Hub to Boost Skills-Based Hiring in Government Goes Live
A broad resource to help federal, state, and local governments implement skills-based hiring is up and running.
The Skilled Through Alternative Routes, or STARs, Public Sector Hub officially launched on May 16, 2024. STARs is backed by the non-profit Opportunity@Work.
The online hub is billed as a “one-stop shop to equip public sector leaders at the federal, state and local levels with the resources, relationships and know-how to advance skills-based practices in the public sector.”
It provides a slew of data, research insights, policy insights, and other information to help government leaders build skills-based hiring programs. It also allows for collaboration on ideas and provides opportunities to receive assistance and insights on the hiring process.
The goal: lessen the reliance on college education and instead get qualified people who know specific skills into these critical jobs, even if they don’t have a college degree. The need for workers is ever-more present, especially with low unemployment, high-demand for certain skillsets, and the government competing against the private sector.
There are an estimated 70 million STARs in the United States.
“Opportunity at Work started with a simple premise: if you can do the job you should be able to get the job. And that your valuable skills should count, no matter how you got them,” said Opportunity@Work CEO and co-founder Byron Auguste, who noted that states are currently leading the way on skills-based hiring, with 21 states no longer screening candidates for bachelor’s degree in the hiring process.
The STARs Public Sector Hub started accepting applications for its first cohort of state leaders to discuss their skills-based hiring experiences this month.
Among the topics to be discussed: how to best make skills-based hiring work, how to ensure that the process is equitable, and best practices to use when assessing skills in lieu of traditional degrees.
The goal is to “explore what that answer would be, and how that applies to the public sector,” said Opportunity@Work Senior Manager of Policy Henry Bartholomay.
The hub is supported by numerous organizations including McKinsey and Company, Google, and LinkedIn.
