FORBES: Degrees Are Just A Container — They Don’t Matter, But What’s Inside Them Certainly Does
May 10, 2023
By Rachel Romer and Allison Dulin Salisbury
When someone tells you degrees are dead, here’s what they really mean.
Sit in on the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, the Aspen Ideas Festival, TED Talks, or any other events where the world’s tech and business elite gather — and you could be forgiven for thinking that the degree is dead.
CEOs of Fortune 500 companies declare it from the stage. The audience nods knowingly. We know, we’ve been there.
But no, the degree is not dead. Nor should it be.
Yes, a growing number of companies, as well as entire states, are dropping degree requirements for all but jobs where they’re strictly necessary. And organizations like OneTen and Opportunity@Work are leading national campaigns to keep that trend going.
At Guild, we applaud that work: To meet future talent needs, companies need every qualified worker they can get, no matter where they obtained the knowledge and skills — on the job, in their community, in a certificate or short-term training program, or through a college degree. And the move away from degree requirements is wonderful news for the 70 million Americans who have the skills for higher-paid work in today’s economy, but may struggle to access it because they lack a bachelor’s degree.
Eliminating degrees from the hiring process is critical — but employers must also support formal learning for their employees once hired.
When someone tells you the degree is dead what they’re really saying is that they need employees with more concrete and future-proof skills — and it doesn’t matter what type of container those skills arrive in.
Here’s why:
In a groundbreaking study, Georgetown University found that roughly 90% of jobs in the fastest growing industries require some form of postsecondary education — including healthcare, roles in technology and STEM, community services and arts, and education. All of those roles require specific skills. Historically, employers used degrees as the signal to understand what skills an employee might hold. Now, skills may arrive in the form of certificates, credentials, on-the-job learning, you name it.
But as we adjust to this seismic shift, many folks will still default to degrees as the request signal for a while to come: A major analysis of the “degree reset” by researchers at Harvard University and the Burning Glass Institute found that among middle-skill and high-skill roles, about half were jobs that are highly unlikely to ever drop the degree requirement.….