Four Northeast Ohio Colleges offer Human Resource Specializations, with Job Growth Exceeding 18%

Baldwin-Wallace, Cleveland State University, Ursuline College and Chancellor University offer Human Resource Majors; with job growth exceeding 18% in some specializations.

Generally, with a median salary of $88,510 and job growth exceeding 11 percent through 2016, the human resource profession is a broad category with lots of potential for the well-prepared job seeker. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, job growth approaching 18% is expected in specialties in employment, recruitment, and placement; compensation, benefits, and job analysis specialists; and training and development, whose job holders can seek areas of specialization, for example, as:

- Compensation and Benefits, where managers plan, direct, or coordinate compensation and benefits activities and staff of an organization. They can specialize in areas such as pensions or position classifications. For example, job analysts collect and examine details about job duties and prepare job descriptions that explain the duties, training, and skills that each job requires.

- Training and Development, where managers perform duties similar to the above and may also plan, direct, or coordinate the training and development activities and staff of an organization, a key employee benefit.

Four northeast ohio colleges offer programs leading to a bachelor’s degree in personnel, human resources, or labor relations:

Baldwin-Wallace College – Human Resources

Cleveland State University – Management and Labor Relations

Ursuline College – Human Resource Management

Chancellor University (formerly Myers University) - Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Human Resource Management

Beyond those four, courses leading to a career in human resources management may be found in departments of business administration, education, instructional technology, organizational development, human services, communication, or public administration.

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Building a Career? Look into Construction Management and Cleveland State University

Economic forecasts aside, the long-run job prospects in Construction Management are much better than average, from the perspective of salary and chance of hire.

The number of construction management jobs will grow 15.7% between 2006 and 2016. The median salary in 2006 was $73,700.

A bachelor’s degree in construction science, construction management, building science, or civil engineering or architecture are preferred and work experience is also expected, whether through an internship, a cooperative education program, or a job in the industry. The traditional path to advancement begins with long-term experience as, for example, carpentry, masonry, plumbing, or electrical installation.

In Northeast Ohio, five colleges have relevant four-year programs that would qualify you, after work experience, for a construction management opportunity:

Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland State University
Kent State University
The University of Akron
Youngstown State University

For example, Cleveland State University’s Engineering program has made “large investments have been made in new labs and the renovation of classrooms and office space…” Its co-op program enables students to alternate between classes and work at many (related) “prominent companies”.

According to the Dean’s report in spring 2008, 63% of the faculty graduated from the top 26 engineering schools in the United States, including MIT, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Purdue, Texas A&M and a variety of others. The Visiting Scholar program has hosted scholars from Carnegie Mellon University and internationally from Myong Ji University and Dankook University in South Korea, Fujian University and Shanghai Polytechnic University in China, Federal University of Sao Carlos in Brazil and JNTU in India.

In the Cleveland marketplace, there are an estimated 970,000 construction management positions, with an average hourly wage of $42.55 and an average annual salary of $88,510.

According to the Occupational Outlook, construction managers “plan, direct, coordinate, or budget…activities concerned with the construction and maintenance of structures, facilities, and systems”. Construction managers help conceptualize the development of a construction project and organize, schedule, and implement related activities with the help of supervisory subordinates. Specialties such as carpentry or plumbing are included in this profession, and job titles include general superintendents, project managers, and constructors.
The biggest employers of construction managers include petroleum and related wholesale, investment pools or funds, and travel accommodations. Most managers are involved with nonresidential, residential, building equipment, foundation, structure and exterior contactors.

Sources: Occupational Outlook Handbook, http://www.csuohio.edu/engineering/