As a consumer of higher education, the business world continues to make demands on institutions to produce graduates with competence that matches employment needs. Sadly, business leaders often view graduates of higher education as better prepared for the industrial age labor market than the globally connected world of today (Davidson, 2013; Flynn, 2004). Despite the growing gap between desired employee skills and the capabilities of new college graduates, employers increasingly use educational credentials as a substitute to measure competence. The business community increasingly believes professionals need post-secondary credentials to fill a growing number of positions. Regardless of this perception, potential employees may develop the competence employers seek outside of the traditional classroom through result of work experience. Good grades do not necessarily correlate to good employees. Degree completion does not effectively communicate the skills of graduates to prospective employees. However, evidence from several studies supports the premise that education can increase an individual’s productivity (Arena, 2013; Cai, 2013; Xiu, 2013; Yuzhuo, 2013).

In the 1940s, fewer than half of the working population held college degrees. By the 1970s, the number of workers in professional and technical jobs who held a degree rose. In 2008, more than two-thirds of employees in professional and technical jobs held degrees (Bankston, 2011). Because employees holding advanced degrees demonstrate higher aptitude in the workplace, employers increasingly use educational credentials as a substitute to measuring competence. As the number of degreed employees increases, so does employer beliefs that the workforce requires post-secondary credentials. In the last three decades, the number of jobs requiring a degree or certification increased by over 800%. Jobs that once required only experience or some technical training now require degrees and additional certification. As the number of degreed employees increases, jobs that once required only experience or a demonstration of competence now require a degree or other credential.

Colleges and universities provide a formal education with the end goal for most participants being an earned credential. Such credentials support the self-promoting belief of the business world that post-secondary credentials are necessary (Cai, 2013;Yuzhuo, 2013). However, most traditional programs of higher education continue to design programs with little regard to the vocational needs of graduates (Austin, Mellow, Rosin, & Seltzer,2012). As the number of degreed employees grows, business needs and expectations must be considered in program design. Many colleges and universities question the incorporation of workforce skills into the academic curriculum. The increased influence of business in higher education blurs the lines between academia and vocational expectations.

University students earn credentials through an accumulation of credit hours in a given discipline. The credit hour measures how much time students spend in class rather than the students’ knowledge, acquired skills, or preparation to participate in the labor market. Universities award credit hours indiscriminate of students demonstrating the ability to do well on exams or producing quality work (Schneider, 2012). Despite the standard that one credit equals one hour of class time and two hours of work outside of class per semester, credits do not provide a universal measure of education. If such a measure were universal, credits would be equivalent and transferable across all institutions.

So credit, credential, or competency? What best predicts the potential success of a new employee? The credit hour structure awards credit to students based on hours of seat-time rather than mastery of key objectives, accumulation of learned skills, or demonstration of competencies. Because of enhanced productivity of degreed employees, business leaders subscribe to the belief that credentials represent employee preparedness to competitively perform in the business market. The Carnegie Institute calls for a reevaluation and a redefining of the credit hour to reflect course-related work and student ability rather than seat-time. The needs of the twenty-first-century student and the globalization of business require a more definitive measure of student learning.

Anna Wills, M. Ed.
Doctoral Student, Doctorate in Leadership Program, Hardin-Simmons University
Gifted & Talented and Dyslexia Coordinator, Castleberry ISD
Castleberry, Texas
Anna.I.Wills@hsutx.edu; awills76@gmail.com

References

Arena, M. (2013). The crisis in credit and the rise of non-credit. Innovative Higher Education, 38, 369-381.

Austin, J.T., Mellow, G.O., Rosin, M., & Seltzer, M. (2012). Portable, stackable credentials: A new education model for industry-specific career pathways. McGraw-Hill Research Foundation.

Bankston, C. (2011). The mass production of credentials: Subsidies and the rise of the higher education industry. The Independent Review, 15(3), 325-349.

Cai, Y. Y. (2013). Graduate employability: a conceptual framework for understanding employers’ perceptions. Higher Education, 65(4), 457-469.

Davidson, C. (2013). Why higher education demands a paradigm shift: Who has access to knowledge making?. Public Culture, 26(1), 3-11.

Flynn, W. J. (2004). The case for revitalizing the traditional academic transcript. Community College Journal, 74(5), 27-30.

Schneider, C. G. (2012). Is it finally time to kill the credit hour?  Liberal Education, 98(4), 2-3.

Xiu, L. & Gunderson, M. (2013). Credential Effects and the Returns to Education in China. Labour: Review Of Labour Economics And Industrial Relations, (2), 225.

Yuzhuo, C. (2013). Graduate employability: A conceptual framework for understanding employers’ perceptions. High Education, 65, 457-469.