December 31, 2024

“Companies are looking for new strategies in a light labor market to help them boost recruitment and retention, and realizing that potentially the degree requirement has historically been boxing out over half of the American workforce,” said Layla O’Kane, director of data analytic solutions at Opportunity@Work, a nonprofit that advocates for skills-based hiring.

November 21, 2024

The conventional degree was once as integral to the American Dream as getting the keys to your first home. But among the many norms the pandemic upended, the job market and what is required to succeed has been reimagined. We are all familiar with the idea of a glass ceiling, that invisible barrier that has kept women and other marginalized groups from progressing up the corporate or political ladder for invisible yet all-too-tangible reasons.

August 13, 2024

Prodded by such nonprofits as Opportunity@Work, which lobbies employers to hire based on skills rather than pedigree, more companies are opening previously college-grads-only jobs to people who have built their resumes through other kinds of training.

August 9, 2024

Seventy million people in the US — half the nation's workforce — are what Auguste calls STARs, or "skilled through alternative routes" such as through military service, workforce training programs, or on-the-job experience rather than a four-year degree.

August 5, 2024

Focusing on skills connects you with qualified candidates you may otherwise overlook and screen out, including over 70 million job seekers who are "Skilled Through Alternative Routes" rather than a four-year degree—or STARs, as coined by Opportunity@Work.

July 30, 2024

The company’s philanthropic arm also supports coalitions like the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)’s new Skills-First Center of Excellence and nonprofits like Opportunity@Work, whose “Tear the Paper Ceiling Campaign” has shed light on the challenges faced by the 70 million Americans who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs) rather than a four-year degree.

July 1, 2024

While half of the U.S. workforce does not have a bachelor’s degree, they are skilled through alternative routes (STARs)... One promising pathway for STARs to access good jobs is apprenticeships—which allow workers to earn and learn at the same time, debt-free.

February 20, 2024

According to Opportunity@work, an organization that helps skilled workers turn their learning into earning through research, there are over 70 million such workers in the U.S. They are STARs—Skilled Through Alternative Routes, such as military service, training programs, community college, or most commonly, on-the-job experience.

February 20, 2024

Organizations like Opportunity@Work have made it clear that people can build valuable skills almost anywhere — in the military, as a community volunteer, and certainly in the thousands of upskilling programs, community colleges, or trade schools across the nation.

February 16, 2024

American companies are hung up on the diploma. Facing a long-term labor shortage, employers are looking to expand the pool of potential workers. One group — people without a college degree — holds particular promise.

January 19, 2024

In what has been called the “degree reset,” the federal government and several states eliminated the degree requirements for many government jobs. Companies like IBM and the giant professional services firm Deloitte have too. Last year, a survey of 800 companies by Intelligent.com found that 45% intended to eliminate bachelor degree requirements for some positions in 2024. The Ad Council recently ran a campaign encouraging employers to get rid of the “paper ceiling.

January 12, 2024

“At SkillUp, one of our core principles is to be “Data-Driven, Heart-Led”. We’re thrilled to launch this new product experience that offers personalized support and aligns with the needs of millions of workers skilled through alternative routes (STARs) on their journey to high-opportunity jobs. And by doing so, we’re also excited to learn – through data and deep user insights – what works, and what doesn’t, in their ability to secure quality jobs,” said SkillUp Chief Executive Officer, Steve Lee.

January 11, 2024

While 21% said community should be the top priority for business, only 9% said it was the top priority in their own business, a detail economist Byron Auguste, cofounder and CEO of Opportunity@Work, said was "striking." "Stakeholder capitalism that truly delivers requires business models that transform more of the community into valued employees and priority customers," he says.

September 11, 2023

I’m one of more than 70 million STARs, workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes rather than through bachelor’s degrees, who make up half of the U.S. workforce (hardly exceptions to the rule!). STARs are adults who have earned their skills through pathways like community college, training and education programs, military service, partial college completion, and on-the-job experience.

September 5, 2023

Options are growing for Gen Z and others to acquire those skills, too. Instead of a bachelor’s degree, job-seekers can complete, for instance, Google’s Career Certificates, online training for skills like UX design and data analytics. Entrepreneur Scott Galloway’s Section 4 runs business strategy “sprints” meant to make a business school education more accessible, and organizations such as Opportunity@Work are connecting applicants “skilled through alternative routes,” such as the military or on-the-job learning, with employers.

September 4, 2023

The study grew out of previous research by academics and Opportunity@Work, a nonprofit social venture. That research focused on workers without a college degree but with work experience that could make them candidates for higher-paying jobs — a group called STARs, for those who are “skilled through alternative routes.”

August 30, 2023

In the U.S., at least 13 states moved to break their own paper ceilings and open up better jobs to those without degrees. These include both Red and Blue states, making the fight against credential inflation one of the few things both Republican and Democratic leaders can still agree upon.

August 28, 2023

A great example of such a collaboration is Opportunity@Work, a national nonprofit helping individuals work, learn, and earn to their full potential. They launched the Tear the Paper Ceiling campaign to spur public and private sector action to remove unnecessary degree requirements.

August 10, 2023

Alabama has gone public with what may be the nation’s most ambitious effort to tighten connections between education and work. Experts say the project could have major implications for skills-based hiring and the unbundling of credentials.

July 3, 2023

Meanwhile, forward-thinking employers could join the national movement to do away with bachelor’s diplomas as requirements for entry-level jobs, sending a clear signal that skills, not costly and exclusionary pieces of paper, are what matter in the 21st century.

June 27, 2023

Last year, the Maryland state government made a big commitment to investing in human potential when, encouraged by Opportunity@Work’s Tear the Paper Ceiling campaign, officials removed college degree requirements from state jobs. The state had been having a hard time filling jobs, and in the first year after the change, hires increased 41%, according to former Governor Larry Hogan.

June 19, 2023

Who stands to benefit? The nonprofit Opportunity@Work estimates there are 70 million STARs—workers who have been “skilled through alternative routes.” They include veterans, young computer programmers, and those who have taken time out of the workforce to raise children or care for a loved one at home.

May 10, 2023

"States are taking action to tear up this paper ceiling that excludes so many talented applicants. As the governors of New Jersey and Utah, we have implemented policies to prioritize practical experience and skills training over degree requirements for certain state government jobs."

April 13, 2023

The labor market has been pretty loose since the 2008 financial crisis, with this underpinning a considerable rise in credentialism that has seen employers demanding four-year degrees for even entry-level jobs. This has resulted in the most expensive form of education society currently has on offer being elevated above alternative routes, such as apprenticeships or so-called "STARS", which are people who are skilled through alternative routes.

March 30, 2023

Once considered a nice way to give people a leg-up, skills-first hiring has now permeated the national conscience. Nationwide movements like Tear the Paper Ceiling have captured media attention, bringing skills-first hiring practices and their benefits to the forefront. But with the global concern for workforce skills gaps, hiring for skills versus pedigree is now a business imperative.

February 28, 2023

“STARs are half of our skilled workforce. If employers don’t have a STARs talent strategy, they only have half a talent strategy,” said Opportunity@Work CEO & Co-Founder Byron Auguste. “Tearing the paper ceiling is about bringing in talent based on skills over degrees and performance over pedigree. This is innovation by inclusion – tapping into all talents and valuing workers' skills by whatever route they gained them.”

January 26, 2023

With an estimated 70 million people across the United States "skilled through alternative routes", the untapped market is considerable. What’s more, the upward mobility of these people is far less than that of their peers with degrees.

January 23, 2023

STARs are all around us, the more than 70 million workers in the U.S. who are “skilled through alternative routes” (STARs), rather than via college degrees, and they make up 50% of the U.S. workforce.

January 18, 2023

For their part, progressive Democrats emphasize the implications for equity; since Black and Latino workers are less likely than others to have college degrees, requiring them creates a “paper ceiling,” the impact of which is racially disparate, according to Byron Auguste, a former economic adviser to the Obama White House and CEO of Opportunity@Work, who collaborated with Hogan on the issue.