Employers require degrees because the degree is considered a proxy for skills, knowledge, or ability. Managers don’t have time to vet every candidate thoroughly, so they depend on this institutional stand-in for a value judgment. It borders on irresponsible, but they do it. Some of the time, it works. But, understanding why they rely on degrees in the selection process should help you address what they really want: Proof you can do the work and proof that you have the sophistication to grow in the job.
. . .
Resumes and degrees are not always valid indicators of ability to do a job. So, help employers by giving them other ways to judge you. No one says this is easy — sometimes you have to be clever. I know one guy who followed a manager to a professional conference, chatted him up, talked shop, and got an interview and an offer. This shared personal experience tops any formal credentials — but it’s a lot of work. It should be. Managers are sometimes foolish to hire based on a piece of paper, or on a sheepskin — because candidates who deliver credentials can’t always do the job.

No College Degree, No Problem, by Nick Corcodilos (emphasis added)

Every manager today can attest to the truth of this statement: “candidates who deliver credentials can’t always do the job.”

Community colleges are one of America’s incredible resources for adults. Check out the courses available at your community college. And for goodness sake do NOT borrow money to attend school.

What is going on? And what can we do about it? McKinsey argues persuasively that a big part of the problem is that educators and employers operate in parallel universes—and that a big part of the solution lies in bringing these two universes together: obliging educators to step into employers’ shoes, employers to step into educators’, and students to move between the two.

The best way to do this is to revamp vocational education, which outside the German-speaking world has been treated as the ginger stepchild of the education system. Governments have poured money into universities. Universities have competed to sing their own praises. As a result, parents and their offspring have shunned vocational schools: many students surveyed by McKinsey chose to go to academic schools despite thinking that vocational ones would give them more chance of finding work.

The great mismatch: Skills shortages are getting worse even as youth unemployment reaches record highs

U.S. Community Colleges by State – Univ. of TX

List of community colleges – Wikipedia

“It’s an extraordinary opportunity for a woman out of vo-tech school being given a job so quickly,” [Keith Hammond, welding teacher at Cumberland Perry Area Vocational Tech School] said. “Her TIG welding skill got her this job.”

But for [Molly] Soule, the confidence she gained while attending CPVTS proved most valuable.

“Vo-tech is such a wonderful opportunity, even if you don’t know what you want to do,” she said. “It gives you so much confidence and so many skills that you can use in life. It’s really a great thing.”

Perry County welder takes one giant leap for womankind

Ozymandias

Mockery, truculence, and minimalist living are best, then enjoy the decline. We also need a Revolving Door Tax (RDT).