"New Collar" workers commanding high salaries without a college degree

[bjl584]

Now hiring: 'New-collar' workers, no degree necessary (cnbc.com)

[ua_guy]

I see it in the broad category of "IT". I also think there's still a competitive advantage to holding a degree AND having a specialized, extra-curricular skillset or trade skill/cert. Employers still need people who have broad and polished skills.

[disneysteve]

I'm not sure this is really anything new. Vocational training has been around for a long time and has always been a great way to train for a specific field. That's entirely different than a college education, though, which is not about training for a particular job/field.

The article doesn't mention anything about advancement prospects for the "new collar" folks. I'm sure you can get a good job with a certification course of some sort but what happens from there? Can you climb the corporate ladder without a degree? Will they consider you for promotion to management or do they require a diploma for that? It likely varies from company to company but it's something to explore before you decide which route to take.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

vocational and technical jobs are in super high demand probably because people haven't been going into them. Very well paid and definitely worth seeing if you would enjoy it.

[disneysteve]

Another thing to think about is that many companies offer tuition reimbursement programs so you could get a job without a college degree but then use that program to work toward your degree. That happens a lot in the medical field. Lots of our medical assistants are full time with us but using tuition reimbursement to work through nursing school.

[Fishindude77]

I think employers are putting less emphasis on the need for a college degree and more emphasis on the individuals actual skills, knowledge and merit.
The degree doesn't mean a whole lot to many employers and a lot of the end users of the services provided.

[AnthonyAnderson]

I think that with each day diploma means less and less.
In the past, if was like a signal that a person is smart and has great skills, so everyone wanted to hire such a person. But now education is different. It's important for a person to have other skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, flexibility and so on. So it's not surprising that more and more job offers don't require a diploma ( not talking about medicine, legal sphere, etc). I went to university because my sphere of interest requires a full education, and I have no regrets. It's hard, of course, but I use different educational sources, and there is one accounting homework helper I use from time to time when I face difficulties. I chose my part, and yes, it's hard to be a student, it's expensive, but I think it's worth it.

[ua_guy]

Higher education still has plenty of value and one need to look no farther than the lifetime earnings of those with degrees, and those without. Some college education is still better than none, on the whole. It's important to look farther ahead than just getting hired somewhere, but also long-term prospects.

That said, undergrad degrees have become more common in general, and employers are becoming more realistic about requiring a degree to do a specific job and what it costs to hire highly educated people. And a lot of specialized training, specifically in IT, is no longer coming from colleges. It's coming from employer-developed programs. A computer science degree may be helpful in learning cybersecurity, but so is an English degree and a few years of networking experience which typically requires industry certs.

A lot of critical thinking and problem solving, flexibility and so on is developed in educational circles. For most people it's the first time they have to formally argue their points of view, learn to debate, and integrate other points of view meaningfully.