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Hiring Based on Skills Instead of College Degrees is Vital for the Future, IBM CEO Says (gizmodo.com)
What does the future of getting a job in the tech industry look like? According to the CEO of IBM, Ginni Rometty, it's important that tech companies focus on hiring people with valuable skills, not just people with college degrees. From a report: Rometty made the comments yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The CEO said that technology's fast-moving pace here in the 21st century makes it harder for people to find jobs and has led to disillusionment with the future. "With the new technologies that are out there, I think there is a huge inclusion problem, meaning there's a large part of society that does not feel this is going to be good for their future," Rometty said. "Forget about whether it is or it isn't or what we believe. Therefore they feel very disenfranchised."
[...] "So when it comes to education and skills, I think the government can't solve it alone," Rometty said. "I think businesses have to believe I'll hire for skills, not just their degrees or their diplomas. Because otherwise we'll never bridge this gap." "All of us are full of companies with university degrees, PhDs, you've got to make room for everyone in society in these jobs," Rometty said as other business leaders on the panel nodded their heads. She added, "We have a very serious duty about this. Because these technologies are changing faster with times than their skills are going to change. So it is causing this skill crisis. [...] We have to have a new paradigm. You would have to have new pathways that don't all include college education and you would have to have respect for that job -- not blue collar or white collar, I call it new collar."
[...] "So when it comes to education and skills, I think the government can't solve it alone," Rometty said. "I think businesses have to believe I'll hire for skills, not just their degrees or their diplomas. Because otherwise we'll never bridge this gap." "All of us are full of companies with university degrees, PhDs, you've got to make room for everyone in society in these jobs," Rometty said as other business leaders on the panel nodded their heads. She added, "We have a very serious duty about this. Because these technologies are changing faster with times than their skills are going to change. So it is causing this skill crisis. [...] We have to have a new paradigm. You would have to have new pathways that don't all include college education and you would have to have respect for that job -- not blue collar or white collar, I call it new collar."
I attended a private school. That school is now closed because it churned out the lowest quality product it could, flooding the market with under skilled employees.
A drop in college quality right now has a lot to deal with trying to run colleges like a business which cuts into the ethos of how a college is supposed to operate.
I have some college teachers who run their classes like businesses and I do have to say that they have a proper ethos in that, class is cancelled, but assignments are still due.
Granted my professor is the exception, not the rule, but that person left the business world because education was more fulfilling.
I am now in a public university and the difference can be noted between private for profit colleges and public universities. I would be far more willing to work with public university students. Teachers are more focused on making certain the students grasp the knowledge instead of trying to pass the student to the next course because tuition is everything. I think if we are to get quality students from quality public colleges, we need to properly fund our colleges so that they are less reliant on tuition and can focus on only passing students that put forward the effort.
Place something witty here
...that employers can take a glance at and as easily quantify as a stamp of approval on a topic as a college degree. Is there a better merit-based system out there? Or do we start going by IQ test results? Why not go to our genetic profiles (Gattaca-style)?
The problem isn't with the current system of looking at college degrees to judge someone's abilities. It's the devaluation of the college degree itself. People that aren't college capable are being pushed through the system for all the wrong reasons (universities are marketing to students harder than ever, student loans are being shoved down the throats of students that shouldn't ever be going to college, etc.).
Those students need to be given/shown another path to success, and the cheapest solution is to make high school diplomas matter again in real life - not just the college preparation, STEM world. High schools shouldn't just be a farm system for college recruiters; They should have more vocational skills introduced again - or at least make better connections with vocational schools to diversify what they have to offer. (My childrens' public high school - which is allegedly a "Grade A" school in a strong school district - has ZERO hands-on work classes like autos, shop, etc. The closest thing you can get is an Art class. You have to bus over to a vocational school for most of the day to get the hands-on work.
"We want skilled employees!"
later...
*lays off skilled older employees*
> Millenials however see jobs as more transitory in my experience. They are less career oriented. I don't know how that's going to work out for them. Maybe great.
I'm not sure they have a choice. Companies don't train any more.
If you train on your own, up to and including a new, verifiable, cert/degree/whatever, your employer has no obligation to recognize that, let alone give you a raise. Frankly, your employer would rather have your cheaper replacement, so why bust your ass to get the training?
Let's say you get the training anyway. Your current gig (probably) won't value it, so your only viable option is to tout your new skills at a different employer, hopefully getting enough cash to justify the loss of stability. Lather, rinse, repeat until you find some position/situation/lifestyle you actually want to be.
Then start praying it lasts. In many modern situations, it won't. I don't know whether companies are going bust at historically high rates, but it sorta smells that way to me.
Anyway, I'm not convinced that the next generation eschews stability, so much as lacks a path to it.
ceci n'est pas un sig.