Worth Reading – Gen Z, millennials: A college degree is a waste of money and time
New research shows that many workers, especially younger ones, feel their degrees aren’t needed as employers shift toward skills-based hiring over formal education.
The article claims that younger workers are watching corporations shift to “skill-based” hiring and no longer hold their college degrees in as high regard as they once did. They are right, but it’s not just that hiring managers decided to do this. It makes sense for them as well.
Here’s the thing that AI and other technological revolutions have created in the job market. The most in-demand skills didn’t exist when you were in college, so it’s become much more about what you have learned in the last 2-3 years, and less about what you did in college.
Employers are seeking to hire individuals who are comfortable working with AI. How many college courses were there on the topic even a year ago? That’s something you’ve needed to learn and adapt to over the last two years. Whether you have a college degree or not doesn’t matter nearly as much as it did 10 years ago.
The article is right when it says this:
Caroline Ogawa, a director of research in the Gartner’s HR practice, said that as skills evolve rapidly, many college-learned skills become less relevant over time. Nearly two-thirds of job candidates (64%) agree their job skills are constantly changing, and 48% say they’ve had to learn new skills in the past year to stay competitive, according to Gartner’s own research.
When you’re looking at student loan debt and an uncertain job market, while being asked to learn new skills, it’s understandable to question what all that college was for in the first place. I’m not saying there’s no value in a college education. Still, the cost-benefit analysis is changing for many people right now, because learning and upskilling won’t stop when school is over. They keep going, and it’s only going to keep happening faster.
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