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The tight labor market has had some recruiters and hiring managers feeling a bit like those canvassing on busy downtown blocks asking strangers if they have a minute to talk about X, Y, or Z. Companies have responded by considering new ways to get butts in seats, and now lawmakers are on the case.
The business community’s embrace of skills- and cert-based hiring practices is growing, reversing a decades-long trend of adding degree requirements to job descriptions. And the emphasis on alternative career pathways also has support in the halls of the US Capitol.
House Republicans last week introduced a bill that would open federal Pell Grants, previously only available to college undergraduates, to students looking to enroll in skills-based education programs.
The Promoting Employment and Lifelong Learning (PELL) Act—sponsored by Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik and House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, among others—amends the Higher Education Act to include qualified, short-term programs as eligible for a “Workforce Pell Grant.”
Approved programs would be determined by the Education Department, and the agency would also collect and publish data on costs, enrollment, and completion and job-placement rates.
If passed, more students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds will have access to Pell funding in order to participate in educational programs other than traditional two- and four-year colleges and universities.
“There’s been, going back to the 1960s…this growing narrative in the United States that you’ve got to go to college to make it in America, which is a pretty bracing message to the 60% of 18-year-olds who will never go to college,” Harvard Business Professor Joseph Fuller told HR Brew in October.
As employers across industries struggle to find qualified workers, proponents of the bill say additional financial aid opportunities for workers will increase the number of candidates competing for roles in sectors like tech, as well as manufacturing, construction, transportation, and health sciences, according to an email from Education and Workforce Committee Communications Director Audra McGeorge.
Some 72% of employers don’t see college degrees as a reliable tool to assess candidates’ skills, but 52% still hire from degree programs because they consider them “less risky,” according to a September 2022 survey by American Student Assistance and Jobs for the Future.
If employers remove degree requirements from jobs, they gain access to a more diverse pool of skilled candidates, and applicants who did not attend college gain access to higher wages and professional mobility that’s been traditionally reserved for those with degrees, according to research from Opportunity@Work.
Lawmakers want to make sure the federal government also has access to skills- and cert-trained workers, too. Earlier this week, the House passed a bipartisan bill opening roles to skills- and competency-based hiring practices at the federal government. The Chance to Compete Act gives “subject matter experts” room to develop skills tests and interview candidates to assess their qualifications. That bill builds on the efforts from both the Trump and Biden administrations to expand the candidate pools for alternative candidates.—AD