Degree or skill: what does society really recognize?

In common language, degree, skill, and qualification are often used interchangeably. However, they refer to different realities. Skill manifests in a person's ability to mobilize relevant resources to act effectively in a given situation. For researcher Guy Le Boterf, being competent means knowing how to mobilize and combine these resources in a relevant professional practice. Skill is therefore not limited to possession of knowledge or holding a title.<\/p>

The degree falls under a different logic. It constitutes institutional recognition that generally certifies a training path and the achievement of requirements set by an institution authorized to certify. Possessing a skill and obtaining recognition for it are not necessarily the same thing.<\/p>

The degree is not just a document<\/strong><\/p>

The degree also has a social function. It allows for classification, selection, recruitment, access to certain professions, or continuation of studies. Its value comes not only from the learning it certifies but also from how institutions use it. When an employer requires it for a position, when an administration associates certain functions with a level of certification, or when a university makes it a condition for admission, it becomes an instrument for regulating individual trajectories.<\/p>

Sociologist Marie Duru-Bellat has shown that the increase in the number of graduates does not eliminate selection: it can shift the required degree level to access certain positions. Pierre Bourdieu even saw in the weight of the educational title one of the most serious flaws of the French bureaucratic system, capable of permanently separating a scholastically guaranteed but incompetent person from a competent person lacking a title.<\/p>

What Haitian workers say about it<\/strong><\/p>

To understand the importance given to the degree, it was not enough to ask respondents if they deemed it important. It was necessary to analyze what they associated with it when discussing their job placement, salary, legitimacy, or career advancement opportunities. This is what my doctoral research studied among employees in the tertiary sector in Haiti.<\/p>

Of the 37 statements related to the degree retained in the analysis, professional integration occupies the first position, with 12 statements, or 32.4%. It is followed by the idea that the degree has no real value without professional experience (16.2%), then by the degree considered as proof of skills (13.5%). Professional development and access to a better salary each represent 10.8%, professional legitimacy 8.1%, social value 5.4%, and professional mobility 2.7%.<\/p>

A clarification is necessary: these percentages describe the distribution of statements, not the proportion of employees who share each of these ideas, and even less the opinion of the Haitian population. However, they indicate that for these employees, access to employment dominates what is associated with the degree, well before the proof of skills.<\/p>

Why does the degree carry so much weight?<\/strong><\/p>

These results lead to shifting the question. Instead of only seeking to understand why individuals desire to obtain degrees, we must also examine the social practices that give them an interest in pursuing them. When a degree facilitates access to employment, impacts a promotion, influences remuneration, or reinforces professional legitimacy, individuals have concrete reasons to attribute value to it. As Denise Jodelet and Jean-Claude Abric have shown, social representations are not mere individual opinions: they are constructed in relationships between individuals, groups, institutions, and social practices.<\/p>

A person can, therefore, possess the necessary skills for a professional activity while struggling to have them recognized when institutions prioritize the degree as the main signal of qualification. Skill exists, but without the same social visibility or institutional legitimacy.<\/p>

Removing the degree from a job offer is not enough<\/strong><\/p>

However, the world of work is beginning to shift. The so-called "skills-first" approaches, studied by the OECD in its 2025 and 2026 works, seek to focus more on the skills that can be mobilized rather than on titles. They do not announce the end of the degree: they aim to broaden the means of signaling one's skills, through direct assessment, micro-certifications, and recognition of prior learning.<\/p>

It is still necessary for practices to follow. A study published in 2024 by the Burning Glass Institute observed that for one hundred positions where the degree requirement was removed, fewer than four additional hiring of non-degree holders followed, and just over a third of the companies studied had genuinely modified their recruitment practices. Changing a rule is not enough to transform the practices that give it meaning. A skills-based approach requires mechanisms capable of identifying, documenting, and evaluating skills with sufficient credibility.<\/p>

Recognizing skills without devaluing the degree<\/strong><\/p>

This is precisely where the validation of prior learning takes on its full meaning. The VAE does not declare the degree useless nor does it award certification based on the number of years worked. It allows skills acquired outside the traditional academic path to be evaluated according to determined requirements and, when they match, lead to institutional recognition. What it questions is the monopoly of formal education as the access route to certification.<\/p>

So, what does society really recognize?<\/strong><\/p>

The opposition between degree and skill ultimately appears insufficient. A society may recognize what an individual can actually do, but, in professional environments organized around rules, classifications, and certifications, it also recognizes the mechanisms that make these skills visible, comparable, and legitimate. Historically, the degree has fulfilled much of this function, without constituting skill itself.<\/p>

However, professional experience poses a particular difficulty: it can produce real skills without providing the institutional signal that allows them to be recognized. It is in this space, between acquired skill and recognized skill, that mechanisms like the VAE come into play. The question is probably no longer about choosing between degree and skill, but about building mechanisms capable of better articulating education, experience, evaluation, and institutional recognition.<\/p>

Hervé Boursiquot, Ph. D.<\/strong><\/p>

Doctor in educational sciences (University of Paris-Est), author of Diplomas, Skills and Validation of Prior Learning in Haiti<\/i> (L’Harmattan, 2023).<\/p>

This text is an abridged version of an article published on September 29, 2026, on boursiquotherve.com, where complete references are listed.<\/i><\/p>