Momentum builds to look beyond degrees for public sector

The push to shed unnecessary degree requirements for jobs is gaining momentum across the country, and representatives from two groups working on the effort see verdant ground ahead for county governments.

“There’s been the most momentum and advocacy in the public sector and at every level of government and on both sides of the aisle,” Blair Corcoran de Castillo said March 1 at the Community, Economic and Workforce Development Steering Committee meeting. 

“In both the public and private sector there is absolutely a big opportunity to tap into this talent and get access to the skills that you need for the jobs that are in demand today,” she said.

“These are individuals who have built tremendous skills, but they just don’t have a bachelor’s degree. We’re helping people see people for the skills that they have and not just a piece of paper.”

As vice president of public sector and policy for Opportunity @ Work, de Castillo noted that although 70 million Americans are positioned, with their skills and experience, to attain high-level work, they are impeded primarily by their lack of a degree. 

In addition to those requirements, Americans without a degree often lack robust professional networks and face a conventional assumption that a much larger proportion of the population has a degree.

“They make up the majority of the workforce in almost every region across this country,” she said.

A national campaign is poking holes in those assumptions on the way to tearing “the paper ceiling,” the barrier that degree requirements represent for job seekers.

Kate Emanuel, chief business operations and strategy officer for the Ad Council, said the campaign asks employers to consider changing their hiring practices and raises awareness of the barriers that applicants are facing as an untapped talent pool.

Hennepin County, Minn. removed degree requirements for many jobs in 2016, to increase representation in government and increase the economic stability of their citizens, opening jobs to nearly 200,000 residents without degrees. The county paired it with the Pathways training program, which has seen 400 residents graduate in that time, with 90% still employed by the county and 40% earning promotions.

Maryland took similar measures in 2022, removing degree requirements for half of their jobs and focusing recruiting on information technology and administrative positions. Within six months, the state saw a 33% increase in applications by residents without degrees and a 41% increase in hired applicants without degrees. 

Opportunity @ Work will launch technical assistance cohorts for different levels of government to learn skills-first hiring practices later this year, and is working to include one for counties.