Finance: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
- ↑ Blair, Peter Q. (2021-07-01). "Skills, Degrees and Labor Market Inequality". National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w28991.
- ↑ 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. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26844/w26844.pdf/.
- ↑ Auguste, Byron (2021-07-20). "The majority of Americans lack a college degree. Why do so many employers require one?". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/20/majority-americans-lack-college-degree-why-do-so-many-employers-require-one/.
- ↑ Census, U.S. (2020-03-20). "U.S. Census Bureau Releases New Educational Attainment Data". U.S. Census. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/educational-attainment.html.
- ↑ Blair, Peter Q. (2021-06-28). "The Disparate Racial Impact of Requiring a College Degree". The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-disparate-racial-impact-of-requiring-a-college-degree-11593375171.
- ↑ "STARs: Skilled Through Alternative Routes". Opportunity@Work. 2021-04-01. https://opportunityatwork.org/stars/.
- ↑ 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. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/technology/work-skills-upward-mobility.html.
- ↑ Fain, Paul (2020-12-04). "Job Transitions for Skilled Workers Without Degrees". Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/12/04/job-transitions-skilled-workers-without-degrees.
- ↑ Baskin, Kara (2021-03-24). "5 ways to close the tech industry's race gap through education". MIT Sloan. https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/5-ways-to-close-tech-industrys-race-gap-through-education.
- ↑ Chopra, Karan (2020-07-19). "We shouldn't chase economic recovery; we should chase economic redesign". Fortune. https://fortune.com/2020/07/09/coronavirus-jobs-economic-recovery/.
Further reading
- Casey, Marcus; Maciolek, Ashleigh (2020-12-21). "Opportunity, policy, and the future of automation". https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/12/21/opportunity-policy-and-the-future-of-automation/.
- 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". https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/09/why-to-hire-black-women-without-degrees-in-tech.html.
- deLaski, Kathleen; Bing, Eric (2020-04-14). "Retraining Workers Is the Key to Solving Job Needs". U.S. News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2020-04-14/retraining-workers-could-solve-unemployment-and-health-care-worker-shortage-amid-pandemic.
- Blumenstyk, Goldie (2020-06-03). "The Edge: The Equity Argument - and a New Tool - for Skills-Based Hiring". https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/the-edge/2020-06-03.
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