@EdWorkingPaper{ai26-1635,
title = "Aligned Pathways, Unequal Earnings: Gendered Transitions from Community College to Work",
author = "Sade Bonilla, Daniel Sparks",
number = "1635",
year = "2026",
month = "November",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1635",
abstract = {States increasingly use financial aid policy to steer students into designated high-demand workforce fields, yet evidence on whether these fields offer stronger labor-market pathways remains limited. We study Virginia's Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3) initiative, which provides tuition-free community college to income-eligible students in high-demand workforce areas. Using linked community college and quarterly earnings records, we compare 2016--2020 first-time-in-college entrants in workforce programs that later became G3-eligible with entrants in non-G3 workforce programs. Student fixed-effects event-study models show that initially-designated workforce fields are associated with higher post-entry earnings for men, especially in skilled trades/manufacturing and public safety, but not broad employment gains. Women experience limited earnings gains and employment declines in several future G3 fields. Program-aligned employment increases for both women and men, suggesting more consistent alignment than earnings gains and highlighting gendered transitions from college to work.},
}