Community college is a great option for furthering your education and advancing your future earning potential. The benefit of a community college is its significantly lower cost compared to a 4-year university, and many careers have great earning potential for an associate degree. A few careers you can prepare for at a community college are a paralegal, firefighter, and radiology technologist (which you can learn more about from this page).
Paralegal
A paralegal works in a variety of legal offices. They help with administration and research under direction of an attorney. A paralegal career requires at least two years of post-secondary education, which an associates degree from a community college fulfills. This will teach you the basics of becoming a paralegal or legal assistant. Prior to earning your associate degree, you should choose a specialty. A certification exam may be worth taking as it may be something required by employers and can set you apart from other entry-level paralegals. The median wage for this career is $52,920 as of 2020.
Firefighter
Firefighters are typically trained while on the job. However, more employers are looking for post-secondary training among job applicants. Community colleges are a great place to help train new firefighters for the job. Firefighters are part of emergency service personnel and must be well equipped to handle a hazardous job, long hours, and an irregular schedule. Emergency service personnel are trained to identify hazards and make the right call in a situation. Many future firefighters can gain an associate degree from a community college in fire science. There they can get the training they need to help them be equipped for the job. The average salary for a firefighter is $49,524.
Radiology Technologist
A radiology technologist utilizes imaging technology to capture images of the body. This helps physicians diagnose many different conditions. They can utilize x-ray, mammography, computerized axial tomography (CAT), and positron emission tomography (PET). The technologist works to correctly position the patient to ensure correct imaging, which is crucial for physician diagnoses. This career also requires at least an associate degree. The average salary for this career is $61,900.
Community colleges are a great place to study to help you in a career. Earning your degree there will also help save you money. You can study to be a paralegal, firefighter, or radiology technologist among many other careers.
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