Is a College Degree Losing its Value?
The Burning Glass Institute’s recent study about the declining requirement of college degrees titled The Emerging Degree Reset, kicks off with a bold statement, “Jobs don’t require a four year college degree. Employers do.”
While a college degree is still a valuable asset in the workforce there is a trend toward employers rethinking which jobs really require a four year education. The past decade saw what The Burning Glass Institute has called “degree inflation”, or the growing requirement of having a college degree in order to be considered for certain employment opportunities.
However, degree inflation is reversing for particular fields as employers are struggling to fill middle or high skill jobs.
As such, some employers have resorted to opening up their talent pool and making their search less about a degree and more about skills. Employers are now looking for candidates who can perform a role well regardless of their formal education.
While college degrees have been seen as a stepping stone to the middle-class, they also exclude 64% of America’s workforce. That’s 80 million people. Employers are finding that college degrees do not always equate to the skills and knowledge required to be successful in a role.
The degree reset trend is further supported by recent White House initiatives to place limitations on the use of educational requirements for IT jobs. IBM is one company that removed degree requirements for more than half of their positions in 2021.
Another driver for the focus on skills over degrees is the acceleration of technological change. As new technologies emerge and evolve with greater speed, four year college degree curriculum isn’t keeping up. Here are some big picture trends to be aware of:
46% of middle-skill and 31% of high skills jobs experienced degree resets between 2017 and 2019.
A projected 1.4 million jobs could open to workers without college degrees in next 5 years.
37% of middle-skill jobs have seen no decrease in degree requirements, even as employers struggle to fill positions.
The following graph illustrates the degree of change in the barrier to entry for several tech occupations:
Via the Burning Glass Institute
For some companies, the removal of the degree requirement spawned from the onset of the pandemic. Those situations may be considered “cyclical resets,” indicating a short-term change. On the other hand, “structural resets” are adjustments employers have made that are likely to become permanent components of their hiring process for the forseeable future.
It’s important to note that college degrees haven't been immediately rendered useless. While some fields are shifting to a skills-based approach, others are still highly dependent on a specialized college degree and are likely to stay that way. Below is a list of fields that are experiencing degree resets:
10 Biggest High Skill Structural Reset
Healthcare Adminiistartor
Insurance Sales Agent
Network/ Systems Administrator
General Manager
Personal Financial Advisor
Construction Manager
Loan Officer
Office Manager
Computer Programmer
Compensation/Benefits Analyst
10 Biggest Middle Skill Structural Degree Reset
Retail Store Manager/ Supervisor
Real Estate Agent /Broker
Maintenance/ Service Supervisor
Preschool/ Childcare Teacher
Production Supervisor
Coach
Sales Supervisor
Property/ Real Estate/ Community Manager
Bill and Account Collector
Human Resources Assistant
With the pandemic starting to calm across the globe, there’s a likelihood that companies that have experienced cyclical degree resets will revert to making college degrees part of their screening process again.
Nevertheless, shifts in hiring practices can have huge impact on upward mobility in America as well as well as the value of college education. This shift can be the beginning of a significant change in the hiring process for employers and employees, especially in minority communities who are less likely to have a college degree.
Whether pursuing a college education or not, this trend still shines a light on the importance of developing skills that are valuable in to employers in the Future of Work. It’s important to gain a broader understanding of how tech in impacting your industry so that you can be prepared and upskill when necessary.
Read The Burning Glass Institute’s “The Emerging Degree Reset” report here.