Dive Brief:
- Employers are now looking beyond degrees to determine if a candidate is prepared for a job, according to a Dec. 9 report from Western Governors University, an online university.
- In a survey of more than 3,100 U.S. respondents who play active roles in the hiring process, 86% said nondegree certificates are valuable in assessing job readiness, and 78% said work experience is equal to or more valuable than a degree.
- “Employers are playing an increasingly active role in defining what qualifies a candidate for a job outside of a diploma,” according to the report. “Beyond viewing degrees as general indicators of preparedness, many are now seeking more specific evidence of a candidate’s ability to perform in a given context. This shift has brought certificates, practical experience, and demonstrated skills to the forefront of hiring decisions.”
Dive Insight:
That isn’t to say employers don’t care about degrees; 68% of those surveyed said they view degrees as important, namely in the IT and technology, and finance and professional services fields.
Nearly 4 in 10 employers said they believed higher education institutions are preparing students with the skills they need to succeed in the workforce.
“We are seeing a rapid evolution in the workforce needs of employers, and with that brings changing expectations for what skillsets candidates must bring to the table,” Scott Pulsipher, president of WGU, said in a news release.
The three most critical skills candidates need for job success in the next year are critical thinking and problem solving, time management and adaptability/resilience, the report found. As AI becomes a more commonplace element of the workplace, employers are placing a “renewed emphasis” on soft skills during the hiring process, WGU said.
In another poll, employers identified the ability to apply knowledge to the real world as the No. 1 skill needed. In fact, 95% of employers surveyed by research firm Morning Consult for the American Association of Colleges and Universities characterized that ability as “very” or “somewhat” important.
Employers also said teamwork, oral and written communication, locating and evaluating information, analyzing and solving complex problems, critical thinking, and ethical judgment and decision-making were desired skills, according to the American Association of Colleges and Universities poll.
