President Trump announced that he will sign an executive order on Friday to modify the federal government’s hiring practices so that a job applicants’ skills will be given priority over a college degree.
“This will ensure that we’re able to hire based on talent and expand our universe to qualified candidates and ensure a more equitable hiring process,” Ivanka Trump, co-chair of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and President Trump’s senior advisor, said.
The current administration stated that the shift will allow the government to hire a more inclusive workforce based on skill instead of a person’s education level. Ivanka Trump has provided guidance on ways to improve job training.
During her tenure, she and other administration officials have pushed to increase opportunities for apprenticeships and have promoted training and vocational education as alternatives to traditional college degree programs.
The new hiring practices will recognize the value of learning regardless of whether it occurs on the job or in the classroom, said Brooke Rollins, acting director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, which oversees the president’s domestic agenda.
Trump’s administration noted that the government will not eliminate the college requirement entirely, but will stress skills in jobs where having a degree is less important. Trump’s executive order will direct federal agencies to use assessment methods to determine specifcially whether an applicant possesses the knowledge and skills to do the job in question.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the workforce advisory board’s other co-chair, said the need for skills training and apprenticeships is as great as it was before the current pandemic forced millions of people out of work, pushing the national unemployment rate above 13 percent in May 2020. “Americans are eager to get to work, but they need our help,” Ross said.