Pres Trump to make Federal Jobs More Accessible to Those Without Degrees

Good for those seeking employment and bad for those whose business is related to education.

Bloomberg Law: Federal Jobs to Be More Accessible to Those Without Degrees (June 26, 2020)

For the TL;DR-impaired:

Executive Order to be implemented within six months
Two-thirds of Americans don’t have college degrees
The government has about 2.1 million civilian workers, making it the largest employer in the U.S.
Only about 6% of federal workers are under the age of 30
Could help the government recruit younger employees who don’t have the educational backgrounds that are currently required for government jobs.
"Hiring should be based primarily on talent and not on arbitrary educational requirements," said White House adviser and first daughter Ivanka Trump.

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Comments

DatabaseHead

Thanks for sharing JD, good move by the President. I always cringed at all these smart IT professionals on here going back to school to get a degree in their 30s and 40s when they were doing great..... The glass ceiling forcing them into doing something they didn't want....

Nevertheless good to hear.

stryder144

I think it will still take many years before the educational bias is really gone or at least diminished enough to make a real difference. It may not show up on fed job reqs but I think it will still be a case of "if I had to have one to get my job, you need to have one, too".

jayc71

Highly talented IT pros can make a lot more money as a govt contractor than as a govt employee. The only reason I see to go gov is for resume fodder.

AverageJoe

jayc71 said:

Highly talented IT pros can make a lot more money as a govt contractor than as a govt employee. The only reason I see to go gov is for resume fodder.

While you're definitely right that you can make more money as a govt contractor, a lot of govt contractors seek out govt employment for stability and job security, plus health, retirement, and time off benefits, and promotion/advancement potential.

JDMurray

The relaxing of degree requirements is not without its disadvantages. Degrees and certification help hiring managers determine which candidates might be qualified for a position before actually interviewing them. To get an interview, candidates with resumes that lack these distinctions require their described work history to more closely match what a hiring manager is looking for. Therefore, a descriptive and clearly-written resume is even more important for people that don't have eye-catching degrees and certs to appetize a hiring manager's interest.

Azazello

Two-thirds of Americans don’t have college degrees

As calculated per 2015 U.S. Census data: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p20-578.pdf

I personally accept that the percentage is actually lower than 33, i.e. there's 'over-reporting' of degree attainment on the census. Think about it-- degree-holders are not going to lie that they don't have a degree!

But if we go with 30%, that means that for every 9 people you meet (include yourself to make it 10), 7 of them don't have a bachelor or higher degree.

Explains alot about our society.

Still, I do agree that breaking the stone-wall of degree bias for the govt jobs is a good thing, given the current realities.

jasper_zanjani

That's great that hiring requirements are being relaxed but... were you guys really going to suspend your careers for years and decades by not getting a degree, if that's all that kept you from your goals? you guys have signatures containing 3 consecutive generations of Windows Server certifications but you weren't going to get a 4 year degree from college? college is not THAT bad