HR Leaders Prioritize Skills Over Degrees: A Shift in Hiring Practices

As noted by Fortune, 90% of HR leaders are seeking candidates without traditional college degrees, as they prioritize practical skills over formal education.

Faced with rapidly evolving workforce demands, recruiters are increasingly overlooking the «Education» section of resumes and instead focusing on candidates’ skill descriptions.

Around 90% of HR executives have confirmed that their organizations are experiencing a strong need to hire individuals who do not hold conventional higher education degrees. This was revealed in a survey conducted by ETS, which included responses from over 1,000 hiring decision-makers.

This trend likely stems from the fact that approximately 79% of HR professionals anticipate upcoming challenges in finding strong candidates for open positions.

On the flip side, workers are aware of this shift. About 81% of employees worldwide believe that by 2035, verified new skills will hold the same value as a university degree. «It’s not about replacing degrees, but about balancing them with real, demonstrable skills that enable individuals to remain employed and businesses to stay competitive,» states Michelle Froah, Global Marketing and Innovation Director at ETS.

Currently, employers are trying to broaden their candidate pool by focusing on individuals capable of performing the job regardless of their educational background. The prohibitive cost of higher education has also prompted hiring managers to reconsider their strategies, placing greater emphasis on abilities. This issue has become even more pressing with the advent of AI.

Many prominent business leaders, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky, have discussed skills as the future of hiring. A 2023 U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey revealed that 95% of executives and HR managers evaluate the work of unskilled candidates on par with that of degree holders.

Silicon Valley executives have long been skeptical of higher education. For example, Palantir CEO Peter Thiel offered a $100,000 scholarship to students who would drop out of college. Meanwhile, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg recently criticized the entire higher education system, claiming that college is no longer necessary to secure a job in the market. «I’m not convinced that college prepares people for the roles they need today,» he remarked.

It was previously reported that foreign companies have ramped up their recruitment of Russian IT specialists. By the end of 2024, they had hired around 5,000 employees—double the number from the previous year. The most active employers included Chinese companies like Huawei, Alibaba, and Tencent, as well as European firms like SAP and Delivery Hero, and American companies like Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI.

Meta Platforms*, along with its social networks Facebook** and Instagram**:
* — recognized as an extremist organization, its activities are banned in Russia;
** — are prohibited in Russia.