School is out for the summer, but the debate over whether or not a college degree is still necessary for a good job in the U.S.—and whether it will be in the future—is only gaining more traction. Recent research finds that a college degree is still worth the investment. But more and more companies, including Google and Apple, are eliminating degree requirements when hiring some candidates. And leaders ranging from the CEOs of Delta and Nielsen to state governors have recently touted the merits of skills-based hiring, arguing that it can help diversify candidate pools and even act as a salve to the ongoing labor shortage.
Now the pro-skills contingent has a new proponent in the storied halls of one of the nation’s most selective institutions: former national security advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who told Fortune, shortly before appearing at KPMG’s Women in Leadership Summit on June 21st, that she’s “very much in favor” of skills-based hiring.
That means something coming from Rice, a lifelong academic who boasts a mile-long CV of accolades. She graduated from college Phi Beta Kappa (America’s oldest academic honor society), went on to earn a master’s degree in political science, and at age 25 earned her Ph.D. in the same subject. Rice currently directs the Hoover Institution, the public policy research initiative at Stanford University, where she’s been on faculty since 1981. She holds at least 14 honorary doctorates. Plus, she knows a thing or two about nonacademic skills. Rice is an accomplished pianist who performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D Minor with the Denver Symphony Orchestra at age 15, and knows enough about the NFL to have been reportedly considered for a head coaching role.
Despite her numerous degrees, she doesn’t think those without one should be overlooked on the job market. The U.S. “needs to make a lot more use” of programs that enable people without four-year degrees to attain quality, high-paying jobs, Rice told Fortune.
She said many people are better off, for a wide range of reasons, earning a two-year associate’s degree followed by on-the-job training at a company that will ensure a role after completion. That could prevent many people from joining the $1.78 trillion in student loan debt American borrowers owe. It’s also a mutually beneficial arrangement. Migrating away from compulsory degree requirements would help companies expand their potential applicant pools, which helps untraditional candidates and would be sorely needed to combat a talent shortage.
Alongside options for nondegree holders to advance in their careers, Rice added, workers should also have the ability to decide, after some time on a job, that they’d benefit from returning to school and earning their degree—on a full- or part-time basis.
“With the possibilities for remote learning, I think that’s a big opportunity as well,” Rice said. “We just need to rethink the whole scope of possibilities.”
Workers without traditional four-year degrees “have the opportunity to be upskilled and do the things we need,” Paul Knopp, U.S. chairman and CEO of KPMG, added. “Remote learning now is much more of a thing than it used to be, and I hear more and more business leaders [say] they’re not as concerned about what your degree is in. They’re more tuned into whether you’re capable of [thriving in] new environments and able to reskill in the future.”
Why skills will keep winning
Rice’s support of skills-based hiring, particularly given her appointments at Stanford and deep ties with the government, adds legitimacy to what has been a long-burgeoning trend among some of the nation’s most powerful executives.
Non-degree-holding hires performed just as well at IBM as did those with Ph.D.s., former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty previously told Fortune. And General Motors removed degree requirements from many of its listings because, as Telva McGruder, its chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, told Fortune, degrees aren’t “necessarily the be-all, end-all indicator of someone’s potential.”
Adopting a skills-first mentality is bosses’ only hope of surviving a shaky economy, Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn, has said: “If we had just taken a view on what are the skills necessary—who has those skills, how can we help them acquire a couple of skills to help them become employed—we would have found ourselves in a much more efficient labor market.”
It hasn’t taken long for support of “new-collar jobs” (as IBM coined them in 2016) to make its way out of the private sector. Earlier this year, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro joined the trend with his first executive order, in which he nixed degree requirements from 92%, or 65,000, commonwealth jobs.
“There are many different pathways to success, whether it’s through on the job training, an apprenticeship, vocational education, or college,” Shapiro said in his inaugural address.
But that’s not to say having a bachelor’s degree is no longer an irreplicable asset. A recent analysis from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce that looked at government data found that a bachelor’s degree is still the most impactful way to snag a “good job.”
It could also be an indicator, though, that while skills-based hiring is gaining traction, it’s still a long way off from being the norm. And perhaps that’s why Rice still advocates for finishing up a degree while still making an income.
She encourages new workforce entrants—particularly young workers—to seek out opportunities for networking and improving networking skills, and pounce on them.
Being proactive is key. “It isn’t a matter of sitting back and waiting for [opportunities] to come to you; you have to go and get them,” Rice said. “There are fewer barriers today than there have ever been, but there are still barriers. You have to find a way to get over them, around them, or through them, and don’t let them stop you.”
