However, a lot has changed in the past few years, from a move to an emphasis on skills-based hiring, to the ever-growing mountain of debt many university students graduate with (creating barriers to further education for an entire section of society), to the sheer number of degrees possibly rendering them less valuable as a marker of ability. Big firms are now considering or are actively actioning a removal of a degree requirement for jobs in the hope they will attract greater diversity.
The big question is, are university degrees still relevant?
A changing market
As thousands of students prepare to begin their university education and thousands more graduate and enter the world of work, some are questioning whether a degree has the same power it did ten or twenty years ago. Not only are the sheer number of degrees – and therefore graduates – creating an incredibly competitive market and potentially devaluing university degrees, it may not be what employers are looking for anymore. The word on every recruiter’s lips is skills, with skills-based hiring gaining a huge amount of momentum.
With rapid changes in the world of work caused by AI and other technologies, searching for candidates based on skills – or the potential to learn skills – is becoming more important. That, combined with a labour shortage, the need to foster a more diverse workforce, and the astronomical cost of higher education, has meant that the job market is shifting towards a focus on skills above or in conjunction with a degree.
A shift to skills-based hiring
For many years, a university degree was an indicator of talent, a way to filter applications at the earliest stage. However, data would suggest that is beginning to change. Wave has found a 19% increase from 2019 to 2022 in those not advertising any qualification requirements and, of those that do, there’s a huge 104% increase in jobs advertised without the requirement of a bachelors degree. LinkedIn data backs this up, showing a 90% increase in the share of UK job postings on the platform not requiring a degree from 2021 to 2022. LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting Report 2023 also found that 75% of recruiters believe that skills-first hiring will become a priority over the next 18 months and that recruiters are five times more likely to search for new hires by skills rather than higher education qualifications.
A huge range of companies, including some of the big multinationals, are now thinking more broadly about how they hire. Fewer than one in five IBM jobs now require a degree, and Kellogg, Accenture, Dell, Google and Tesla are operating similar hiring practices. Kellogg UK said in June that “having a degree will no longer be a requirement for those wanting to work at Kellogg in the UK.” Indeed, alongside a decrease in the requirement for a degree, Wave data has found a 75% increase from 2019 to 2022 in the requirement for vocational qualifications – training and qualifications related to a specific job, sometimes undertaken in sixth form college, and sometimes on the job. Education is one such industry which has seen a huge uptick in jobs
The benefits of a skills-first approach
A focus on educational achievement feels outdated. That’s not to say that there is no merit in a degree and most companies will appreciate degree qualifications still, but a shift to skills and potential means opening up your pool to those who, for whatever reason, didn’t go to university. It removes barriers for a huge number of people who possess a trench of business-critical skills and increases the diversity of a business’ workforce, leading to greater diversity of thought. But we’re also entering into a world whereby technology is rapidly changing and developing, often at a faster pace than university teaching, so graduates won’t always have gained the skills needed for a role purely from their degree.
A skills-first approach could also help to plug the gap caused by labour shortages. Once you remove barriers to work, you open up the pool hugely, allowing those with the skills to do the job – however acquired – to apply and progress. As finding qualified candidates remains an ongoing challenge for recruiters, re-thinking traditional recruitment strategies and overhauling outdated mindsets could prove to be vital.
It’s something DeeDee Doke, editor of Recruiter Magazine, spoke passionately about in a Talent Matters podcast with Wave CEO Dave Jenkins. She believes that a focus on skills, something that is far more tangible than ‘talent’, is crucial, insisting that skills encompass a vast range of valuable measurements, such as capabilities, abilities, aptitude, and knowing how to do something. A candidate can possess those skills because of a university education or because they found ways to build those skills in a different way but each can be equally valid. What’s important is whether they possess those skills or not, not how or where they developed them.
The most in-demand skills
LinkedIn’s latest Future of Work report found that 92% of US executives think people skills are more important than ever and part of this is down to the rapid expansion of AI. When so many tasks can be performed by AI, innately human skills become even more important. Wave data has found that four out of the top five most in-demand skills are people skills, with communication being the number one skill listed on job ads. Others include administration, management and organisational skills. The fastest-growing in-demand skills in job listings on LinkedIn since November 2022 include communication, flexibility, professional ethics, social perceptiveness, and self-management.
The most recent Future of Jobs Report (published by the World Economic Forum) found that critical thinking & analysis and problem solving are rising in importance, with many companies believing those skills will be in the top five by 2025. Of course, these are all skills that a university education can help to foster but a degree is by no means the only way to develop them.
What to look out for at the CV and interview stage
Firstly, a different approach to job ad creation is needed. Taking the time to think about what the role requires and what skills are therefore needed is crucial in order to attract the right candidates. Work closely with your clients to perform a skills analysis, identifying the technical, hard and soft skills that are vital for a particular role. Place the emphasis on the skills needed for the role rather than on any form of qualification and you’ll open your role up to a range of talented candidates that would have otherwise scrolled past your job ad or not seen it at all.
Once you’re at at the application and interview stages, look for a tailored application rather than a copy and paste job that might have been sent off to multiple companies with similar roles. That illustrates an understanding of the role and what’s required, plus is indicative of a great work ethic. Experience – especially that which has been created by the candidate in innovative ways – is a fantastic measure of problem solving and innovation.
Incorporate a skills assessment as part of the interview process to accurately measure all the different skills a candidate possesses. This might look like structured questions to identify knowledge of different areas, examples of work or life experiences that demonstrate the skills you have asked for, and possibly a final interview phase that incorporates an exercise related to the job that allows them to show the skills needed for the job.
The value of apprenticeships as a measure of talent
Apprenticeships are a fantastic alternative avenue into work for a wide range of people, at all stages of their careers. They can train and upskill young people who want or have to go straight into work rather than enter into higher education but are also a valuable gateway for career switchers and older workers for whom retirement isn’t an option. Once largely only available for technical industries, there are now apprenticeships across a broad spectrum of sectors, from accountancy, to IT and technology, to creative and design and many more in between.
And apprenticeships don’t have to be exclusive of a university education either – the number of degree apprenticeships, which enable people to gain an undergraduate or master’s degree whilst working, getting industry experience and earning a salary, has grown hugely in the past few years.
How are apprenticeships relevant to you as a recruiter? They can be another barometer of skills, experience and that catch-all word, ‘talent’. In many industries, across many roles, a university degree is not the only means of assessing a candidate’s suitability for a job. And in some industries, candidates are speaking with their applications. Wave data has found increases in applications for jobs requesting vocational qualifications largely across the board but most significantly in Education and Engineering & Utilities – industries whereby learning on the job is often more valuable than purely learning by theory. This all strengthens the need for a skill-based approach to recruitment.
There will always be value in learning and knowledge building and university degrees provide that, as well as giving young people valuable life skills. There will also always be professions in which a degree is necessary. No-one wants to go to a doctor without a medical degree, for example. But for other industries, a degree – whilst certainly not worthless – is often no longer a requirement for a job. What is becoming increasingly more important is the application, the work ethic, the skillset, and the potential that a candidate has. Given the rising cost of university education, this might just prompt a move away from that pathway into work for many.
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✍️ Is a university degree still relevant in today’s market?
