How can a job specify education and experience requirements?

Definition: A JobPosting can describe education with educationRequirements and experience with experienceRequirements. Google documents credentialCategory, monthsOfExperience, and experienceInPlaceOfEducation as beta properties for adding this information.

Key facts

• Google's JobPosting documentation says the three properties are beta and that a Search appearance or effect may not be visible right away.
• Schema.org defines a JobPosting as “A listing that describes a job opening in a certain organization.” Its educationRequirements property accepts an EducationalOccupationalCredential or text.
• Schema.org describes credentialCategory as the category or type of credential, with examples including a degree, certificate, or badge.
• Schema.org defines monthsOfExperience as a number indicating the minimal number of months of experience required for a position.
• experienceInPlaceOfEducation is Boolean. When it is true, Google's documentation requires both experienceRequirements and educationRequirements.

How do the fields fit into JobPosting?

Google's example places credentialCategory inside an EducationalOccupationalCredential object under educationRequirements. It places monthsOfExperience inside an OccupationalExperienceRequirements object under experienceRequirements.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": "JobPosting",
  "educationRequirements": {
    "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
    "credentialCategory": "bachelor degree"
  },
  "experienceRequirements": {
    "@type": "OccupationalExperienceRequirements",
    "monthsOfExperience": "36"
  }
}

The documentation's example describes a posting that requires a bachelor's degree and three years of experience. Schema.org describes EducationalOccupationalCredential as an educational or occupational credential, including a diploma, academic degree, certification, qualification, or badge.

What values can the education field express?

Google lists high school, associate degree, bachelor degree, professional certificate, and postgraduate degree for educationRequirements.credentialCategory. It says the list may not apply to every country, so the closest equivalent can be selected. The page also says to continue describing the education requirement in the description property.

If a posting has no educational requirements, Google's table gives no requirements as the value for educationRequirements. If the educational requirements are unknown, the same table says to leave the property out. It also says the property can be repeated in an array, with separate EducationalOccupationalCredential objects for a bachelor's degree and a postgraduate degree.

How should months of experience be represented?

monthsOfExperience represents the minimum number of months required. For complex requirements, Google instructs site owners to use the experience that represents the minimum number required for a candidate. Its example says that “12 months as a chef or 24 months as a sous chef” implies a minimum of 12 months, while “12 months as a chef and 24 months as a sous chef” implies a minimum of 24 months.

The same documentation describes experienceRequirements as either OccupationalExperienceRequirements or text. If there are no experience requirements, it gives no requirements as the value, and it asks publishers to describe the experience requirement in description as well.

When can experience replace formal education?

Set experienceInPlaceOfEducation to true when the posting accepts the specified experience in place of formal educational qualifications. Google's requirement is that both experienceRequirements and educationRequirements are present when this property is true. Schema.org gives the same relationship in its JobPosting definition and says that satisfying either requirement is sufficient when the value is true.

Google's page was last updated 8 September 2026. It says the properties are still being developed, so the page does not promise a particular Search appearance or effect for a posting using them.

Related terms

• Structured data
• JSON-LD
• Can JobPosting markup be added to a job search results page?
• Which HTML formatting does Google support in a job description?

FAQ

Should you use all three beta properties?

Use the properties that describe the published job. If the education requirement is unknown, Google says to leave educationRequirements out. If experienceInPlaceOfEducation is true, include both requirement properties.

Can you list more than one educational credential?

Yes. Google says educationRequirements can be repeated in an array, and its example uses separate credential objects for a bachelor's degree and a postgraduate degree.

What should you put in the job description?

Describe the education and experience requirements in the description property as well as in the corresponding structured data fields. Google gives this instruction for both credentialCategory and experienceRequirements.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "Job posting structured data", 8 September 2026
2. Schema.org, "JobPosting", August 2026
3. Schema.org, "credentialCategory", August 2026
4. Schema.org, "OccupationalExperienceRequirements", August 2026
5. Schema.org, "EducationalOccupationalCredential", August 2026

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