Do Degrees and Credentials Actually Prove Competence at Work?

For the past month, I have been wrestling with questions that have yet to yield clear and satisfactory answers. For one, should an academic degree be considered a prerequisite for gainful employment? And is the labor market destined to rely exclusively—if at all—on academia as its primary job-training mechanism? Though not easily resolvable, these questions have become top of mind for many public and private employers, who are now compelled to confront and seek answers to them. 

Isaac Windes, a reporter for the San Antonio Report, observes that “starved for skilled labor, employers across Texas are looking to higher education institutions to produce more workers.” 

Texas leaders seem to believe that colleges and universities should serve as workforce pipelines, a sentiment echoed by Harrison Keller, president of the University of North Texas. To wit, “We need many, many more people educated to higher standards than we’ve ever achieved before.” Keller emphasizes that the emergence of artificial intelligence and automation is driving up demand for workers specializing in fields like computer science and engineering. (Allegedly, graduates are already in relatively short supply in these fields, but it’s worth noting that American students graduating with degrees in these fields are set to face fierce competition from H-1B workers, often paid a fraction of what American graduates expect). 

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Yet, outside of Texas, state leaders are advancing in a decidedly different direction. 

Maryland, Colorado, Utah, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina are among the states that have eliminated degree requirements for (some) state jobs, opting instead to prioritize skills over credentials. This recently adopted “skills-over-credentials” philosophy aligns with growing skepticism toward higher education—fueled in no small part by its declining reputation, thanks to political extremism, legislative defiance, and obsessions over “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives.

Many employers report dissatisfaction with Gen Z graduates, who often struggle—or refuse—to meet workplace expectations, embracing an “I am a victim” mentality instilled by their university mentors. In response, employers are firing their Gen Z college grads in droves. But this knee-jerk reaction raises a larger concern: from what remaining demographic pool can employers find genuinely competent employees?

The conflicting assessments of higher education’s role in society seem irreconcilable. So, I reached out to Keller for a broader and deeper perspective. I bluntly voiced my concerns, which added yet another layer of complexity to the ongoing debate about the relationship between colleges, universities, and the labor market: “”It seems degrees have become artificial barriers to entry rather than true prerequisites for many careers.”

Keller acknowledged my concern and its implications but insisted that skill-based hiring is not presently happening at scale. “It’s more challenging for employers to assess individuals’ skills, and … other things being equal, it seems most employers prefer both skills and postsecondary credentials.” He pointed out that data still suggest that credentialed individuals earn more and have better employment outcomes. However, he equally emphasized the need for stronger partnerships between educators and employers to ensure students graduate equipped with optimal shares of, respectively, scholastic credentials and practical skills.

Do Degrees and Credentials Actually Prove Competence at Work?

— Jared Gould (@J_Gould_) February 24, 2025

I have witnessed firsthand what these educator/employer partnerships can look like. 

In 2018, while interning for Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant and later contracting for Mississippi’s State Workforce Investment Board, I observed an effort to bring educators and employers together to shape curricula designed to produce job-ready graduates. 

At the time, it seemed like a promising approach. However, in retrospect, I question whether these partnerships truly improved the alignment of education with workforce needs or, more likely, contributed to an already existing bureaucratic morass. Aside from the introduction of computer science and trade programs in Mississippi high schools, it’s difficult to identify any tangible improvements in higher education’s alignment with workforce demands. For instance, the liberal arts programs at my alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, appear to have made no significant updates to the curriculum. As a result, the connection between, say, a history degree—which I earned—and tangible workforce needs seems tenuous at best. This is even true for STEM programs. One of my five brothers has told me that his engineering education taught him little about what he actually does during his externships. Moreover, the primary beneficiaries of these partnerships seemed to be third-party nonprofits that secured taxpayer-funded grants to offer so-called credential services or employers who received subsidies to train workers they would have trained in the normal course of their duties anyway.

And as for credentials themselves, I have developed serious doubts about their true value in gauging competency.

Consider this: I’m not only the managing editor of Minding the Campus but have also worked as a Salesforce administrator since 2019. (For those unfamiliar, Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform that businesses use to track sales and customer data. Nonprofits, in particular, rely on it to manage donations, event registrations, and segmented email lists. Salesforce also offers training and certification programs for those looking to become certified administrators, developers, and more.)

Despite successfully performing this job for years, I don’t hold a Salesforce administrator certificate. Two years ago, hoping to increase my earning potential, I took the administrator certification exam—only to find that it had little relevance to the actual work I’d been doing since 2019. It didn’t assess real-world skills or problem-solving, nor did it allow time to research or experiment. It felt like a science exam that tests your ability to memorize the periodic table when you could just look it up. I failed, saw no reason to retake it, and haven’t. Yet, I’m still consulting for the same company and successfully managing its Salesforce platform.

This exposes a big problem: someone with a credential but no real experience can land a higher-paying job over a more skilled but uncertified worker—like me. And since the exam doesn’t actually test real-world problem-solving, a certified Salesforce administrator might still struggle with certain tasks, ultimately resorting to the same trial-and-error approach I use—experimenting and researching to find solutions.

I asked Keller whether Texas education leaders plan to align credentialing exams more closely with real-world skills and whether educators are concerned that these exams truly assess the practical knowledge needed in the field. He did not respond to that question.

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But he did acknowledge the crisis in student preparedness. “We need to maintain high standards,” he said, “but we also need to meet students where they are.” He pointed to internships as a solution, noting that major employers in his region often hire their interns.

Yet this raises another dilemma: If internships are the true pathway to employment, why bother with higher education at all? Why not just hire the best interns? That’s exactly how I got into Salesforce consulting—I never set foot in a Salesforce classroom; I proved my ability on the job.

Clearly, there’s a disconnect between academic credentials and real job marketability. The question is how we address it. Do we rethink credentials? Restructure education? Urge employers to drop degree requirements? I’m not sure yet, but whatever the solution, the consequences will be significant for students, workers, and employers alike.

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Image: MichaelJBerlin — Adobe Stock — Asset ID#: 136949363