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Education Dive
Study:
Tier-one grads may not be employers' best buy
Riia O'Donnell & Natalie Schwartz
May 10, 2019
Dive Brief:
Unconventional hiring processes can result in more qualified talent,
according to a report from Correlation One. The Future of Data Talent
report focused on research in the data science field, and its findings
explain how employers can better attract and assess potential data
science hires.
By volume, there are "significantly more" qualified students at
tier-two and tier-three schools for data science and analytics than at
tier-one schools, according to the report. And these undervalued
schools house 75% of students who perform in the top 10%, the study
said.
Moreover, looking at GPA alone may inaccurately indicate students'
potential and ability because of differences in grading scales,
according to the study.
Dive Insight:
With a 63% jump in artificial intelligence job openings between January
and September of 2018 alone, applicants with a data science background
are in high demand. That's led several colleges and universities to
make big investments in launching data science programs or supporting
research in the growing field.
Even so, filling those roles and forecasting future skills needs
continues to put the squeeze on employers. With plans to increase
headcount, many have started to look to alternative credentialing
instead of four-year institutions to source candidates.
That trend has led some groups to push for colleges to offer more
alternative digital credentials in order to stay relevant. Colleges
that don't do so may lose out to "nontraditional and tech-savvy
organizations" that are responding to unmet need, contends a recent
report from the International Council for Open and Distance Education.
Rather than recruit average students from top schools, Correlation
One's findings suggest employers could look to recruit students from
tier-one or tier-two schools who are more skilled, less expensive and
easier to hire.
Indeed, public comprehensive universities — or institutions that fall
somewhere between state flagships and community colleges — often offer
their students considerable upward mobility, according to a separate
report from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think
tank.
Likewise, for employers prioritizing diversity and inclusion,
historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other
organizations can be source of talented applicants who can bring both
skills and new perspectives.
As diversity initiatives have stalled in the tech industry, some
companies are partnering with HBCUs to strengthen the pipeline of
underrepresented workers in STEM.
For example, Howard University piloted a program, called Howard West,
in 2017 that sent more than two dozen students for the summer to
Google's headquarters in California, where they learned on-the-job tech.
Since then, the initiative has expanded into a program called the Tech
Exchange, which sends more than 60 students from several HBCUs and
Hispanic-serving institutions to the Google campus for an entire
academic year.
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