Daily Times

The ‘new economy’ describes the companies using technology and the Internet as their foundation and those ultra-high-tech corporations that have a noticeably higher productivity and growth and have spread their wings across the world. Such companies from the new economy are now hiring people based on their skills rather than on a degree. Where obtaining a college degree has been a norm and a necessity for students while promising them a better professional future, skill development is becoming an important factor for companies to gauge when hiring employees.

A degree, nevertheless, will have its value for it guarantees that a student has completed the required education, possesses the authorization to apply for a job and to work on a relevant position. However, with an increase in competition companies including Facebook and Google prefer to hire students having a specific skill set to get the work done. This shift in trend signifies a change in how the US corporations work. When a company hires a fresh graduate with a degree, it still needs to train the newly hired employees to some extent – the period considered as the probationary period or in some cases a Management Trainee Program. Training a group of fresh graduates or the newly hired employees costs the company time, money and human resource. If the company, on the other hand, hires a graduate already having a developed set of skills, the company may not invest in the training and development and the graduate will quickly become a full-time employee engaging in completing tasks and in the decision-making process, though the period of probation would still be there for the company to access the graduates’ skills and ability to deliver. Two schools of thoughts have been debating whether a degree is important or is a skill necessary in the new economy. While a degree endorses that the graduates applying for the job knows what they are expected to do, each degree holder may not be skilled in their chosen field of study. A degree also makes a person confident for they have the license to complete tasks, however, a skill will help graduates grow over a course of time. A degree may not promise the success for a graduate but if the graduate has a skill and is open for learning, it can evolve the graduates’ professional career.

This new economy may soon bring new ideas to reshape the next century. Recently, according to the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), over 5000 Pakistan-based IT companies are providing products and services related to IT and that the sector’s revenue is around $4.1 billion

According to a survey, Freelancing in America (2018), 93 percent of freelancers with a 4-year college degree opined that training benefited them while 79% of respondents said that a college education was useful. However, the World Economic Forum has given a rather interesting statistic that 65% of the children studying in primary schools today will do jobs that do not yet exist. This means that the workforce for the future isn’t defined on the traits, skills and education one possesses or will possess but on the jobs that will appear in the years to come because of a rapid evolution taking place especially in the companies working in the new economy.

Some professions, such as a lawyer, airplane engineering, doctors and architects will still require companies to ask for a degree/experience from the candidates because the stakes are high and the chances of an error are negligible. However, in the new economy, jobs related to computing, programming, designing, marketing, content development and others do not require a degree but a skill to understand the tasks and to complete them with passion and prudence. This new economy may soon bring new ideas to reshape the next century. Recently, according to the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), over 5000 Pakistan-based IT companies are providing products and services related to IT and that the sector’s revenue is around $4.1 billion. Pakistan’s IT sector has such an unprecedented growth where skilled IT experts can and have been running their freelance businesses by completing tasks for national and international clients. The IT companies working in the US and Europe and the individuals running their freelance home-based jobs will have a higher potential and a higher chance of growth in this field. Therefore, skills will play a major role in the hiring of such employees in the field of IT and in the new economy while a degree may soon become a document of the past across the world.

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist