The STARs are Aligned

Scale matters, in talent as it does in technology. America’s 70+ million STARs (talented individuals “Skilled Through Alternative Routes” versus four-year college degrees) make up 60% of the U.S. workforce. If employers find effective ways to value, signal, and seek STARs, STARs will be the answer to much of the “skills gap” employers fear. 

Employers are learning how: (1) shift to skills-based hiring, and remove barriers, such as the degree requirement; (2) recruit from “alternative routes”; and (3) support upward career paths.

In Opportunity@Work’s latest “Opportunity Wrap,” Cheston McGuire shares some promising steps in the right direction — President Biden’s newly unveiled infrastructure plan offering more than 12 million job opportunities in skilled work for which STARs talent will be essential, and Microsoft’s plans to place 50,000 workers in tech-enabled jobs — along with a looming hurdle.

• A new report by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce on President Biden’s infrastructure plan finds that there could be as many as 12.8 million new jobs for workers with more than a high school diploma, but less than a four-year degree – which translates to millions of opportunities for workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs). buff.ly/2PN4jCq
• Stephen Nellis explores a new re-skilling effort with LinkedIn, Microsoft is aiming to place 50,000 people in technology-enabled skilled jobs, which will help those workers whose careers were impacted by COVID transition into new careers and fields. buff.ly/3sMvCeK
• These new opportunities will be timely. In the Washington Post, Rachel Seigel examines economic and employment projections. While 2021 may see the fastest overall GDP growth in four decades, there are still 9.5 million jobs which have not returned from last year’s pandemic mass layoffs in the U.S.; it’s unclear which of these jobs will return when – if at all. buff.ly/31Iav1q

In order to rebuild our economy post-COVID, employers will need new skills and new talent. Millions of workers and working learners will need new pathways. The STARs are aligned.

All the best,

Byron