This week, international publishing house Penguin Random House decided to drop degrees as a requirement for job applicants, following in the footsteps of major consulting firms Ernst and Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The move comes as smaller employers are shifting away from hiring graduates or university students, believing kids are coming out of university with “no real skills” or simply being taught the wrong things.
Penguin hasn’t been so harsh, saying the shift in requirements is simply a move “to make publishing far, far more inclusive than it has been to date”.
“While graduates remain welcome to apply for jobs, not having been through higher education will no longer preclude anyone from joining,” a statement from the publisher confirmed.
“Simply if you’re talented and you have potential, we want to hear from you.”
24 January 2016
Are university degrees "becoming irrelevant" ?
Some companies apparently think so:
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Bully for them.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how this shift away from degrees comes at a time when the gender gap in Universities has just reversed and there are now more female students than male.
ReplyDeletePulling the rug out from under them?
Will they also drop their prejudice against age?
ReplyDeleteNever, in either direction.
DeleteHaving been in the job market several times, the requirements for degrees baffled me in a lot of cases. I could see the relevance for a degree or relevant experience but, many had the requirement for a degree, and often not even requiring a degree relevant to the job, regardless of experience. The degree requirement seemed to be more about bragging rights or some kneejerk requirement from a HR drone to cut down the number of applicants they had to go through than actually being needed for the job. Other than the last item, I could never get a clear answer from HR people as though they didn't know themselves why they required it.
ReplyDeleteMany times degrees are required as a cheap fail-safe to make sure the applicant can read... this still fails them, though.
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