Trump’s Legacy For Students and Workers: Shifting Focus From ‘Degrees’ to ‘Skills’ – Ed Surge
About 36 percent of Americans age 25 and older have earned at least a bachelor’s degree. They’re less likely to be unemployed and more likely to earn more money than people who have completed less, or no, postsecondary education. For a long time, these realities have made a college credential seem like one of the most promising pathways to career and financial security, despite the barriers and potholes that sometimes mar that road.
But should it really be a diploma that points the way to opportunity, or the skills that diploma (supposedly) signifies? What if people could get those skills without going to college? What if, thanks to their own experiences, they’ve already got them?
These questions have been at the heart of the Trump administration’s approach to workforce development. Over the past four years, the White House created a pledge to grow non-college training programs for American workers, issued an executive order directing the government to reduce the use of minimum education requirements for filling federal job opportunities, and convened a policy advisory board that is developing new ways to record worker competencies.