The easy way out is certifications. There are already certifications for the IT field that have served as a good baseline for new candidates. A similar approach could be used for almost any field.
I totally agree, but at the present that doesn’t work, except maybe in IT. My husband is a manager of an IT department and he hires according to experience and IT certification or degree. But the bottom line is, no matter what your degree or certification, he gives those he interviews a test. You’d be surprised at the amount of people with perfect certs (even CCIE holders) who can’t pass a practical test. Some people have the ability to get certs but not apply them in a work environment. Same problem you run into with degrees being a useless measure of how valuable an employee will be.
As a one time recruiter for IT (for an 8 billion dollar a year organization), certs are fine, but not usually enough. The 4 year degree is still quite desirable, if you want to move beyond a senior position into a lead position.