Credentialism

Credentialism is the over-emphasis on credentials when hiring staff or assigning social status.

An employer may require a diploma, professional license or academic degree, say, for a job which can be done perfectly well applying skills acquired through experience or mere informal study. Since blue-collar types of work have relied more commonly upon the apprentice system for confirmation of skills, the phenomenon is considered more prevalent among employers of white-collar labor.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Dago dazzler

Further reading

• Brown, D. (2001) The Social Sources of Educational Credentialism: Status Cultures, Labour Markets and Organisations. Sociology of Education Extra Issue 2001; 19-34. Available at:

http://www.asanet.org/images/members/docs/pdf/special/soe/soe_extra_2001_Article_2_Brown.pdf

• Randall Collins, The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification, Academic Press, 1979.
• Charles D. Hayes, Proving You're Qualified: Strategies for Competent People without College Degrees, Autodidactic Press, 1995.
• Charles Derber, William A. Schwartz, Yale Magrass, Power in the Highest Degree: Professionals and the Rise of a New Mandarin Order, Oxford University Press, 1990.
• John McKnight, The Careless Society: community and its counterfeits, New York, BasicBooks, 1995.
• Meehl, P.E., Credentialed persons, credentialed knowledge. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 4, 91-98, 1997.
• Robert S. Mendelsohn, Confessions of a Medical Heretic, Chicago: Contemporary books, 1979.
• Ivan Illich, Irving K. Zola, John McKnight, Disabling Professions, 1977.
• Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society, 1971.
• Woodward, Orrin & Oliver DeMille 'LeaderShift: A Call for Americans to Finally Stand Up & Lead" Grand Central Publishing 2013