The only way to solve the entry-level job crisis . . .

There is only one way to solve the entry-level job crisis.

It isn't by attempting to stop the progress of AI. It isn't by bemoaning the state of entry-level hiring. It isn't by trying to guilt employers into “doing their part” to train young workers.

The only way to get employers to start hiring entry-level employees again is to . . .

create entry-level employees who are so good that companies WANT to hire them

We call those employees “cyborgs.”

Although the ominous trend around entry-level hiring is extremely unfortunate (and dangerous), it’s an understandable reaction from employers. Skilling entry-level employees has always been a necessary evil for companies. They’re not schools. They exist to produce and sell goods & services.

But universities have been handing them workers without relevant skills for decades. So, companies were forced to tolerate the burden of training new graduates because they had no alternative.

but now there’s an alternative

AI.

Here’s what’s interesting, though. Any non-software-developer who uses AI tools knows that most are, in a word, “fine.” And yet more and more employers have been choosing robots over humans.

Why? Because inexpensive quasi-skilled AI that adds immediate value is far more attractive than expensive unskilled college grads who take a year to be value accretive. This is the key insight that most people miss:

the entry-level job crisis isn’t an AI problem; it’s a higher ed problem

If you present a company with an entry-level professional who is truly job-ready, who is a master of leveraging AI, and who adds significant value from the moment they walk in, THAT person is dramatically more attractive than AI alone.

in other words, cyborgs beat robots

So, the solution to the entry-level crisis isn’t resistance against AI. It's reinvention. Of higher ed. And higher ed cannot be reinvented simply by tweaking the university model. Adding another course, another credential, or another internship requirement will not close a readiness gap this large.

An entirely new category of higher ed is required. One that replaces the university model. One that is purpose-built to produce this must-have entry-level employee.

At pega6, we call this category “workforce engineering.” These institutions are designed to build the builders. They will produce AI-native professionals who are completely job ready from the day they graduate.

THAT’S the type of entry-level employee that companies will enthusiastically hire over just using AI.

the future does not belong to AI alone; it belongs to those who know how to wield it

Robots may beat humans . . . but cyborgs beat robots. And the organizations that can produce cyborgs will be the ones that solve the entry-level job crisis.