The Jobs of Tomorrow: College Degrees Vs. Job Skills
With digitization on the rise, we don’t exactly know what the future holds, but we can shape it.
Nearly 65 percent of children entering the primary school will end up taking jobs that don’t exist, predicts the World Economic Forum.
In another survey by Freelancing in America, 93 percent of freelancers having a four-year degree said skills training is crucial while 79 percent said their education was useful to the current work they’re doing now.
Nearly twenty million students get into college every year, the question is whether their degrees will pay off?
College degrees’ vs job skills?
We often hear employers and futurists stating it is all about the job skills and not about degrees.
But what do they exactly want to say?
Well, in certain cases advanced degrees are a gateway to an interview. However, it is not always mandatory that a degree will guarantee a job interview. Times have changed. With technologies, such as AI, blockchain, big data analytics, quantum computing, and robotics on the rise – the curriculum taught in colleges becomes outdated.
Getting into IBM does not always require the individual to have degrees. What really matters are the skills?
Professional credentials and online education providers are changing the manner through which an individual can upskill themselves.
The fact remains the same, the pace at which trending technology is moving, redundant skills will be of no use. However, the combination of knowledge and recent technology skills do not need a degree.
A futurist such as Mike Colagrossi says the future workforce may need to acquire skills and not degrees. You will find multiple tech organizations that no longer require degrees to attain a job. All these employers need job skills, workers having hands-on experience will be in-demand. Google and Apple are some of the renowned companies that have hired professionals with job skills.
Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn CEO said, “These are qualities that you don’t necessarily pick up from a degree. There are qualities … that have a tendency to be completely overlooked when people are sifting through résumés or LinkedIn profiles. And yet, increasingly, we find that these are the kinds of people that make the biggest difference within our organization.”
In 2019, the US Labor Department predicted the shortfall of more than 2 million skilled workers. Well, we’ve entered another year, and this fact is still pinching a lot of organizations.
At this very moment, we all should take a pause. Acquire and learn skills that fail to meet the demand.
Professionals can always opt for non-traditional methods to acquire skills. You will find multiple third-party vendor-neutral certifications online.
Weiner also says it’s not skilled at the exclusion of degrees. But with technology and skills growing at breakneck speed, acquiring the latest skills are deemed mandatory.
Likewise, non-traditional methods are trending and are rapidly proliferating.
At the end of the day, skills are everything especially if you’re seeking a job in the technology domain.
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