Due to the rising costs of college, some American students are beginning to wonder if a college degree is really worth it. But many students trod the college path anyway, fearing that employers won’t glance at their resume without a B.A. 

Fortunately for students in the U.K., some companies are beginning to recognize the folly of such a move. According to The Telegraph, the Penguin book company has announced that a college degree is no longer a prerequisite for applying for one of its jobs.

This follows the announcement that U.K. recruiting giant, Ernst & Young, is removing its degree classification system from the application process. Their reason? “[T]here is ‘no evidence’ success at university correlates with achievement in later life.”     

Telegraph columnist Candida Crewe frames such moves as a breath of fresh air, particularly as she’s not encouraging her own sons to go to college. Although an Oxford Literary Fellow herself, Crewe never attended college, relying instead on her own ingenuity, intelligence, and hard work to achieve success. Based on observations of friends and other students, Crewe finds many degrees to be not worth the money students spend:

“The world order is changing by the minute and our old-fashioned views about education have to evolve to keep up. More so than ever before, fulfilled and successful people appear from every possible direction and a degree, whilst still a jolly good show, seems an expensive way of marking time – a guarantee of nothing.”

More frequently we hear of American employers discovering that their new hires are ill-prepared for the workforce, in spite of impressive college credentials. But if some American companies were to follow in Penguin’s footsteps and nix their degree requirements, is it possible that they might discover more intelligent, hard-working applicants for their workforce? Is it time to recognize that a college degree does not necessarily guarantee a good employee?

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