More companies are getting on board with dropping some education requirements for jobs.
It's an effort to fill some positions faster. IBM has stopped requiring a bachelor's degree for some positions. The CEO of pharmaceutical company Merck recently said companies could hire more people if they didn't require a degree and offered training instead.
“Data from Linkedin.com shows over the next five years, there's gonna be 150,000,000 tech jobs, digital jobs that are open for talent,” said Andrew McCaskill of Linkedin.com. “Hiring based on skills and dropping degree requirements actually opens up high paying jobs for a multitude of people.”
According to economists at Opportunity at Work, when companies require a bachelor's degree, they're excluding 70% of African American job candidates and 80% of Latin-X workers.
Experts at linked in agree that dropping the degree requirement for some jobs can diversify the workforce.
“Simply put, this approach really does democratize talent,” said McCaskill. “It helps companies find the talent that they're looking for based on the actual skills needed to do the job. It opens the company up for way more diversity and much more healthy and productive workplaces.”
Experts said there will still be a need for a four-year degree or higher in other jobs. But this would give workers the opportunity to hone their skills and make themselves more marketable.
