A new report by the Harvard Business School released today sheds new questions on the value of one of the most respected human assets of the 21st Century" a college degree, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Researcher Joseph Fuller tells News Radio 1200 WOAI that millions of Americans are unemployed while millions of jobs are sitting empty, only because employers demand a Bachelor's Degree for jobs that don't require them.
"There are a large number of jobs like production supervisor, supervisor of office workers, sales, and technical services, where, when you look at the competency a person needs to have to do that job, it doesn't at all require a college degree," Fuller said.
He says as many as three in five employers will reject out of hand a job applicant just because he or she doesn't have a college degree, even if the person has a military background, technical training, or other qualifications.
But Elyse Rosenblum, who also worked on the study, says there are a handful of employers who look beyond the degree and have had very strong success in doing so, and one of them she specificially singled out is San Antonio based H-E-B.
"You guys have a company right there in San Antonio that has been a leader in this for years, and that's H-E-B," she said. "This is a company that really understand how to partner with educational organizations and community based organizations, and really invest in training."
The Harvard Business School study raises new and serious questions in this era of skyrocketing tuition and college loan debt..which is...is a college degree really necessary to be a success in life.Fuller says that is something we really need to address.
"Rather than figuring out ways to get people trained up in those capabilities, employers are just using a college degree as a proxy," he said. "They assume that just because somebody has a college degree, they will be able to keep up with the pace here, and learn these new skills."