When employers require a college degree aren't they really just asking for fairly smart literate people who can learn?

Answer 1

If this were the case, then a lot of people are spending a lot of time and money needlessly! There are plenty of fairly smart, literate people who graduate from high school and don't go onto college. College is not as much about being smart and literate and learning course content as it is about learning, sometimes mastering, the following:
1. Persistence: you don't graduate college without it
2.Communication skills by reading challenging books and essays; by writing skillfully about what you've read and researched; by making classroom presentations
3. Teamwork--in classes that require you to cooperate with fellow students to finish a task
4. A perspective on human history and culture across the globe.
5. Critical Thinking: analyzing and deciding on factors beyond the obvious
6. Learning how to learn: a skill that will be needed in an ever-and-fast-changing world that demands lifelong learning
7. Social skills including how to deal with difficult people.

Colleges and universities are places where one develops intellectually and expands academic knowledge in areas of specific and general interest. Those who graduate with good GPAs have proved they are not average people. Employers who hire college grads aren't looking for average. College degrees are an indication that a potential employee has qualities that set them apart from the masses. They have shown they know how to learn, but the younger ones need to learn other life and work skills on the job. Still, a college degree means more than just literacy and intelligence.