Companies need to emphasize skills over degrees, IBM chair Ginni Rometty says

A four-year degree isn't as important as the right skills for the job, she says.

Companies in all parts of the economy could shift their hiring criteria to emphasize skills over degrees in order to build a more diverse workforce and create more economic opportunity, IBM executive chair Ginni Rometty says.

“Can you embrace people that do not have a four-year degree and give them a path into your company to start?” the longtime IBM veteran asked on Thursday at Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women Summit.

At IBM, 43% of all open job requisitions no longer require a four-year degree, she said. “It didn’t dumb down our workforce,” she added. “What we found is their ability to perform, their curiosity, matched everyone’s.”

During her tenure at IBM, Rometty says she saw that the rise of digital technology by itself was not creating a more equal society. “The digital era, it became clear that this was no going to be an inclusive era,” she said. “There were going to be haves and have nots. And it was going to move so fast it would leave people behind.”

“Economic opportunity is the way to social equality,” she added.

Companies should also continue to improve the skills of their workers after hiring them. Rometty advocated using artificial intelligence apps to help steer workers to improve their skills, because current skills become outdated after about five years. “Give (workers) an A.I.-driven learning system,” she says, referencing the suggestion system at Netflix.

“If I serve you up shows you want to watch, you watch more shows—just like learning,” she says. “I serve you up what I know works for you, you will learn more, and I now have the data so you’ll learn more, you’re promoted more, you get paid more.”

Rometty headed IBM as CEO from 2012 until earlier this year, before handing off to current CEO Arvind Krishna and becoming executive chair of the company’s board of directors. She will retire from the board at year end, but has a general idea about what she’d like to do next.

“I want to do something that really brings all the under-served communities into our economy,” Rometty says.

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