The “return on investment” of a bachelor’s degree is in question, as a new survey revealed that 45 percent of businesses plan on eliminating college-degree requirements for some positions next year. Many of these companies are seeking candidates with hands on skills and job experience that recent college graduates lack.
According to the Daily Mail, a November Intelligent.com survey of 800 U.S. employers showed that 55 percent of the companies involved “said they’d already eliminated degree requirements this year.”
Companies such as IBM, Dell, Bank of America, Accenture, and Walmart have reportedly dropped degree requirements in recent years for many of their entry-level positions. Business Insider shared that “between 2017 and 2019 employers cut degree requirements for 46% of middle-skill and 31% of high-skill jobs, which have been most pronounced in finance, business management, engineering, and health care occupations, the think tank Burning Glass Institute reported in 2022. The vast majority of these ‘degree resets’ are expected to be permanent.”
The “no degree, no problem” hiring trend is a way to diversify and expand the labor pool for businesses seeking experienced and skilled labor.
“These companies are tapping into the over 70 million workers nationwide who’ve obtained skills and experience outside four-year colleges, whether through community college, military service, boot camps, or working on the job, as estimated by the workforce development non-profit Opportunity@Work,” stated Business Insider.
CNBC reported earlier this year on the growing number of businesses dropping college-degree requirements in order to attract workers. For example:
Accenture launched an apprenticeship program in 2016 and has since hired 1,200 people, 80% of whom joined the company without a four-year-degree. Earlier this year it expanded the program with the goal of filling 20% of its U.S. entry-level roles — everything from application development and cybersecurity to cloud and platform engineering — from apprenticeships.
A survey conducted in October by PublicSquare and RedBalloon discovered that “small businesses are increasingly dissatisfied with the pool of college graduates, and they’re rapidly losing interest in hiring new grads with a 4-year degree.”
That survey’s key findings revealed that the higher-education industry is failing their students:
When asked if colleges and universities are graduating students with relevant skills that today’s business community needs, a resounding 67% of small business owners responded with a resounding “strongly no.”
A staggering 83% of respondents indicated that they are either less likely or see no difference in hiring job seekers with 4-year degrees from major colleges or universities. Only 10% expressed a preference for candidates with a degree, suggesting a shift away from the traditional value of higher education.
When given the choice between a candidate who completed a 4-year degree and someone who doesn’t have a degree but has four years of industry experience, a significant 86% preferred the job seeker with industry experience. This highlights the growing importance of practical, on-the-job experience.
The Washington Times added that the changing hiring “trend is perhaps most visible in the technology industry, where graduates believe a four-year degree entitles them to high salaries and flexible hours.”
The Times continued:
Tech giant Apple hires “people who have college degrees” and “people who don’t,” CEO Tim Cook said in a Nov. 17 podcast interview.
Although computer coding skills are helpful to job applicants, Mr. Cook said, they are not required.
David Stuckenberg, owner of high-tech water conservation company Genesis Systems in Florida, holds a doctoral degree in international affairs. He said two recent college graduates who applied for jobs demanded annual salaries of $200,000 because their professors told them “that’s what they can expect to make.”
A four-year degree was once considered a symbol of the American dream, and a step for many students toward a better future. However, the survey results and the changing hiring requirements of many companies clearly point to an apparent decline in the need for today’s offerings in higher education. Noted RedBalloon:
“The higher ed system has worked itself out of a job,” said Andrew Crapuchettes, RedBalloon CEO. “By losing focus on the mission of preparing their students for their career, they’ve become a non-factor, or even a negative factor, in helping job seekers find a job.”
The RedBalloon/PublicSquare survey on education was part of their Freedom Economy Index.
