Now degrees are everywhere, even big companies are realising non-graduates like me made the right choice

Having a degree is ubiquitous. To paraphrase The Incredibles: “When everyone’s super, no-one will be”

Degrees are everywhere - but job skills aren't

You’d probably be concerned if your doctor, or the person teaching your children, didn’t have a degree. But what about the person who designed your clothes, or helped market the book you might be reading? Would an embossed certificate and some arbitrary letters after their name really make them better at their job?

Penguin Random House doesn’t think so - earlier this week, they announced they were removing the requirement to hold a degree from their job application process to help attract a more diverse pool of applicants. I couldn’t be happier. Contrary to the message given out by so many schools and employers, not having a degree, or worse - gasp - dropping out of university, won’t reduce you to a heap of unemployable slop. I know, because I did it.

I was always ambivalent about going to university, but no other paths were really suggested to me at my high school, so off I went to the University of Lincoln to study Journalism. I decided to leave after the first year for a number of reasons; I was putting more effort into partying and sleeping than I was studying, and the course wasn’t what I had hoped for or expected. I felt I was wasting my own - and my tutors’ - time, not to mention my money.

I now make a living from writing full-time, but not all my ex-coursemates are journalists. It took me five years (and a lot of pestering, persistence and vaguely-related jobs) since quitting university to become one, which may be longer than it would take for a graduate, but the point is, I did it. And the things I learned by trial and error along the way - how to network, how to pitch, how to inject topical overtones into a feature - were life skills you have to learn on the job. The fact that I’ve managed to break into a graduate career without a degree (or any insider contacts, before anyone asks) shows that higher education isn’t the necessity some would have you believe.

Penguin isn’t the only company beginning to recognise that intelligent and capable people come from all sorts of backgrounds. Deloitte changed their application process last year so the universities candidates studied at aren’t revealed, while Ernst and Young scrapped their requirement of three Bs at A-level or a 2:1 degree.

Ever since the recession in 2008 - which was in full swing during my year at university - people have been asking whether a degree is worth it, and opinion is still divided. Part of the problem is that the graduate job market is oversaturated. Since the recession, the number of 17-30 year olds in higher education has increased from 45 per cent to 47 per cent, and reached a high of 49 per cent in the 2011/12 academic year. It seems the slump didn’t put people off going to uni, and that’s where the problem lies: having a degree is ubiquitous. To paraphrase The Incredibles: “When everyone’s super, no-one will be.”

While statistics still appear to show graduates outperforming those without a degree in terms of earnings, the gap is narrowing. Graduates earned 55 per cet more on average than non-graduates in 2006, but that’s fallen to 45 per cent now. It sounds a lot, but it’s only part of the picture. Last year, a third of graduates were in “non-professional” roles in retail, care and customer service, and 7 per cent were still unemployed six months after graduating.

A degree is no longer a passport to a dream job or cushy salary - and nor should it be, especially in creative industries. Talent and passion can’t be taught, and there’s a wealth of free information on necessary practical skills like CV-writing, portfolio-building and pitching on the internet.

What really matters is an individual’s aptitude for and understanding of the job, and a degree certificate doesn’t guarantee they’ll have that. Penguin has removed an unnecessary barrier to talented people, and it’s time more companies followed suit.