By Rebecca L. Watts
In April, Gov. Phil Murphy directed New Jersey’s civil service commission to identify jobs that require college degrees to see if hiring guidelines can be revised to emphasize practical experience over degree attainment. The move is aligned with national hiring trends in the private and government sectors, with examples of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and the federal government already making similar pronouncements.
In a letter sent to governors as chair of the National Governors Association, Murphy wrote “…a four-year degree is not the only way – or even the best way – to demonstrate competence…Communities of color and rural residents are particularly disadvantaged by degree requirements, which shut out 76% of Black adults, 83% of Latino adults, and 75% of rural residents.”
The conversation about the return on investment of higher education is long overdue. For starters, student debt still looms as a national crisis. More than 43 million Americans owe a combined $1.75 trillion in federal and private student costs. Two generations of employees, millennials and Gen Zers, worry that they will never be able to afford a home or retire due to crushing student debt levels.
The executive order also tackles a workforce bottleneck. According to a 2022 McKinsey & Company report, New Jersey’s talent gap grew 7% each year from 2010 to 2019 and then saw great acceleration since the pandemic. In 2022, New Jersey had about 275,00 unfilled positions, and the lack of a postsecondary degree is cited as one main factor contributing to this gap.
The governor’s action brings hope, removing a barrier for skilled people who were shut out of thriving wage jobs because they did not have a particular degree. According to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey covering the five-year period ending in 2021, a majority of New Jerseyans (58%) age 25 and older have no bachelor’s degree. They can now benefit from a change in focus to skills-specific requirements.
There’s no doubt that in the long term, a college degree will continue to be a worthwhile pursuit. The 2020 median income for residents of New Jersey with a bachelor’s degree was approximately $67,800 compared to a median income of $35,500 for high school graduates without a college degree. These income and opportunity gaps compound annually and span generations.
One thing is clear: to remain relevant, the higher education sector must adapt to new realities. To this end, nonprofit, accredited Western Governors University (WGU) leads the Open Skills Network (OSN), a coalition of employers, education providers, policymakers, military, non-profits, and other stakeholders dedicated to advancing skills-based education and hiring.
The mission includes workforce development efforts like skills mapping to ensure our graduates have the skills employers need by aligning curricula closely with what hiring managers actually need. OSN partners are working together to create a national system of competency-based education, which measures skills and subject knowledge rather than time spent in a classroom. Each student individually progresses through courses as soon as they can prove they have mastered the material.
The flexibility of this approach means that students are able to work full-time while also acquiring skills for a future job at a pace that is best for them. This approach benefits both workers and employers by saving time and money and developing a more diverse workforce that meets the needs of our modern economy.
We stand at a crossroads in terms of how we develop talent for our workforce. New Jersey is facing a skills gap worse than neighboring states, leading to shortfalls in qualified employees in a wide range of critical fields, including cybersecurity, education, and manufacturing, among others.
I am heartened to see Governor Murphy change hiring practices for the Garden State to remain competitive in an increasingly global economy. His executive order allows a large population of skilled workers without college degrees to earn a living wage. And this, in turn, gives them the means to expand their career opportunities through competency-based education.
Weehawken resident Rebecca L. Watts, Ph.D., serves as a regional vice president for Western Governors University.
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