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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 bob_super on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:55PM (3 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:55PM (#533094)

    > Wrong, they shouldn't be relying on pieces of paper.

    Yet they do, which makes the paper useful.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @12:47AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @12:47AM (#533198)

    Maybe, but I refuse to participate in that game on principle. Others should do the same, or this stupidity will never end. If the employer requires a degree for a job that doesn't need it, they are not worth working for anyway.

    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday June 30 2017, @05:22PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Friday June 30 2017, @05:22PM (#533568)

      Well good luck with your idealistic one-man crusade on that.

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday June 30 2017, @02:38PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Friday June 30 2017, @02:38PM (#533461)

    This AC obviously has never heard of Descriptivism :P

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"