How many jobs really require a college degree? Companies are looking to find the answer

Finding and securing talent is always at or near the top of CFOs’ list of concerns. Could removing college degree requirements from job descriptions help widen the talent pool?

Companies like Walmart think it might give them a competitive advantage. The retail giant is in the process of rewriting “hundreds of job descriptions so that for many of its corporate job titles, applicants can have either a college degree or show they have needed skills through prior experience or other types of learning,” according to Forbes.

Forbes says Walmart and other companies are struggling to find skilled and experienced job applicants. No doubt many degreed candidates with college loans to pay off aren’t willing to work for the salaries companies are offering.

Perhaps folks with only a high school degree and/or some college experience will help to fill the void. Walmart already pays for employee online learning programs, including those that award certification upon completion.

Talent void forcing firms to get creative

“Skills-based hiring” is slowly (and quietly) catching on. Cybersecurity, data analytics and operations are three areas where companies are dropping college requirements, according to Forbes.

Companies are responding to market forces such as:

• a lack of skilled (and degreed) talent in the job market
• diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) mandates that hamper merit-based hiring, and
• sky-high college debt that many younger people are deciding they won’t take on.

Forbes didn’t delve into another factor: the declining value of a college degree and an alarming trend of graduates not possessing basic skills needed in their fields. We reported on the need for companies to train younger employees, including in technical fields like engineering.

Accounting remains one of the key fields where businesses can’t waive the college degree requirement, or replace humans with AI and automation (at least not yet).

Businesses are increasingly desperate to find accountants as Baby Boomers retire and fewer college students go into accounting. The time and money investment for the CPA route is less and less attractive to young people.

CFOs would love to use AI in lieu of CPAs. But a recent study shows human accountants are the safer bet by a substantial margin.