Previously, multinational retail corporation Walmart removed the college degree requirement for hundreds of its corporate positions, while global professional services company Accenture boldly states that not every role requires a four-year degree. One thing is clear: degrees no longer hold the weight they once did, and companies are hiring for skills, wherever that search takes them.

Skills over credentials

Traditional education systems have long struggled to keep pace with the changes and demands of the job market, often several steps behind in imparting the skills most relevant to today’s employers. It has also widened the skills gap, resulting in many recent graduates entering the workforce without the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that employers consider essential. Recent research reveals that more than 58% of organisational leaders surveyed have identified a discrepancy between skills of young people and the expectations of employers in the last three years.

As a result, companies are shifting their focus away from specific educational credentials and toward hiring candidates who demonstrate the practical skills and competencies necessary for the job. This shift enables businesses to tap into a more diverse talent pool, extending beyond traditional educational pathways and geographical boundaries. By prioritising skills over degrees, they are better positioned to find employees who can help them outpace change in a landscape that demands constant agility.

Accessing hidden talent

It’s truly impressive how many people could be added to the global talent pool through a skills-first approach – more than 100 million. Looking more closely, candidates across generations stand to benefit from this approach. According to the LinkedIn Skills-First report, skills-first hiring expands candidate pools for Gen Z workers by over 10 times and for Gen X and Millennials by 8.5 times and 9 times, respectively.

Simply put, it’s a win-win for employers and employees alike. The prospect of being hired based on skills allows individuals to work in jobs that align perfectly with their skill sets, which means that employers benefit from a more engaged workforce – not to mention a much broader pool of workers to choose from. It’s a promising departure from conventional approaches to evaluating candidates, which have until now placed disproportionate emphasis on how a certain skill was acquired. Things are changing, giving skills the limelight they deserve.

Degrees are no longer gatekeepers of opportunities

Amid the talent crunch and war for talent, companies must pay attention to where they can find the right skills. If a certain skill is in short supply locally, search globally. If a candidate pool feels narrow, broaden your search to untapped markets and fresh territories.

Skill-based hiring is complementary to global employment as it opens up a level playing field for skilled individuals anywhere in the world to access opportunities irrespective of their educational background. Rather than limiting the search to candidates with degrees from elite universities, assessing candidates from around the world based on practical tests and exercises can uncover standout talent.

Unlimited opportunities in a borderless world

According to the World Economic Forum, 49% of people are employed in jobs unrelated to their formal education. Increasingly often, people are finding that their academic backgrounds don’t directly correlate with the work they end up doing. In other words, degrees no longer dictate your career trajectory, offering individuals a truly unlimited spectrum of opportunities to pursue.

The world really is your oyster. Sure, a degree from a top-tier university implies that you likely possess an aptitude for quickly acquiring new skills. But today, what matters the most is whether you have the right skills and demonstrated abilities for any given field of work. Moreover, comparing different courses and standards worldwide is difficult enough, let alone ensuring that the comparison is flawless.

Revisiting overlooked candidates

The discourse around skill-based hiring is also a call to re-think candidate selection. It nudges employers to reconsider candidates who may have been previously overlooked in favour of those who look good on paper. Particularly true for technology-based industries, evaluating candidates solely based on degrees and the prestige of their alma maters may exclude many capable individuals who possess the necessary analytical and technical skills but lack formal qualifications.

It’s fascinating to note that self-taught candidates and those who have acquired their skills through experience are emerging as an undeniable presence in the labour market. In the US alone, there are 70 million individuals categorised as “STARs”, a term describing those who are skilled through alternative routes instead of degrees.

Opportunities shouldn’t be bound by degrees, prior job titles or geography

Surely, there are exceptions when it comes to certain professions like doctors, scientists, and lawyers where formal degrees legitimise specialised knowledge and credentials. At the same time, many other fields could greatly benefit from a skills-first approach that broadens the talent pool of eligible candidates.

According to IBM, for instance, there is a 35% difficulty in recruiting for data science positions, resulting in a 250,000 job shortfall. On the other hand, research from BCG indicates that traditional data-scientist job advertisements typically list around 28 required skills, while skills-based ads for the same role can highlight up to 37 skills, over-indexing on transferable skills such as collaboration and communication.

Similarly, from digital marketing and business development to project management, graphic design, cybersecurity, and software development, the areas where skills can truly shine goes on. These are areas where problem-solving abilities, interpersonal and communication skills, and hands-on experience take precedence over formal qualifications.

Welcoming new forms of qualification

It also demands a perspective shift about how relevant skills can be acquired. Certifications, internships, portfolios, freelance work, self-study, and passion projects serve as tangible indicators of an individual’s interest and competitiveness in these skills-driven industries – sometimes even more telling than degrees.

Moreover, micro-credentials, or ‘bite-sized’ courses that expose individuals to new in-demand skills, are also increasingly finding acceptance across the world. For students, these credentials can enhance employability by complementing existing curriculums, while for professionals, they provide a fast track to upskill or reskill, keeping them competitive in the job market. They also enable employers to easily identify candidates with targeted, job-ready skills, irrespective of geography.

Looking at talent with a new set of eyes

With a looming global talent shortage estimated to exceed 85 million people by 2030, employers should use every strategy at their disposal to ensure that the hiring process is as expansive as possible. To maximise the scope of hiring efforts, it’s crucial to let go of outdated ideas and look beyond educational backgrounds or prior job titles to assess a candidate’s abilities.

After all, the future of the labour market will further highlight the importance of tapping into people’s potential and skills in unconventional ways. It will be about mobilising skills, redefining roles, and aligning the skilled workforce with opportunities where they can thrive. Skills-first hiring is here to stay, democratising talent search and opening the job market up to global candidates.

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