How tech’s outdated reliance on college degrees hinders workplace DEI

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How tech’s outdated reliance on college degrees hinders workplace DEI

By LaShana Lewis

The story of technological advancement in the United States over the past half-century is famously full of college dropouts. It’s no secret that Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs built their tech empires after dropping out of college. Indeed, it’s often cited as a point of pride that they didn’t need a diploma to prove they could do the job.?

Their stories are often held up as proof that you don’t need a bachelor’s degree to get ahead. But if that’s the case, why do so many STEM jobs still require them amid talent shortages that show no signs of abating anytime soon? Why are these tech pioneers without degrees still seen as exceptions to the rule??

STEM occupations have for too long overly relied on college degrees in predictable and disappointing ways. Workers in STEM roles—especially in science and engineering—are far more likely than those in non-STEM jobs to hold a bachelor’s degree or other secondary degree. And job postings for STEM roles frequently call for four years of college, regardless of whether workers have the demonstrated skills to do those jobs—and despite the fact that many of the fastest-growing industries in the field (e.g., artificial intelligence) are evolving too quickly for college curricula to keep up. Although there’s evidence that suggests degree requirements are being relaxed across multiple middle- and higher-wage jobs, research from Opportunity@Work has found that between December 2022 and March 2023, more than half of the 1.7 million jobs posted for STEM roles required at least a bachelor’s degree.

This ongoing reliance on college degrees is especially troubling because there’s a better solution right in front of us.?

I’m one of more than 70 million STARs, workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes rather than through bachelor’s degrees, who make up half of the U.S. workforce (hardly exceptions to the rule!). STARs are adults who have earned their skills through pathways like community college, training and education programs, military service, partial college completion, and on-the-job experience. We are already succeeding in these roles when given the opportunity—and could do so at scale if employers gave us a fair shot.

HELP STARS SHINE

Importantly, STARs also make up the majority of many worker populations that face disproportionate barriers to economic advancement, including 55% of Hispanic workers, 66% of rural workers, 61% of veterans, and nearly two-thirds of all Black workers in the country. By one estimate, close to half of STARs have the skills to take jobs that pay them as much as 70% more than they currently earn. But these workers have been systematically locked out by policies that favor degrees—the paper ceiling that values pedigree over potential.

I’m one of those success stories who finally tore the paper ceiling after years of being systematically excluded from the tech world. When I was 10, I could take apart a Commodore 64 and put it back together again. In college, I learned several programming languages before I had to drop out in my senior year. I thought that would be enough to land me some sort of an entry-level computer job.?

I was wrong. Without a college degree, I couldn’t even get an interview, much less a job working with computers. I ended up taking on tech tasks at the series of low-wage, dead-end jobs I managed to get. My big break came after I discovered LaunchCode , a nonprofit that supplemented my existing tech training for free and most importantly, helped place me in a tech apprenticeship at a financial services company that later hired me full time as a systems engineer. I went on to become the chief technology officer at one company and an IT director at another before starting my own consulting firm.

My story has been a happy one. But matching millions of skilled and talented workers with career-launching and family-sustaining jobs should not be a matter of good fortune. It should be a matter of policy and practice so millions more STARs can shine.?

To make that happen, federal, state, and local policymakers should remove barriers where they can. New Jersey , North Carolina , and Alaska are the latest states to remove degree requirements for certain public sector jobs. The governors of New Jersey and Utah recently called on their peers to follow their example. Policymakers should also support and invest in training, education, and other programs that can prepare and connect STARs to companies in the market for talent.?

Companies have a leadership role to play as well, of course. They must open more jobs to STARs and eliminate automated résumé screens that lock out candidates who don’t check a very specific set of boxes. They must invest in talent-development partners to both find STARs in their communities and upskill STARs in their existing workforce for their next job in the organization. And they should work together with other firms where it makes sense, following the example of OneTen , a coalition of more than 60 businesses that have pledged to hire 1 million Black STARs for family-sustaining jobs in their companies.

It’s easy to get caught up in the life stories of the founders of Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft. They’re compelling dramas of risk-takers who, against some incredibly long odds, came up with great ideas at the right time, worked hard, and found tremendous wealth and success. Too often, however, we do not use these stories to make the case that there are more paths to success than the bachelor’s degree.?

That’s a shame, because we should. American workers who don’t possess a bachelor’s degree aren’t unconventional or nontraditional like the founders of some of the world’s biggest tech companies. Today, they are the norm.?

STARs are an enormous slice of the American workforce. They are extraordinary. And they have been needlessly excluded from opportunities and advancement for far too long. So the next time businesses bemoan the talent shortage, they should consider why they’re keeping STARs on the sidelines—and change their practices to help millions more workers write their own stories of the American Dream.

LaShana Lewis is chair of Opportunity@Work ’s STARs advisory council, working to increase opportunities for skilled workers who don’t have a college degree. She is also founder and CEO of L.M. Lewis Consulting , specializing in diversity, technology, and nonprofit consulting services.

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