Traditional hiring practices that prioritize degrees over demonstrated skills are holding public sector agencies back from accessing the talent they need to serve their communities — and shutting out more than 70 million U.S. workers who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs).

This playbook offers practical strategies and real-world examples to guide skills-based hiring efforts at any stage — including how to understand the STARs talent pool, finding your starting point by identifying your role through an Archetype Quiz, access to hands-on tools and templates, success stories from state and local government case studies, and tracking metrics that show impact.