Degrees Are Out: Change to Skills-Based Hiring Instead?
It used to be simple. You hired people with a college degree and assumed that meant they could handle the job. For decades, that piece of paper stood for discipline, competence, and commitment.
But that’s not how things work anymore. Hiring companies are starting to wonder if a degree doesn’t always equal ability, and that the real predictor of good work is whether someone can actually do the job.
The Shifting Value of a Degree
The New York Times recently highlighted that college graduation and attainment rates are slowing, while the cost of earning a degree keeps climbing. Even though degree-holders still earn more on average, the gap between those with and without a diploma has narrowed. In some industries, it barely matters at all.
Many graduates are now underemployed, taking roles that don’t require a degree in the first place. For employers, that’s a wake-up call. It means the old assumptions about what a bachelor’s degree represents no longer hold up.
Depending on where someone studied or what major they chose, their degree might not reflect the skills the job actually needs. And with student loan debt at record highs, the traditional “degree equals success” equation can seem out of date.
Why Employers Are Moving Past the Diploma
Hiring based on degrees made sense when college was the best way to develop skills. But today, there are lots of ways to learn and build expertise, like online courses, certifications, and hands-on work.
For HR teams and company managers, this means it’s time to think again about job requirements and focus more on ability than credentials. Otherwise, companies have to deal with two major problems:
- Overlooking great candidates who learned outside of college
- Bringing on hires who have the right degree but not the right skills
So if your hiring process still treats a diploma as a sign of readiness, you’re probably missing better talent.
Skills Speak Louder Than Diplomas
If degrees are losing value as a hiring shortcut, the better move may be to measure what candidates can actually do. That’s where skills-based hiring and pre-hire testing come in.
Tests for reasoning, software knowledge, attention to detail, communication, or job-specific abilities give you real proof of skill. Instead of guessing based on a résumé, you can see how someone thinks and performs.
It also levels the field. Not everyone has a degree, but plenty of people have the right experience and drive. Skills testing gives them a fair shot to show it.
And it helps your current staff, too. Using the same type of testing internally can show strengths and training needs. Maybe someone’s ready for a promotion, or maybe they just need to brush up on Excel or Office skills.
Either way, you get data to guide their development.
A Better Way to Hire and Grow
Here’s what a skills-based hiring approach looks like in practice:
Rethink job descriptions.
Drop “bachelor’s degree required” unless it’s really true. Focus on the abilities that make someone successful in the job.
Add skills testing early in the process.
Use pre-employment assessments to check capability before interviews. This saves time and helps you compare candidates fairly.
Use testing for employee development, not just hiring.
Skill checks help spot training needs and create internal growth paths. When employees keep learning, they’re more engaged and less likely to quit.
Watch for “degree inflation.”
Some companies are quietly dropping degree requirements to widen their talent pool. When jobs demand unnecessary credentials, it slows hiring and limits access to skilled people who took a different route.
What HR Gains from a “Skills-First” Plan
A hiring process that values skills over degrees has a few clear payoffs:
- Better job fit and faster onboarding
- Fewer bad hires driven by résumé assumptions
- More internal mobility and growth opportunities
- Fairer, data-driven decisions that reduce bias
And beyond hiring, this approach signals something bigger about your culture: results matter more than status..
That’s something employees notice and respect.
The Bottom Line
Degrees aren’t useless, but they’re not the reliable standard they once were. The job market moves too fast for that.
If you want to build strong teams, start testing for what matters: skills, adaptability, and problem-solving. Degrees might tell you where someone’s been, but skills testing shows you what they can actually do.