Jared Gould | Pay attention to the campus
Over the past month I have been working on questions that have not yet been given a clear and satisfying answer. One is, should a degree be considered a prerequisite for beneficial employment? And is the labor market destined to rely solely as the primary employment training mechanism in academia? Although it’s not easy to solve, these questions have become the best for many public and private employers. They are now forced to seek answers for them.
“As they’re hungry for skilled workers, Texas employers are turning to higher education institutions to give birth to more workers,” said Isaac Winds, a reporter for the San Antonio Report.
Texas leaders seem to believe that the university should serve as a university pipeline, an emotional reflection of Harrison Keller, president of North Texas. With resourcefulness, “more people are educated to higher standards than ever achieved,” Keller emphasizes that the advent of artificial intelligence and automation is driving the demand for workers specialising in areas such as computer science and engineering. (Note that although alumni are reportedly already relatively short in these fields, American students graduating in these fields are expected to face intense competition with H-1B workers, and in many cases they pay a small portion of what American alumni expects).
But outside of Texas, state leaders are moving in a distinctly different direction.
Maryland, Colorado, Utah, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina are among the states that have eliminated (some) national job degree requirements, and instead chooses to prioritize skills over qualifications. This recently adopted philosophy of “skills and crésincial” coincides with growing skepticism about higher education. It is ignited by its decline in reputation thanks to political extremism, legislative rebellion, and obsessiveness towards “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives.
Many employers report complaints about graduates who embrace the instilled “I am a victim” mentality by university mentors and often struggle or reject the expectations of the workplace. In response, employers have fired a large number of Z-College graduates. However, this knee response raises greater concern.
Conflict assessments of the role of higher education in society seem unreconcilable. So I reached out to Keller for a broader, deeper perspective. I have expressed my concerns openly. It added yet another complexity to the ongoing debate about university, university and labor market relationships.
Keller acknowledged my concerns and what it means, but argued that skill-based employment is not happening on a large scale now. “It’s more difficult for employers to assess individual skills. …The other things are equal. Most employers seem to prefer both skills and post-secondary qualifications.” He noted that the data suggests that still qualified individuals earn more income and have better employment outcomes. However, he similarly emphasized the need for a stronger partnership between educators and employers, ensuring that each student’s students have the optimal stock of student qualifications and practical skills.
Do your degree and credentials actually prove your ability in the workplace?
– Jared Gould (@J_Gould_) February 24, 2025
I have witnessed firsthand what these educator/employer partnerships look like.
In 2018, while I was intern with Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant and then signing with the state Workforce Investment Board in Mississippi, I observed efforts to bring together educators and employers to shape a curriculum designed to produce job-ready alumni.
At the time, it seemed like a promising approach. However, in retrospect, I wonder if these partnerships really improved the alignment of education with workforce needs or whether they likely contributed to the existing bureaucratic monk se. Aside from the introduction of computer science and trade programs at high schools in Mississippi, it is difficult to identify improved consistency with the demands of the higher education workforce. For example, the liberal arts program at my alma mater, Southern Mississippi University, does not appear to have any significant updates to its curriculum. As a result, for example, the relationship between the history degree I have acquired and the needs of the tangible workforce seems tenuous at best. This applies to STEM programs as well. One of my five brothers told me that his engineering education had little to tell him about what he actually was doing during his outside ship. Additionally, the main beneficiaries of these partnerships appeared to be third-party nonprofits that secured taxpayer-funded grants to provide so-called qualification services.
And when it comes to the credentials themselves, I have had serious questions about their true value in measuring their capabilities.
Consider this: I’m not only a managing editor for campus minds, but I’ve also worked as a sales force administrator since 2019 (For those unfamiliar with you, Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform that companies use to track sales and customer data. More.)
Despite successfully performing this job for years, I don’t have a Salesforce admin certificate. Two years ago I took the Administrator certification exam in hoping to increase my chances of earnings. It turns out that it has not been related to actual work since 2019. We did not evaluate actual skills or problem solving. It felt like a science exam that tested your ability to remember a regular table when you could look into it. I failed and had no reason to take it, and it wasn’t. However, I am still consulting with the same company and have managed to manage its Salesforce platform.
This reveals a major problem. Those who are qualified but have no real experience can get a job that pays higher than more skilled but uncertified workers, like me. Also, since this exam doesn’t actually test real problem solving, certified Salesforce admins still struggle with certain tasks and ultimately can rely on the same trial approach I use.
We asked whether Texas education leaders are planning to more closely coordinate their certification exams with real-world skills, and whether educators are concerned that these exams will truly evaluate the practical knowledge needed in this field. He didn’t answer that question.
However, he acknowledged the crisis of student preparation. “We need to maintain high standards,” he said. “But we also need to meet students who have students,” he pointed to internships as a solution, noting that major employers in his area often hire interns.
However, this raises another dilemma. If internship is the true path to employment, why does higher education bother you? Why not hire the best intern? That’s exactly how I joined Salesforce Consulting. I never stepped into a Salesforce classroom. I have proven my abilities at work.
Clearly there is a disconnect between academic qualifications and actual job marketability. The question is how to deal with it. Would you like to rethink your credentials? Do you want to rebuild your education? Do you encourage employers to drop their degree requirements? We don’t know yet, but whatever the solution is, the outcome will also be important to students, workers and employers.
Originally published on February 24, 2025 by caring about campus
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