Skilled through alternative routes

Skilled through alternative routes (STAR) is a term to describe adults in the United States without bachelor's degrees who have work experience and skills that position them for transitions to higher-wage jobs.^[1] First identified in a 2020 research paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), STARs made up approximately 70 million workers in the U.S. economy as of 2021.^[2][3]

Description

The majority of American workers (approximately 64% as of 2020) do not have a four-year bachelor's degree,^[4][5] including 68 percent of Black workers and 79 percent of Hispanic workers.^[6]

STARs have gained skills through a variety of routes other than the four-year college degree, often including community college, workforce training, bootcamps, certificate programs, military service or on-the-job learning. Research from December 2020 indicates that 30 million STARs have the skills to earn 70 percent more than their current wages.^[7] However, 60 percent of STARs who changed jobs over the past decade transitioned to new positions with the same or lower wages than their previous position.^[8]

Proponents of supporting STARs argue that a more intentional approach to hiring, training, and recruiting STARs can help to increase the representation of non-white individuals in the workforce.^[9][10]

References

1. Blair, Peter Q. (2021-07-01). "Skills, Degrees and Labor Market Inequality". National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
2. Blair, Peter Q. (2021-04-01). "Searching for STARs: Work Experience as a Job Market Signal for Workers without Bachelor's Degrees". National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
3. Auguste, Byron (2021-07-20). "The majority of Americans lack a college degree. Why do so many employers require one?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
4. Census, U.S. (2020-03-20). "U.S. Census Bureau Releases New Educational Attainment Data". U.S. Census. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
5. Blair, Peter Q. (2021-06-28). "The Disparate Racial Impact of Requiring a College Degree". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
6. "STARs: Skilled Through Alternative Routes". Opportunity@Work. 2021-04-01. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
7. Lohr, Steve (2020-12-03). "Up to 30 Million in U.S. Have the Skills to Earn 70% More, Researchers Say". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
8. Fain, Paul (2020-12-04). "Job Transitions for Skilled Workers Without Degrees". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
9. Baskin, Kara (2021-03-24). "5 ways to close the tech industry's race gap through education". MIT Sloan. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
10. Chopra, Karan (2020-07-19). "We shouldn't chase economic recovery; we should chase economic redesign". Fortune. Retrieved 2021-04-01.

Further reading

• Casey, Marcus; Maciolek, Ashleigh (2020-12-21). "Opportunity, policy, and the future of automation". Brookings. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
• Lewis, LaShana M.; Equity, director of the St. Louis (2021-01-09). "Op-ed: I broke barriers as Black woman in tech without a degree. Hire more workers like me". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
• deLaski, Kathleen; Bing, Eric (2020-04-14). "Retraining Workers Is the Key to Solving Job Needs". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
• Blumenstyk, Goldie (2020-06-03). "The Edge: The Equity Argument - and a New Tool - for Skills-Based Hiring". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2021-09-09.