The job market has grown more complex in recent years, with workplace trends ebbing and receding with considerable unpredictability. One particularly noteworthy trend is that of skills-first hiring. Educational backgrounds and a solid employment trail are often touted as the most reliable tools for getting hired, but in 2025, there has been considerable debate over the value of a college degree. Young graduates have struggled to find work, with their degrees doing little to secure them a role as they were promised.
While this has been hard on workers, it appears that employers are rewriting the hiring playbook, adding addendums and notes in the margin on what could help employees make a better case for themselves. One of these changes suggests that many employers may soon prioritize non-degree skill certificates over degrees. What does this mean, and how does it affect the future of hiring?
Employers are leaning towards prioritizing skill certificates over degrees, suggesting a shift towards skills-first hiring in 2026. (Image: Pexels)
Witnessing the Rise of Skills-First Hiring: What Does the Data Say?
The Western Governors University’s recent Workforce Decoded Report took a close look at employer sentiments over the matter of hiring to better understand what they were looking for. According to the report, 86% of employers now see non-degree certificates as a valuable method of assessing a candidate’s readiness for a job. This does not mean that a solid educational background is no longer relevant.
Around 68% of employers also viewed degrees as important, particularly in industries like IT and technology, and finance and professional services. This information was also accompanied by the data that 78% of employers believed that work experience was equal to, or more important than, a degree. This paints a slightly confusing picture.
Why Should the Modern Workforce Prioritize Certifications?
If degrees, work experience, and skills are all important to get hired, what should candidates prioritize on their profiles? The answer is a simple one. While the skills-first hiring trend doesn’t replace our standard hiring evaluation criteria, it also suggests that employees must begin working on a more comprehensive resume that reflects their qualifications for any given industry.
Relying on skill certificates as an indicator of job readiness is likely a result of employers no longer feeling confident that employees are sufficiently prepared for the workplace through their universities and educational institutions. In the study as well, only 37% of employers believed that institutions of higher education prepare students with the skills they need to succeed in the workforce. This data isn’t surprising. Previous surveys have shown that employers are slowly losing faith in young graduates and their ability to join the workforce.
Other surveys have also shown that many employers are thinking of dropping degree requirements for job postings and prioritizing skills instead, hoping to reset the hiring criteria to identify talent. If these predictions hold, we could see a rise in skills-first hiring in the coming years.
What Skills Should the Workforce Prioritize?
If employers remove the degree requirement in hiring, this could mean significant changes to the workforce. For most, this would mean prioritizing getting non-degree skill certificates over a single expensive degree, divvying up resources between different avenues of learning. It could also mean prioritizing the development of some skill sets over others. According to the WGU survey, employers identified critical thinking and problem solving, time management, and adaptability or resilience as the three most critically important skills for job success in the next 12 months.
Employers also emphasized the importance of AI skills in hiring, with 50% of them revealing their strategies of assessing AI fluency by observing how comfortable candidates are with AI tools, also reviewing their AI skills and certificates, and evaluating AI integration into their work. Additionally, 52% of employers also assessed AI competency by having candidates undergo skill-based assessments and projects. These strategies suggest a very detailed exploration of candidate skills over a mere review of their resume.
The data also confirms that skills are a legitimate form of hiring currency in the modern world. Hiring managers are looking at soft skills and hard skills as equally important, prioritizing a comprehensive set of abilities when hiring.
Does the Skills-First Hiring Trend Suggest Job Seekers Should No Longer Prioritize Higher Education?
Looking at the emphasis of certificates over degrees, many might soon start to doubt their decision to pursue higher education, emphasizing skill growth instead. The rise of new-collar jobs has suggested that the future could be built by those with the right skills rather than the right degrees, but for the next few years at least, formal degrees will likely still hold some relevance.
While the shift towards meritocracy and skills-first hiring may reshape how qualifications are prioritized, many white-collar roles still depend on formal degrees as confirmation of the knowledge needed to perform the relevant roles. In time, we could see a permanent shift away from this current emphasis on degrees from top-tier institutions, but as of 2025, a good background does hold some weight.
How to Prepare for the Shifts in the Modern Workforce
Instead of abandoning degrees entirely, graduates should consider investing in both degrees and skill-based certifications that are most relevant for their industry of choice. Undoubtedly, this can evolve into an expensive prospect for those already balancing student debt, but with the demands of the modern workforce, it may be time to improvise.
Workers now have to explore ways to build relevant skills through other means and have clear examples of how they have employed these skills so they can present a confident front during interviews. Certificates and degrees aren’t fool-proof indications of capabilities, and most interviewers are likely to dig deeper to confirm that a candidate possesses the relevant skills.
Reviewing job postings for roles that a candidate is interested in is the best way to understand what qualities are most relevant to the industry. Being selective about internships, creating a professional portfolio, networking with industry experts, and making the most of free courses are just some of the ways to adapt to this promise of skill-first hiring, reorienting priorities towards putting your best foot forward for the job market.
Do you believe employers are truly committed to skills-first hiring? How do you predict hiring will evolve in 2026 and beyond? Share your thoughts with us in the comments. Subscribe to The HR Digest for more insights on workplace trends, layoffs, and what to expect with the advent of AI.