By Aireana August Turner, Staff Writer | December 14th, 2023
Photo Courtesy of AP Images
Employers in the working industry are already starting to drop the requirement of a college degree as a requirement to hire employees this year. Across the U.S., more and more jobs and companies are offering the opportunity for those who don’t have a degree but have the skills to uphold a position.
According to CBS News, "...employers realize that they may be able to do a better job finding the right talent by looking for the skills or competencies someone needs to do the job and not letting a degree get in the way of that.”
The realization amongst many companies that not everyone without the distinction of a higher education is incapable of doing the work is becoming popular. Degree inflation, in which employers would require a college degree for jobs that don't need college-level skills, may be a thing of the past.
Yet, some people believe that dropping the requirement shouldn’t happen at all.
“I don’t think dropping the requirement of a college degree is a good idea,” said Carson High School senior Xavier Lopez. “Many students go to college for four years or more, so going to college just so their diploma that they’ve worked hard for is not required anymore would be a waste.”
Companies are possibly making these changes to advocate for doing the best person for the job regardless of their educational attributes.
According to Axios, “When strictly requiring college degrees, you're dramatically narrowing your talent pool.”
Perhaps not having a degree means you can prove yourself in the workplace through your skills and talents and not just by showing a piece of paper earned in a building.
But, a bachelor’s degree or any college degree is still necessary for higher level and often times higher paying jobs out there.
“Perhaps in certain fields, degrees will be required,” said CHS senior Cristina Solorzano. “But if the shift to requiring no degree and valuing good skills becomes common then they may not be too important.”
Future college graduates who will receive their college degrees might be concerned about job options.
Going through the process of gaining the degree in the field you want, all for it to be worth nothing and not to mention the time you spent working for it. These factors may cause some to question the purpose of earning a degree.
“Once I go to college, I would possibly find the drop of bachelor’s degrees a major concern,” said CHS senior Franciz Ramos. “We’d be wasting our time and money to get better job opportunities only to be told that it isn’t necessary. It’s concerning whether or not I’ll be able to get a good-paying job at the end of it all.”
This idea is catching on like wildfire all across the U.S. as employers start to shift their traditional hiring processes to better and more equitable procedures.The result will be more experienced workers but this might be a huge issue for university students.
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