The time has passed when a college degree would guarantee a lifetime of employment. For jobs of the future, both employers and job seekers need to focus on teaching and learning on the job.
If you want a good job, you need to have a college degree. At least, that’s the story we have been hearing for decades now. In many ways, having that degree on your resume has served as a proxy of innate talent and potential. It may also have something to do with minimizing risk: if someone has a college degree, the thinking is that they’ll make a better employee than someone who didn’t pursue traditional higher education.
But we are seeing a shift in this mindset, especially as many employers continue to struggle to find enough employees to help them grow their businesses. In fact, some employers have begun to question whether a college degree even matters when it comes to hiring. According to a recent survey conducted by Multiverse, some 67% of the 1,200 business leaders who responded don’t think today’s higher education system gives graduates the skills they need on the job.
That same survey also revealed that one-third of business leaders (32%) said they expect degrees to matter less for entry-level candidates in the next five to 10 years, with almost half (45%) of those leaders stating this shift will happen to help increase the size of the talent pool and help recruit candidates from a wider range of diverse backgrounds.
“While college and an emphasis on degrees will persist,” says Asha Aravindakshan, the U.S. general manager of Multiverse, “it’s incredibly important to open new, viable pathways for individuals from all backgrounds to access sustaining careers.”
I connected with Aravindakshan over email to ask more about her firm’s survey findings and why more and more companies are turning to on-the-job training to build a sustainable workforce.
Why it’s time to rethink degree requirements
Even though almost half of the companies that participated in the Multiverse survey reported that they still require college degrees when recruiting entry-level employees, the tide is clearly shifting. There is even a movement called “Tear the Paper Ceiling” that has emerged to help open new opportunities for job seekers who don’t have degrees.
“The persistent degree screen demonstrates that we still have work to do before degrees aren’t a prerequisite for most roles,” says Aravindakshan. “It also underscores the importance that alternatives to college, such as apprenticeships, are becoming more accessible to reach qualified talent.”
Another fascinating result from the survey was that most business leaders reported learning more themselves during their first two years of work than they did during their higher education experience.
“Not only do these leaders believe their learning was more useful on the job,” says Aravindakshan, “but many say entry-level employees are not work-ready on day one. We found that those executives believe new graduate hires needed an average of 11 months of on-the-job training before becoming fully effective in their roles.” To that point, some 47% of the leaders surveyed by Multiverse say they plan to increase the amount of in-house training given to entry-level employees.
But this helps highlight that there’s a bit of dissonance between employers continuing to screen for educational degrees and graduates’ need to be taught the skills necessary on the job.
“The onus is on business leaders to change the system by shunning their reliance on degree requirements and instead celebrating alternative career pathways as a route to a more representative and prepared workforce,” says Aravindakshan.
Training for the jobs of tomorrow
What worked for university and labor systems twenty years ago, Aravindakshan says, is no longer relevant in today’s society.
“Today, tech is enabling the way—and evolving at a rapid pace—making much of what digitally native students learn in the classroom outdated by the time they graduate,” she says. “Moreover, the idea that a bachelor’s degree is enough education for an entire career has long since passed, as IBM found that the half-life for some of the skills you learn in college is only about 2.5 years—meaning lifelong learning must be the way of the future.”
In Aravindakshan’s view, the higher education system needs to focus less on theory and more on applied learning—where students can take what they’ve learned and apply it in a business environment—if it wants to remain relevant.
“The future of learning is working, and businesses will need to prioritize hiring talented individuals who are actually trained for the jobs of tomorrow,” says Aravindakshan.
Upskilling vs. reskilling
Upskilling and reskilling practices have emerged as alternatives for those employers who can’t afford to wait for changes in the higher education system to help them address their labor shortages.
“Though similar in name—and often used interchangeably—upskilling and reskilling are distinctly different from one another and can be used to bolster the workforce in separate ways,” says Aravindakshan.
By Aravindakshan’s definition, upskilling practices are used to teach an individual advanced skills to become more effective in their current role or department. Helping employees upskill ensures they can continue to succeed in their current organization or role as the technological landscape around them evolves. Reskilling, on the other hand, helps employees learn skills that allow them to move into a new role that is not directly linked to their current position.
Aravindakshan also points out that companies can begin developing talent pipelines among diverse populations who historically don’t pursue higher education degrees by creating internship and apprenticeship programs to help ensure young people are getting the hands-on experience they need to round out their skill sets.
“Apprenticeships open doors to these opportunities at a larger scale and provide apprentices with the training and support they need to succeed in the job and set them up for the careers of the future,” she says.
Going beyond the hard skills
What’s interesting is that the skills that business leaders value most— like critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and character traits such as growth mindset and leadership—are in short supply even among college graduates.
These skills, which have begun to earn the label of “durable” or “transferable” skills (what I also like to call “professional” skills), are harder to teach but they’re also not easily displaced by technology and are universal across workplaces, industries and roles.
“While transferable skills can be acquired from personal experiences throughout an individual’s life, they can also be taught in on-the-job learning settings,” says Aravindakshan. “By providing ways for talented individuals to experience, learn from, and adapt to various workplace settings, employers are able to help teach these skills.”
Opening up opportunities
As I have said time and time again, I remain a big proponent of pursuing higher education. But what conversations with people like Aravindakshan shed light on is that college for all isn’t the answer. It’s just one option to consider. What employers must recognize is that just because someone chooses not to go to college, that shouldn’t exclude them from becoming a viable candidate to hire—especially when they’re willing to learn on the job.
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