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Healthcare, science, and engineering careers that don’t require a 4-year degree

Domingo Angeles, Victoria Roderick, and Patricia Tate | February 2026

There are a lot of careers that don’t require a 4-year college degree. Some of those with fast growth or high pay are in healthcare, science, or engineering.

The charts that follow highlight U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data for selected healthcare; life, physical, and social science; and architecture and engineering occupations that typically require less than a bachelor’s degree for entry. Each chart shows projected employment growth by occupation. Hover over a bar to see an occupation’s median annual wage and typical entry-level education, experience, and on-the-job training requirements. In these charts, you can compare projected employment growth with the projected 3-percent average growth rate for all occupations from 2024–34 and wages with the $49,500 median annual wage for all workers in 2024.

Healthcare

Healthcare workers help people maintain and improve their well-being. BLS classifies these workers in two groups: healthcare practitioners and technical occupations and healthcare support occupations.

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations. Workers in these occupations treat patients and perform specific technical roles. For example, dental hygienists administer oral hygiene care and hearing aid specialists conduct and assess hearing tests, as well as fit and program patient hearing aids.

Chart 1 shows selected occupations in this group that can be entered without a 4-year college degree. Most of the occupations in this chart typically require an associate’s degree or a postsecondary nondegree award for entry. Hearing aid specialists is the exception: these workers typically enter with a high school diploma and receive several months of on-the-job training to develop the skills needed for competency in the occupation. Psychiatric technicians typically need related work experience, and they receive short-term on-the-job training after they are hired.

Psychiatric technicians and ophthalmic medical technicians are projected to have the fastest employment growth of the occupations in chart 1, each increasing by 20 percent over the 2024–34 decade. Dental hygienists had a median annual wage of $94,260 in 2024, the highest among these occupations.

Healthcare support occupations. Workers in these occupations perform varied support functions related to providing medical services and patient care. For example, a medical equipment preparer may sterilize, install, or clean the equipment used by MRI technologists or a physical therapist assistant may carry out treatment plans established by a physical therapist.

Chart 2 shows selected healthcare support occupations that typically need a high school diploma, a postsecondary nondegree award, or an associate’s degree for entry. Home health and personal care aides, medical equipment preparers, and veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers—all of which typically require a high school diploma for entry—usually need on-the-job training to help workers attain competency.

Physical therapist assistants are projected to have the fastest employment growth of the occupations listed in chart 2, increasing by 22 percent from 2024–34. Of these occupations, occupational therapy assistants had the highest pay in 2024, with a median annual wage of $68,340.

Life, physical, and social science

Life, physical, and social science workers use scientific research to help solve problems and expand knowledge in areas such as chemistry, environmental science, or agriculture.

Chart 3 shows selected life, physical, and social science occupations in which workers typically need an associate’s degree or a high school diploma or equivalent for entry. Although the occupations in chart 3 typically do not require a bachelor’s degree, many do need moderate-term on-the-job training, such as learning the proper ways to use equipment. Other training may include topics such as production techniques or sanitation procedures when collecting samples. The length of training may vary by industry from 1 to 12 months in duration.

Occupational health and safety technicians are projected to have the fastest employment growth of the occupations in chart 3, increasing by 9 percent over the 2024–34 decade. Most of the wages for the occupations in chart 3 are higher than the median annual wage for all workers. Nuclear technicians had a median annual wage of $104,240 in 2024, the highest among these occupations.

Architecture and engineering

Architecture and engineering workers design and develop structures, products, and systems and collect information for mapping and other purposes.

Chart 4 shows selected occupations in this group that don’t typically require a 4-year college degree. All but one of these occupations typically need an associate’s degree for entry. Surveying and mapping technicians typically enter the occupation with a high school diploma and learn on the job through moderate-term on-the-job training.

Employment projections for the occupations in chart 4 ranged from a decline to much faster than average growth from 2024–34. Aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians is projected to have the fastest employment growth of these occupations, increasing by 8 percent from 2024 to 2034. It also was the highest paying in the chart, with a median annual wage of $79,830 in 2024. For each of the occupations in chart 4, the 2024 median annual wage was higher than the median for all workers.

For more information

Learn more about the occupations in this article and hundreds of others in the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH).

Search for occupations by education level, wages, and other variables using the “Select occupations by” feature of the OOH. The OOH has information about workers in more than 300 occupational profiles, including what they do, pay, job outlook, how to become one, and more.

Additional information about education and training and occupational employment projections is available from the BLS Employment Projections program.