This archive report was first published on 5 August 2019.
Published on August 5, 2019, a survey by Upwork and Freelancers Union revealed a concerning trend: many college-educated freelancers are benefiting more from their skill training than their college training.
According to the survey, Freelancing in America 2018, only 79% of 6,001 US workers polled said their college education was useful to the work they were doing at the time.
Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel emphasized the importance of skills over degrees, stating, “the future of work won’t be about college degrees, it will be about job skills.”
As technology continues to disrupt the job market, it's becoming clear that traditional higher education may not be enough to secure a job. In fact, many graduates are not securing jobs despite their qualifications and are being forced to do things unrelated to their field of study.
With the adoption of artificial intelligence, many jobs that exist today will become obsolete, and new ones will emerge that don't yet exist. This means that students should focus on acquiring skills that will enable them to easily adapt to new job demands.
As Kasriel noted, “degrees are still thought of as lifelong stamps of professional competency. They tend to create a false sense of security, perpetuating the illusion that work — and the knowledge it requires — is static. It’s not.”
