If you think employers are over the college degree status quo, think again, as Goodwill’s CEO, Steve Preston, reveals that a number of hiring managers are still seeking degreed employees over those with pertinent skills, Fortune reports.
In early 2025, reports came out that companies were actively eliminating degree job requirements for employment. A survey found that 84% of 1,000 participating hiring managers admitted to removing degree requirements as a positive, reporting an uptick in applications, a more diverse applicant pool, and being able to offer lower salaries.
Fortune 500 employers such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple have eliminated degree requirements, with some hiring managers suggesting a complete dump by the end of 2025, but Preston says that’s not the full story. The CEO says it’s difficult for leaders to have control over interviews, leaving a full range to hiring managers to hire based on degrees over skills. “Right now, employers are consistently saying they want to hire for skills, not necessarily degrees,” Preston said.
“But the proof is in the pudding. Not everybody does it. What I hear from a lot of people is, yeah, the top says we need to do this, but when it gets to the hiring professionals, it doesn’t always trickle down.”
The former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development believes the concept will make it much harder for the newest addition to the working class — Gen Z — to find stable jobs, which will add to the growing unemployment crisis, especially for young men. The demographic is being labeled as “NEETs,” an acronym for “not in employment, education, or training.” Data from the International Labour Organization found that 1 in 5 young people globally falls into the category, while in the U.S., the number jumps to roughly 11.2% of young adults.
However, Preston has a theory on why hiring managers are dialing back on their promise, saying there is a sense that those with degrees come with a certain foundation deemed “valuable.” “I think when somebody comes out with a four-year degree from college, there’s a certain sense that that person has a foundation that will be valuable in the workplace, and there’s a suspicion that if somebody hasn’t done that, they may be lacking some core skills,” he said.
His advice to those who may seem outnumbered but are still seeking stable employment in corporate America is to showcase those skills in other instances, such as volunteering. “Employers have to be able to see that many of those capabilities are acquired in different ways,” the Goodwill leader said.
Preston has been vocal about the state of corporate culture, even adding his two cents about where A.I. is headed — or not — in the workforce. According to WebProNews, he opened up about his concerns about A.I. taking down the lower-level employee, warning that it could eliminate youth unemployment. After more than two million potential employees took advantage of Goodwill’s employment services in 2024, Preston feels that with automation, the number will expand after entry-level jobs slowly disappear.
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