Going Beyond Degrees: Where We Stand, and Where We’re Headed

At this year’s ASU+GSV event, we made it a priority to “go big” on promoting the idea of moving beyond degrees as the only indicator of a person’s career readiness. And for good reason. The workforce is changing. Young people’s needs and goals are changing. And, higher education itself is changing. I got together for a lightning round with Aisha Francis, Ph.D. of Franklin Cummings Tech , Chad Rountree of Propel America , and Reuben Ogbonna II of The Marcy Lab School , moderated by Joel Vargas of Jobs for the Future (JFF) to explore what it means to go “beyond degrees” and why this is a vitally important topic today. Here are some of the things we discussed.?

Reuben set the stage for the discussion by sharing his story. He found the motivation to co-found Marcy Lab School – billed as an “alternative to college” that focuses on skills and networking – during his time working as a teacher. He shared the story of seeing countless kids with potential and passion who, “weren’t getting what we promised them out of this college dream we had been selling them since kindergarten.”

Why not??

“I looked at the landscape. It seemed like college was the only option they were told about. We kept seeing students going down this track because there was just nothing better that existed.”?

Chad emphasized that this story was (and still is) playing out all across America, impacting millions of young people with boundless potential who deserve better than a one-size-fits-all dream. He explained that it is impacting 13 million young adults ages 18-24 who are effectively blocked out of “good” jobs, but who truly deserve to be able to find and build their dream. Yet, at the same time there is a vast array of really good jobs in all sectors sitting open, which employers are struggling to fill. It’s a senseless conundrum, and one that can be readily fixed by crushing the notion that college is the only viable pathway, and replacing it with a focus on skills and work-based learning experiences that start at a younger age. Chad Roundtree summarized this brilliantly: “At Propel America, we are driven by a fundamental belief. These labor market challenges are not the result of talent scarcity. Talent exists. Rather this is a systems design challenge that is implicating K-12, higher ed, and industry. It is impacting young people who are unfortunately shouldering the burden of this pain.”?

To be clear, the answer isn’t cutting colleges out of the picture. Higher education is and will continue to be a core part of the landscape that we need to get more young people inspired, skilled, connected, and ready to work. It’s about rethinking postsecondary education—including college—to be more inclusive, skills-focused, and to be part of the solution instead of creating additional barriers for those who already face so many in their lives.

Aisha Francis illustrated this powerfully, explaining the work she does at Benjamin Franklin Cummings Tech. “We’re trying to change things from the inside out.” In addition to offering technical and vocational education to students from all backgrounds, her institution helps employers see the benefit in, “taking a shot on people who are not their typical employees. We are doing this work in the context in which most of our students wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves to be college-bound. We’re feeding them into the apparatus of higher education through early college and through certificate programs.” The results of BFCT’s work speak for themselves: “We have an 85% job placement rate and students are earning twice their entire household income when they graduate.”

I weighed in on the policy side of going beyond college, explaining the important work being done behind the scenes to open up more pathways to more students. For example, there are policy initiatives that aim to ensure students who pursue nondegree pathways can receive the funding they may need to complete their education through things like Pell Grants. And, organizations like ASA are working to see more states engaging in and promoting skills-based hiring while changing the public perception of nondegree pathways. I explained the “chicken and egg” dynamic at play. In other words, we need to figure out how to change employers’ hiring practices and perceptions of nondegree credentials, while simultaneously helping students and parents see that, no, a college degree is not the only viable credential a person can get that will unlock a good job. But, perception changes have to happen in tandem – in schools, homes, and workplaces. And, vitally, there’s work to be done supporting counselors, schools, and helping students understand what they want to do in the world and what they don’t want to do while narrowing their future decisions at a much earlier age.?

For more on the evolving landscape of nondegree pathways, and the beliefs and attitudes of critical stakeholders in the conversation—including students, parents, teachers, and business leaders—I encourage you to check out ASA’s collaborative research with Jobs for the Future (JFF):

• “Degrees of Risk” — findings from a survey of Gen Z and employers to set a baseline of where we are today, and name the barriers we must overcome to expand high-quality postsecondary options for all learners.
• “Success, Redefined” — insights from a poll of young adults who are not pursuing a four-year degree that helps us understand the motivations, circumstances, influencers, priorities, and satisfaction level of today’s “non-college youth.”
• “Beyond Degrees” — a perspective scan focused on the beliefs and attitudes of young people, their parents, and their teachers toward nondegree pathways.

You can watch our entire panel discussion here. ?