, the trajectory: earnings roughly double between year one and year five, as graduates move from entry-level operator into the roles the industrial corridor is struggling to fill fast enough. Second, the benchmark: median household income in the Baton Rouge metro is $69,293, and statewide it’s $60,986. A single process technology graduate, five years out, earns nearly double what a typical Capital Region household brings in combined. Even one year removed from a two-year degree, that graduate already earns almost as much as an entire median household in the region.
The Jobs Are Already Here
P-TEC careers exist in the Baton Rouge metro at a concentration found almost nowhere else in the country. Location quotient measures how concentrated an occupation is in a region compared to the national average, where 1.0 means average. Depending on the specific role, Capital Region plants employ these types of graduates at a rate between seven and 37 times the national average for a community our size. Considering the industrial giants operating along the river – ExxonMobil, CF Industries, BASF, Dow, Shell, and others – the high demand makes sense. And considering the billions of dollars in industrial expansions announced in recent years, it’s highly likely that demand remains robust.
The Payoff for the State
While the strong job and earnings outcomes are good for graduates, there’s also good news for everyone living in the state. Of RPCC’s engineering-related associate graduates, data shows roughly 99% were still living and working in Louisiana five years after graduation. This provides a stark contrast to a more familiar STEM credential – a bachelor’s degree in engineering. The PSEO data shows that among engineering bachelor’s degree graduates from public universities in Louisiana, only 57% stay in-state five years after graduation. The rest take their skills, their spending, and the state’s financial investment in them somewhere else.
These outcomes make a case for further public investment in these programs, whether through the M.J. Foster Promise program, TOPS Tech, or other pathways. Process technology graduates earn high wages, and they earn them in Louisiana.
A Workforce Win
The value of this training program is recognized by higher education leadership – RPCC recently announced it will offer its accredited process technology coursework during evening hours at Donaldsonville High School starting this fall. That opens a path for working adults and parents to train for high-wage industrial careers without leaving their day jobs. It’s one piece of a larger buildout that includes a planned $30 million training center in Donaldsonville, set to open in early 2028, built to feed Hyundai and the region’s growing roster of industrial employers.2
For decades, the Capital Region’s industrial corridor has quietly produced some of the best middle-class careers in Louisiana. RPCC bringing process technology to Donaldsonville after hours, alongside the planned training center, makes those careers reachable for the people who already live next door to the plants that need them.
For a working adult weighing their options, it offers a realistic pathway to high earnings: a two-year degree, started at outside traditional classroom hours, that leads to earnings many four-year graduates never see, at facilities a short drive from home. For the state, it’s a workforce investment where the people being trained stay, earn, and spend here.
Based on Headcount Enrollment data from the Louisiana Board of Regents, https://apps.regents.state.la.us/Reports/Report.aspx?reportPath=/SSPS/SPCIP
RPCC, Hyundai Steel and State Leaders Break Ground on New Training Center in Donaldsonville, https://www.opportunitylouisiana.gov/news/rpcc-hyundai-steel-and-state-leaders-break-ground-on-new-training-center-in-donaldsonville