We hear that degree is your key to success but we never heard employers saying that skills are more important than the degree. In the last few months, the views have changed, prospective students and futurists, saying that it is all about the skills, not about the degree. 

Taking the skill vs degree debate forward, Brent Colescott, Senior Director, Global Business Strategy & Transformation, SumTotal Systems shared his thoughts at the People Matters TechHR Conference. The industry leader pointed out that existing talent pipelines are failing and we are not really producing the workers that we need and skilling is the only way to be back on track. 

The new collar workforce has changed a lot from the pre-COVID to the post COVID era. The workforce is one of the most prominent places to be changed drastically in the short span.

Re-think higher education

On the other hand, skills are the basic necessity in the education system and degree puts a seal on that. Colescott mentioned, in higher education, we are not seeing it’s producing the candidates that the business needs. 

Quoting Dr. Richard Vedder, he said, “So the kids are not learning as much, they’re paying more to learn less. So they’re getting less for more. For all the money going into educating them, there’s not much of a vocational result.”

Up-skilling & Re-skilling

Up-skill and re-skill are taking on a different role now because of this pandemic. The challenge is changing in all the processes such as tech, business, and virtual communication. The reskilling aspect is bigger because there are a lot of jobs that were not done remotely and may have to change and people need to find a way to do this and it may change their entire role, he shared. 

He highlighted that businesses need talent and they can’t rely on degrees because this is about real-time development and upskilling individuals. 

“If business leaders want a talent supply, they are going to go ahead and create that talent supply.” 

Modern learning is in great demand. The ability to learn, unlearn, and learn again is the most important skill that people are going to need the most. That’s the most important part in order to move ahead in your career. 

Quoting a Gartner study, he said that 33% of skills workers needed three years ago are no longer relevant. He addresses the need for skilling in the education system and why companies such as Google and Microsoft are spending heavily on upskilling their employees and developing a massive talent pipeline. 

He concluded by saying that everyone needs to up-skill and re-skill themselves; it doesn’t matter what they have done before this pandemic.