Together we’re advancing skills-first solutions for STARs — workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes
We’re building a labor market where all Americans can work, learn, and earn to their full potential. Because right now, highly skilled STARs (workers who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes) are overlooked simply because they don’t have a bachelor’s degree. The result of today’s broken labor market? Unfilled positions, restricted economic mobility, and stalled industry and economic growth.
Opportunity@Work’s mission is to generate $20 billion in wage gains for STARs. We are driving action and clarity by providing insights, customized tools, and services to advance skills-first hiring practices so STARs can thrive. No organization can do this alone – we must work together, on purpose.
70+ million U.S. workers are Skilled Through Alternative Routes such as on-the-job experience, military service, community college, partial college completion, certificate programs, and workforce training, rather than through a bachelor’s degree. STARs exist in every industry, geography, and represent the demographic diversity of the country.
Employers need skilled talent to innovate and compete – but without STARs, they only have half a talent strategy. Opportunity@Work offers STARs-driven tools and data to implement skills-first hiring.
Whether you’re trying to hire skilled talent as an employer, or you’re a policymaker advancing skills-first hiring — our STARs Public Sector Hub can provide you with the tools and resources you need.
Leaders of systemic change know that the biggest and toughest problems can only be solved when partners work together. Opportunity@Work optimizes your time and investment, and ensures your portfolio contains a STARs-inclusive strategy.
In a new report, research from ACT and Opportunity@Work explores the challenges and opportunities facing rural STARs, while also highlighting the potential of leveraging data-driven tools and STAR-centered workforce initiatives to better support a vital yet often overlooked segment of the U.S. workforce.
This transformative grant will accelerate national nonprofit’s effort to drive $20 billion in wage gains for workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs).
The one-stop resource center for federal, state, and local governments to address their most pressing workforce challenges with workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs).
In 2022, Opportunity@Work launched a national public service campaign called “Tear the Paper Ceiling,” developed in partnership with the Ad Council, aiming to raise awareness of STARs’ potential and the barriers they face. More than 60 leading corporations and organizations have committed to tear the paper ceiling by adding their voice and taking action. In just one year we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of new jobs opened up to STARs that were previously inaccessible.
