I'm going to company my post below from another thread to this thread as I believe it to be applicable here.
The other thread was discussing the possibility of getting rid of the requirement for medical doctors to have an undergraduate degree before going on to study medicine. This is simply part of a larger problem in at least the U.S., I can't speak intelligently about other countries. That problem being that an undergraduate degree has become not necessarily necessary in order to perform certain jobs but instead a sorting tool for companies.
It wasn't that long ago where it wasn't unusual, at least where I live, for companies to employ people as engineers who didn't have a college degree in engineering but had demonstrated keen ability in their field of engineering. Most companies these days don't allow that anymore, the degree in the field of employment is a requirement for being hired.
No doubt the internet has done amazing things and provided us with opportunities that never existed prior to it's wide spread use. In the market, it lets the world become our customers......on the other hand, it also allows the world to become our competitors.
It used to be that when a new job was available, a company would post it in the local and perhaps most popular read state wide newspaper, that was the extent of who knew about the job opening. Now, the newspaper is generally ignored and anyone in the world can look at the help wanted ad posted online. That creates a huge amount of competition for a new position opening. That's of course a good thing from the perspective of the company, however, they need a way to start sorting out candidates. An undergraduate degree is often that first measuring stick to begin the process or sorting....and why not? One with an undergraduate degree has demonstrated at least SOME ability to stick with it and complete a task, they have demonstrated the ability to learn, and it's a fair bet they had to complete quite a few assignments in groups. It doesn't though, mean they'll be a good employee or that their degree is needed to accomplish the job.
This has created a situation where companies are using a very expensive means for the job seeker as a basic sorting method making that sometimes unneeded means an expensive requirement with little application to show for it after the initial sorting process.
So how do we remedy that? Good question. I'm going to have to chew on that one for a while. One thing is for sure though, if we can figure out a way for companies to stop using unnecessary and expensive undergraduate degrees as a measuring stick to interview for a position, that will cut down on the amount of people who are in college debt.
