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Think a four-year degree from a fancy college is the key to getting a well-paying job?

Think again, says a report from Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.

The report investigated how well Pennsylvania's educational system works to prepare young people for the working world.

One finding was that some education beyond high school is becoming essential -- but that schools tend to overemphasize four-year degrees at the expense of two-year associate's degrees that can lead to well-paying jobs such as architectural drafters, computer support specialists and physical therapy assistants.

"We're creating, potentially, an overabundance of individuals with four-year degrees and not enough who have post-secondary degrees," said Joan L. Benso, president and chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children. "We're not producing the workers we need for our economy."

The percentage of unskilled workers in the work force shrank from 35 percent in 1991 to 24 percent last year, according to the report. The percentage of professional workers also shrank over that time period, from 20 percent to 14 percent.

To produce skilled workers, a category that grew from 45 percent to 62 percent during the same 14-year-period, high schools need to focus on developing strong skills in math, science and writing, said Ms. Benso.

"Carpenters today, auto mechanics today, plumbers today are being trained in programs that require them to have a math and science background," she said. "That's the same background I had to go to college."

Ms. Benso calls this new category of jobs "gold collar," meaning that they don't require a bachelor's degree but do require specific training and problem-solving skills.

The report also noted that employers see essentially no difference between employees with 2-year and 4-year degrees as they enter the work force. Although only a quarter of employers felt that those with only high school diplomas were well prepared for their jobs, employers said that 74 percent of those with 2-year degrees were well-prepared, vs. 75 percent of those with 4-year degrees.

The key, said Ms. Benso, is to make perceptions conform to those realities. "We still live in a world that the child who decides to go get the technical education must not be as smart as the others," she said. "They're not the B team -- they are going into well-paying jobs."