Organizational Changes: Moving from College-Degree Attainment-Based Hiring to a Skills-Based Approach

1^st
section – Synthesize literature/research to define
the context of the organizational changes taking place resulting in the
movement away from college-degree attainment-based hiring to a skills-based
approach.  Highlight how sectors differ based on their openness to this
change, the pace of change, and the rationales provided for making such
changes. Select and research a few sectors (eg. tech, manufacturing,
professional services, public sector) to compare and contrast the variations in
change. Provide some synthesis of the literature on the emerging trends,
models, innovations, and approaches to strength and skills-based hiring.

2^nd
section –  Review
and synthesize theories behind credential or degree-attainment-based hiring. Outline
a few key theories in this section including human capital theory, signaling
theory, and networking effect.  Articulate how these theories help to
explain firm/organization incentives that drive the use of credential based
hiring. Use these theories to engage in a discussion of the incentives and
disincentives of skills-based approaches for firms – relating it to the search
and matching costs related to recruitment and hiring when it comes to
frictional unemployment and the skilling costs related to structural
unemployment.

3^rd section
–  Engage in a
discussion of credentialling in higher education – using Randall Collins’s book
“The Credential Society” as a central reading (it has been cited 6500
times so you can find many additional sources just by viewing who is citing
this book on google scholar).   Review and synthesis of literature on
the trends in higher education – especially literature on increased costs that
may be driving organizations to think differently about these credentials in
their hiring decisions.