For generations, the path into a professional career has been relatively predictable – graduate high school, attend college, earn a degree, and enter the workforce. But that path is beginning to look less certain. Rising tuition costs, concerns about student debt, and questions about the return on investment of a four-year degree are prompting more students to consider alternative educational and career paths. While this shift is primarily a conversation about higher education, employers have a reason to pay attention.
If the way young people prepare for their careers is changing, the way employers find and evaluate young talent may need to change with it. Employers might rethink whether a bachelor's degree should remain the default gateway to entry-level professional jobs and redefine what “entry-level” really means. To respond to this changing landscape, employers can start by reexamining three key areas: how they use degree requirements, where they look for emerging talent, and how they define readiness for entry-level roles.
The Degree Requirement: The bachelor's degree may become a weaker screening tool than it has been in the past. For years, employers have used a degree as a convenient way to narrow a candidate pool. But if students increasingly pursue certificates, associate degrees, technical programs, or direct-to-work pathways, employers that automatically require a bachelor's degree could unintentionally eliminate capable candidates. Employers should ask: “Are we requiring a degree because the job truly requires it or because that's how we've always written the job description?”. A practical recommendation is to periodically audit your job descriptions and ask what the required degree will actually provide that is needed for the position. Organizations can focus on differentiating between required and preferred skills and allowing a combination of experience and education. Certain positions absolutely require specialized degrees, but you should be able to show that it is job related an intentional. Employers should avoid using degree requirements as a shortcut for evaluation skills they could be measuring more directly.
New Talent Pipelines: If the traditional pipeline was for high school graduates to go to college, then get an internship, and then an entry-level job, HR and talent acquisition professionals may need to invest in alternative avenues now to reach young talent. Organizations can grow these diverse pipelines through partnering with community colleges, technical and certificate programs, apprenticeships, and high school career programs, particularly at vocational or technical high schools. Things like career fairs and job-shadowing can introduce your company to talent even before they enter the workforce. Employers can also adopt different hiring practices that allow for the right young talent to find them. For example, offering internships that don't require a four-year degree, offering employer-sponsored training, and focusing on skills-based hiring. Many employers are taking a “earn while you learn” approach and applying apprenticeship programs to roles in IT, healthcare, administration, manufacturing, finance, and other professional fields.
Rethinking Entry-Level: Entry-level may need to change to mean “trainable,” and not “already trained.” Employers frequently want entry-level employees who have a degree, relevant experience, technical skills, and excellent communication skills. But where are young workers supposed to get that experience? Instead of, “We need someone who already knows how to do this,” the question employers should ask becomes, “What do we actually need this person to know on day one, and what can we teach them?” Employers should aim to hire for potential and not just credentials. Administering skills assessments or asking for work samples can help identify candidates who demonstrate curiosity, reliability, problem-solving, ability to analyze information, communication skills, and the ability to learn, which may even lead to outperforming someone who simply has the preferred credential.
We can also rethink what we accept as qualified experience. It doesn't have to mean traditional employment; internships, volunteer work, school projects or clubs, apprenticeships, freelance work, and other experiences can demonstrate relevant skills, even if it isn’t on their resume as conventional work experience. As we rethink these definitions, HR should keep in mind that managers have a role here, too. Changes in entry-level hiring means helping managers become comfortable developing people rather than expecting HR to find candidates who already possess every desired skill. There is also an important distinction that HR professionals need to understand. This isn't about lowering qualifications. It's about finding better ways to identify people who have the right qualifications, which for young talent may be better defined not as someone who already knows how to do the job, but who has demonstrated they can learn how to do it.
The changing college landscape presents an opportunity to take a closer look at how we define talent. Young workers are pursuing increasingly diverse paths into the workforce, and so employers may need to place greater emphasis on skills, potential, and a candidate's ability to learn, not simply the credentials listed on a résumé. As employers, we may not see the irony in our actions; we are quick to complain that we can't find qualified young workers, while many of our job postings simultaneously require credentials and experience that make it difficult for young workers to get their foot in the door. For HR leaders, now may be the time to revisit job descriptions, reconsider blanket degree requirements, and explore new partnerships and talent pipelines. After all, if the path young people take to the workplace is changing, shouldn't the way we find them change, too?
Sources: Business Insider, Morning Brew, Indeed Hiring Lab, World Economic Forum