This company is stressing skills over college degrees. CNN correspondent explains why

24 year old Amari Morgan has been an Associate Controls technician at General Motors for 2 1/2 years. Morgan tests the robots that build the vehicles and fixes software issues. It's the key unexpected surprises from happening. Her favorite part of the job? Being able to see these machines do their job, it's very interesting. Getting hands on experience working with them and learning from my other teammates is very rewarding. Hands on experience that did not require a college degree. I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. And why not just schooling? I figured the quick way to get there would just be go to school, do your four year degree and then eventually getting the reward of working inside this environment. 62% of all US workers age 25 and older and 72% of Black workers do not have a bachelor's degree, making it harder to get good paying jobs and contributing to the racial wealth gap, which Federal Reserve data shows grew to a difference of more than $240,000 between a typical white family and a typical Black family in 2022. Fortunately for Morgan, General Motors is part of 1-10, a coalition of some 70 Fortune 500 companies at the forefront of the Skills First movement, an approach to hiring that focuses on skills over college degrees. We're trying to sort of level the playing field. Founded in 2020, the coalition has an ambitious goal placed one million Black and other workers who don't have a bachelor's degree into good paying, family sustaining jobs in 10 years. It's not a degree that's going to be the golden ticket, it's going to be the skills that are required to get you the job that hopefully puts you on a sustainable path. More young people are rethinking a four year degree given the rising cost of college and taking on debt. A report by the Gates Foundation found confidence in the value of a college degree fell from 2022 to 2023 among non college graduates aged 18 to 30, while confidence in the value of job training and professional licensing programs went up. Morgan enrolled in Community College in 2019, just as she was wrapping up her first semester. The pandemic struck, derailing her plans, so she took jobs in retail. Something about being in an engineer and being in technology just kept calling to me and she struggled to save money. She soon found a tuition free technology training program run by a partner in 110's Talent Development network, helping connect companies like GM with workers trained in specific skills like coding. Morgan is now working to master the JavaScript programming language and still hopes to one day earn a bachelor's degree. But for now, she credits this job with boosting her confidence, providing financial security and Peace of Mind. Having programs like this actually spread the word that no jobs are looking for your experience. You know, you don't have to have this fancy degree behind it. You can just come as you are. Athena Jones, CNN, Warren, MI.