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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday June 29 2017, @06:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the skills-not-degrees dept.

America has more than 6 million vacant jobs, yet the country is "facing a serious skills gap," Labor Secretary R. Alexander Acosta recently said. And last week his boss, President Donald Trump, said he wants to close this gap by directing $100 million of federal money into apprenticeship programs. Apprenticeships in the U.S. are generally known for training workers for blue collar jobs like plumbers or electricians, but with a little tweak, they could be the path to lucrative, white collar tech jobs across the country. Not just in coastal cities, but also in the Midwest, South, and across the Great Plains.

But to get there we need to erase the notion that highly paid jobs require a college degree. It's not always true. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, among others, has called for a shift in focus: "skills, not degrees. It's not skills at the exclusion of degrees. It's just expanding our perspective to go beyond degrees."

An academic degree signals to employers that a person has successfully completed a course of study, but it does not provide a clear assessment of someone's skills. Companies, especially in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) industries, are shifting their recruiting process from "where did you study?" to "what can you do?".

Germans have long cited their apprenticeship system as a factor in their economic success. Would it help America and elsewhere, too?


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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday June 29 2017, @06:39PM (13 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday June 29 2017, @06:39PM (#533031) Homepage Journal

    I get lots of interviews but when they see my grey hair they start coming up with reasons not to hire me.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 29 2017, @06:43PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 29 2017, @06:43PM (#533033)

    Clearly you should find your niche by claiming a disability to fill a diversity hire quota.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 29 2017, @07:43PM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday June 29 2017, @07:43PM (#533047) Journal

    Bit of hair dye, spot of makeup, and you'll look as good as fotie.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:41PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:41PM (#533083)

      Shave everything and go with the Shinzon look.

  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:08PM (3 children)

    by Nerdfest (80) on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:08PM (#533059)

    I'm finding the same thing. It's difficult to get hired as a fifty year old programmer.

    I keep meeting people who, when I tell them I interviewed at a place they'll tell me they have a friend who was hired there and that I'm a far better programmer. Nice for the ego, but not so much for meeting the desire for a change. Kind of makes me feel like I've wasted a lot of time keeping up with new languages and technologies though (just kidding, I that on my own time for *me*, I enjoy it).

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:30PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:30PM (#533074)

      Are you trying to do web/phone startups in San Francisco? Um, well, you may be screwed.

      OTOH, that stuff mostly sucks anyway. Why work 90-hour weeks for a 1-bedroom studio apartment when you could work 40-hour weeks for a 5-bedroom on an acre? You need to find something like a defense contractor in a dirt-cheap state. You'd have room for a huge family, low taxes, and "constitutional carry" and/or "stand your ground" laws. Your coworkers might also be old... or do you not like associating with your own kind?

      New languages and technologies normally don't matter. Perhaps RISC-V will matter in a decade, or Rust will matter in two decades. Until then it's C and assembly running on ARM, PowerPC, x86, x64, 8051, 6502, and MIPS. It is not normal to run the latest web framework on something like a pacemaker, bomb guidance unit, or tire pressure monitoring system.

      Yeah, it's different. You'd likely be in Trump country. My workplace has a giant US flag in the cafeteria, probably 10x15 feet. A few times a year, we do a military-style flag-folding ceremony and pledge. I bet that never happens in San Francisco.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @04:49AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @04:49AM (#533288)

        Many co's are often happy to hire older experienced people to maintain legacy apps. It may not be glamorous, but pays.

      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 30 2017, @05:05AM

        by kaszz (4211) on Friday June 30 2017, @05:05AM (#533302) Journal

        Are x86, x64, 8051, 6502 having a feature in embedded?

        Hesitant about PowerPC too.

  • (Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:16PM (3 children)

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:16PM (#533062) Journal