Kerby Anderson

In a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, Byron Auguste asks an important question. Why do so many employers “require” a college degree? He is a perfect person to ask this question because he is black and extremely well-educated.

Companies all over this country are scrambling to find talent and address the perceived “skills gap” and the obvious “labor shortages.” Those companies are prevented from discriminating against applicants based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, or disability. But they do discriminate against the two-thirds of Americans who do not have a bachelor’s degree.

He tells the story of his father who left his job as a factory shipping clerk to study computer programming for six months. He never worked in an office and dropped out of college. But the company allowed him to shadow a colleague on the job, tested his skills, and hired him as a junior programmer. That launched his family into the American middle class.

His father faced discrimination as a black man in 1971. But the lack of a college degree didn’t stand in his way because the company saw his potential and allowed him to succeed. It is unlikely his father would have the same opportunity today.

College degree discrimination today is taken for granted. Obviously, engineers need a college degree and doctors need a medical degree. However, I can think of lots of jobs that don’t really need a college degree, yet “college degree required” is still listed on the job application.

He estimates that more than 70 million workers in America’s workforce do not have a bachelor’s degree but are STARs, which stands for “skilled through alternative routes.” Some are skilled through military service, certificate programs, or on-the-job training.

It’s time to end degree-based hiring and put skilled Americans to work.