CIOs, are you drinking the "up-credentialing Kool-Aid?"
Data, and Gary Beach, former publisher of CIO Magazine and author of "The U.S. Technology Skills Gap" suggest you are.
In a contributed Wall Street Journal piece, Mr. Beach writes that up-credentialing — requiring a bachelor's degree for a job whose responsibilities don't necessitate that level of education — is rampant in many industries, though notably so in IT.
According to Mr. Beach, up-credentialing began after the Great Recession when hiring managers started to require bachelor's degrees for jobs even though just 32 percent of workers in the country hold such a degree. He sites a Burning Glass Technologies report that found 92 percent of open technology job postings in the country require at least a bachelor's degree.
What's more, up-credentialing in IT "marginalizes the value of a four-year education degree by putting pressure on job candidates to pursue even more degrees, and more debt, just to differentiate themselves in the hiring process," Mr. Beach writes.
Mr. Beach says he often asks organizations why so many of their vacant job postings require a bachelor's degree. "The most common response I get is that new technologies like cybersecurity, cloud, big data and mobility require a more skilled worker. Hiring a job candidate holding a four-year degree in cybersecurity makes sense. But overall, I have yet to hear a chief information officer articulate a rational explanation of what value a college degree brings to their team," he writes.
Individuals who hold a four-year degree are not necessarily more skilled or more talented than those who don't. What's more, with the rising cost of education and the growing market for alternative, low-cost or no-cost education, more individuals may be forgoing bachelor's degrees and seeking apprenticeships and hands-on education instead.
And, these candidates will be able to demonstrate skills in "doing" instead of just pointing to a GPA, Mr. Beach writes.
"Degrees matter. Education matters. Learning matters. Skills matter," he writes. "But to think it all only comes together at four-year higher education institutions is myopic."
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