1) Increase competency-based hiring. Many job openings require particular educational degrees or training, and "credential creep" means that many jobs that didn't call for higher education now do. For example, almost two-thirds of executive secretary openings now require a BA, but only 19 percent of current executive secretaries are that highly educated.
Let's be honest: whether someone has a bachelor's degree or not, and where they went to school, tells us something about what they know and are able to do, but it doesn't tell us everything. Some people with college degrees from prestigious schools still lack needed job skills. And many people without college degrees have highly relevant skills that they gained in other ways, such as running their own business or in the military.
What employers really care about is whether a job seeker has the skills and knowledge to do the job. At best, educational attainment is a "noisy signal" of job seekers' skills. Fortunately, online and other forms of simple assessments now allow employers to more readily screen what applicants know and can do. Employers should ditch their over-reliance on educational requirements and open their ranks to anyone who can demonstrate the desired competencies. By expanding the hiring pool, employers will benefit from better-matched workers, and we'll all benefit when jobs and economic opportunity are opened to a broader group of applicants.
