We are good at specifying a job's educationRequirements but can't say when it doesn't require something - especially a degree #2681
Description
This is a proposal from Google to improve schemas around JobPosting and Occupation so that we can explicitly indicate when degree-level qualification is not required. We would like to find a quick path to an initial approach, while simultaneously opening conversations around how to best model this (e.g. adding more granularity, country-specific details etc.). We believe that adding this basic expressivity could lead to improved Job search (in Google services and elsewhere) for job seekers with lower levels of education.
Details
With the COVID-19 response in mind, it would be good to find an immediate workaround for this gap in Schema.org:
We have https://schema.org/educationRequirements (on JobPosting and Occupation) which allows Text values, as well as EducationalOccupationalCredential to express what is needed for some job, but not what isn't. For example we allow:
{
"@context": "http://schema.org/",
"@type": "Occupation",
"name": "Research Scientist",
"qualifications": {
"@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
"educationalLevel": "PhD or equivalent"
}
}
However, if a job does not have such requirements, we can't express that. With millions experiencing unexpected unemployment due to the COVID situation, moving quickly here could have a significant impact.
Designs
Options include -
Use NO_DEGREE_REQUIRED within /educationalLevel
The simplest design is to overload a Text-valued /educationalLevel property with a known string such as NO_DEGREE_REQUIRED. This would not require any schema changes. However, it stretches the meaning of the field, is difficult to document, and works poorly when the rest of the JobPosting is written in a non-English language.
Add a /degreeRequired property with Boolean (i.e. True/False)
A simple boolean property could make this distinction, and potentially be phased out later for a more expressive design.
Add a /qualificationsNotRequired property with an Enumeration that includes (at least) Degree
This is similar but could potentially be extended more easily, e.g. following the same pattern as NonProfitType to support national/regional lists of qualifications.
Discussion
While there is value in moving quickly, if there are related initiatives or standards that address this problem - it would be good to know ASAP.
We should also be careful with wording to avoid confusion on whether jobs that might aspire to degrees but not absolutely require them would be marked up this way.
We should also stress that the open-ended nature of schema.org markup makes it inappropriate to assume negation purely by the absence of positive information. This is less the case in certain more controlled data systems and databases, where the mere absence of information about required qualifications could plausibly imply that those qualifications were not needed. In a Schema.org setting, missing information could just mean that the information was not there, or not published. This is why we may need to be more explicit than in other schema discussions.
We should also note that "degrees" can mean several things, both formally and in terms of social expectations, in different countries. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associate_degree vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor%27s_degree vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master%27s_degree. Schemas distinguishing these could be developed, but there is probably value in answering the most basic question of "is a degree qualification expected" first.