Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Very simple reason states are lowering their requirements--money.
If they cannot get degreed people applying and hired they need to hire non-degreed people who will work for the money in the budget.
Getting taxpayers to pay more taxes for services because wages have increased IRL is unpopular so the answer is to lower requirements.
Same thing in a supermarket, if you want brand name because that's what you grew up with/like it will cost a little more than non-brand name. In some cases the quality may be exactly the same, in other cases it may not taste/smell/perform the same.
When I need a surgeon I look and see where she graduated/interned. When I need a flu shot, nope.
Not all degreed people are superior to non-degree, I've been malpracticed on by a few.
But at least they passed some kinda test.
This is a tough one for me. On one hand, credentialism can be overly restrictive and a great many of these jobs do not require a degree. Especially in the age of the internet, where one can learn a lot online for free. I suppose one can prove their "credentials" with a test or some other proof, rather than an overly expensive and wasteful college degree. That and educational inflation is the real problem.
On the other hand, I can see this as a way to flood the supply of candidates and lower the wage. The struggle to find balance continues!
Separate from that are all sorts of jobs with various requirements in terms of intellectual rigor that don't have any licensing attached to them at all. An electrical engineer that designs battery packs for laptops or a financial analyst at a company or a director of marketing or a customer service supervisor...all fall into this huge gray area.
And adding to that... The engineer designing the actual product often times doesn't even have a Bachelor's, let alone a PE license. The PE is only required to "seal" the drawings, and in many firms, there are only one or two, with the brunt of the engineering work being done by engineers/designers from all sorts of backgrounds, ranging from folks with an Associates, to some with a Bachelor's, to some with a Master's. And they all do the exact same job.
Degree requirements for those types of jobs are more a way of saying "prove that you can show up on time and follow instructions' than about showing knowledge or competence. But of course that richly rewards the education-industrial complex for not doing a whole lot. There's gotta be a better way to show base competence.
Excellent post. It should never cost somebody tens of thousands of dollars to prove base competence.
Well, some jobs that didn't require a degree 20 years ago now suddenly do. For essentially the same work. I would imagine that IQ's didn't suddenly decline during that timeframe.
I agree. I am an occupational therapist with a bachelors degree. Current occupational therapist have to get a masters. PT went from bachelors degree 25 years ago to a Masters and now a doctorate. However, you do not learn anything additional that will increase your expertise in the field. What you learn that is extra is theoretical. If you want to go into research, then that doctorate will help you. Otherwise, the PTs with bachelors and masters, are just as good as the PTs with doctorate. In fact, the best PT I’ve ever worked with had a bachelors.
I feel like it’s a big scam. Instead of being able to graduate with 42,000 in student loans, like I had, this kids are now forced to take out a couple of hundred thousand dollars in loans to get these advanced degrees that will not even get them a higher salary in the field.
Well, some jobs that didn't require a degree 20 years ago now suddenly do. For essentially the same work. I would imagine that IQ's didn't suddenly decline during that timeframe.
I know of entire government agencies that suddenly required their employees to have MA's instead of BA's. Those already employed with those agencies had to go to grad school while maintaining their employment, to keep their jobs. Nothing changed about their job duties, though. In a few instances, after that switch, the employers couldn't hire the candidates they wanted who had the experience they wanted, because the candidates didn't have that newly-required MA.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Excellent post. It should never cost somebody tens of thousands of dollars to prove base competence.
