The paper ceiling is a phrase used to describe the career limitations that bachelor’s degree requirements can have on U.S. workers. With more than 70 million people skilled through alternative routes—or STARs—there is a huge talent pool going untapped. In this episode of the Unstoppable Together Podcast, host Jennie Brooks talks to Bridgette Gray, the Chief Customer Officer at the nonprofit Opportunity@Work. Learn how we can all shift our mindset when considering candidates and specifically what Bridgette thinks government contractors can do now in light of the bachelor’s degree requirements stemming from the federal government. To learn more about Opportunity@Work, visit: https://opportunityatwork.org/
Jennie Brooks:
Welcome to Booz Allen Hamilton's Unstoppable Together podcast, a series of stories that unite us and empower each of us to change the world. I'm Jennie Brooks with Booz Allen Hamilton, and I'm passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please join me in conversation with the diverse group of thought leaders to explore what makes them and all of us unstoppable.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Unstoppable Together podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Brooks, and today I'm excited to be joined by Bridgette Gray, the Chief Customer Officer of Opportunity@Work. Opportunity@Work is an organization whose mission is to expand career pathways and access to good jobs for people who are skilled through alternative routes, or STARs as they're often called. Bridgette, welcome to the podcast.
Bridgette Gray:
Jennie, thanks for having me today. I really appreciate the opportunity.
Jennie Brooks:
Oh, we're so excited to dive in with you. Thanks so much for being here. I mentioned STARs in your introduction. Tell us a little bit more about STARs and why are you so passionate about this cohort of 70 million US workers. Is that right?
Bridgette Gray:
That is absolutely correct. And so since you start there, I actually think it's really important for us to ground the discussion we're having in who exactly STARs are. What most people don't know is that more than half of the workers in this country don't have a bachelor's degree. We're talking about 140 million people, 70 million of them, 70 million plus without a bachelor's degree. And so oftentimes when you think about it, workers are often overlooked because employers will make the assumption that if you don't have a degree, it means you have no skills. But the reality is, as you noted, there are 70 plus million workers who are skilled through alternative routes, or as we refer to them as STARs rather than a bachelor's degree.
So if 50% of the workforce do not possess a bachelor's degree, then we have to make sure that STARs are recognized. And so when we start to think about this talent category, it includes any worker who is 25 years of age or older, has a high school diploma or equivalent, does not possess a bachelor's degree, and then when you start to think about just the demographics of STARs, they include 61% of Black workers, 55% of Hispanic workers, 66% of rural workers, 61% of veterans. And so STARs make up the full representation of the workforce when you start to think about who STARs are. But to your second question about passion, this has always been my passion for years. I've worked in this space for about 30 years without even knowing who STARs were because I'm really passionate about equity.
And the work that we do is really rooted in equity because one of the things we know is that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. And there's a barrier that has been put in place that has prevented STARs from being able to achieve economic mobility, and that barrier has been the paper ceiling, even when those STARs can even demonstrate their skills for higher wage work. One of the things that we note just through our data and insights is that over the last 20 years, STARs have lost access to 7.4 million middle and highways jobs. And so when you start to think about that, that's a huge impact of-
Jennie Brooks:
Massive.
Bridgette Gray:
... of loss. Exactly. And then today, when we think about STARs on average, STARs have to work 30 years to earn the same wages that college graduates earn from day one of their careers. And when you look over the last 40 years, while earnings for college graduates have gone up, if you adjust for inflation for STARs, they earn less today than they did in the 1970s. So if we're saying that half of the US workforce doesn't have the same opportunities as the other, that's a problem that's rooted in inequity that I am really passionate about being a solution for.
Jennie Brooks:
It's so clear, your passion. How did you find your way into this work? What's your story?
Bridgette Gray:
Oh, Jennie, yes, I have a story. I was a mom at 17 and I had the most amazing supportive family. And because I had such a supportive family, my life looked great. I had this whole trajectory. I didn't struggle. None of those things happened. And when President Clinton decided in '96 to sign the Welfare Reform Act, I was actually working in the State of Tennessee at the time, and I immediately was like, "Oh, my God, how do I help women transition into careers for themselves?" And the reason why that was important to me is because if it hadn't been for my own, I call my family, my social capital, my own network, my own support system, I don't know what my life could have potentially looked like.
I actually think I would've been really ambitious like I am now, but without the support system at 17, you actually don't know what life would look like. And so I wanted to be a support, a help, and figure it out. I jumped in and I started teaching classes three to four times a week, and I would take the women out every Friday to help them look for jobs. And, Jennie, when I tell you I was so disappointed in just the policy itself and how it was rooted in deficits, it wasn't rooted in the assets, it wasn't rooted in the skills that people have. And what got me there was every Friday when I took them out to look for jobs, they had to show this piece of paper to an employer, and the employer had to sign to say that they actually looked for a job that day.
But at the top of the form, it said, "I am part of the Welfare to Work program." That in itself was the barrier to an employer because there is a misconception and a perception that the person that's here in front of me, they don't have any skills, they're lazy, they don't want to do anything. They're being forced into a space. And so I wanted to figure out, "Well, how do I get on the other side of that? How do I get on the policy side? How do I get on the side where I can write a program and say, 'This is what it should be.'" And that's how I got into this work. I started working in organizations, primarily nonprofits. I started thinking about people's assets over their deficits.
So it drives the way I think about people and the equity in which I know that we should be treating everyone and what they come to the table with. That's how I got into this work. And so I've been at Year Up, I've worked at Per Scholas, the Corporation for National and Community Service, Points of Light Foundation, and I've worked with AmeriCorps programming, all of that, because I want to see. I didn't have the nomenclature STARs at the time, but I have it now and I've worked with STARs my entire life. I now have a talent category to attach to that. So that's how I got into this work. It started personal for me and morphed into a mission, a momentum.
Jennie Brooks:
Thank you for sharing that. What an amazing story, and I'm just so grateful to have been able to listen to you for these few minutes. Bridgette, there's a lot to unpack. Let me go back to one of the components you just mentioned is around socioeconomic status, and you've got companies out there that are looking to grow a diverse and technical talent base. When you layer on socioeconomic status, tell us a little bit about how you approach counseling companies on all of that. Where do they begin? How do they start to think about this?
Bridgette Gray:
That's the beautiful part of being able to work in this space, is to not just hold all that information to ourselves, but literally be able to have these conversations with companies. And so that's a really great question, and I think it's a massive part of why we are counseling companies and guiding them to tear the paper ceiling and to hire STARs. So one of the first things I talk to companies about isn't just about diversity for just the sake of talking about diversity. It's very broad. When you think about it, it's beyond just race and gender. And so what I really love to anchor in with companies on is diversity of thought.
When you bring different backgrounds and different perspectives to the table, you actually do better for your business. And STARs, like everyone else, everyone comes from different backgrounds. Their lived experiences are actually informing the workplace, and it helps to bring new perspectives to businesses. But beyond that, one of the things I noted before is, STARs are disproportionately workers of color and rural Americans. When we talk to companies, we want to identify what their pain points are and how STARs can actually help them solve those pain points. I spend a lot of time in what we call discovery and diagnoses with an employer, and that is literally understanding everything from the pain points to how you write your position descriptions, how you do your onboarding, what types of assessments are happening.
These are all the things that I like to do when I'm talking to a company because I really want to understand how STARs fit within their framework. Then the first thing we usually hear from an employer is that they're facing a skill shortage, and what we like to say to them is, "Well, I don't think there's a skill shortage because there's not a people shortage." There's 32 million STARs who have the skills and potential to be able to see transformative wage gains of 50% or greater if they got the chance to show what they can do. And then the next thing we're likely to hear from an organization is, they want greater diversity in our workforce. And as I noted before, this is not really just about diversity for diversity's sake. So if you really want to start about where is DEI? How do we look at that? You have to start to think about STARs as part of that talent strategy.
Jennie Brooks:
Okay. This work also forces us to have a conversation about trust and why we're willing to trust a paper degree, but why we're not always trusting learned skills in the same way. Tell us a little bit more about how you've seen that inequity play out.
Bridgette Gray:
Part of the conversation with employers is, you think about it in a sequenced approach. So the first part of that is trying to listen and understand what their pain points are, what goals are they really trying to set. So when we can establish a root in that level of trust with each other in a conversation, it becomes a lot easier, and this is a crucial part of the conversation. The question that always comes up, and I've heard this from employers before, which is, "How do you validate the skills of a STAR to your question?" And the first thing I say to them is, "Well, tell me how you validate the skills of a bachelor's degree holder." And then it becomes crickets because to the employer, they're like, "Well, the degree is the validation of skills." And I'm like, "No, the degree is validation of education. Its skills, they're very different than that."
And so what we want is for a STAR to be able to prove that they can do the job, and the answer to that is the same way college graduates are able to demonstrate that they can do the job as well. So you have to at least get in front of the employer first to be able to talk about that. So if the bachelor's degree is something you want, you should really be able to identify what it is that you want from this bachelor's degree. More than likely, they want some type of skill credential, but you can look at credentials like Google Career Certificates or CompTIA certificates from a technical space that can prove a person's technical aptitude. One of the other conversations I have with employers, because I've heard this before, which has been, "Well, the degree just says, you have so much grit and determination and follow-through."
And I'm always like, "Okay, we went through a whole pandemic where essential workers were holding our country together, and I would say that they have grit, determination and follow-through as well." So the degree doesn't tell you that. This is not one of those moments where it's, a degree holder hasn't done hard work, or a degree holder should not be recognized. It is, we should have a balanced equal playing field and not all positions require a degree. And one of the things we saw was, we worked with the State of Maryland to move away from a pedigree-based hiring. That's what they did. They worked with us over a year ago to really remove degree requirements, and they've been able to see thousands of STARs coming in and joining their ranks now where hiring managers are no longer talking about the skills gap. They are actually hiring STARs because they've been very specific in tagging those jobs.
Jennie Brooks:
That's exactly where I was going to go next. So this conversation around tearing the paper ceiling, it could be particularly difficult for certain market segments. I'm thinking of the federal space in particular, which typically mandates a bachelor's degree. So as we look at those segments of the market, the federal space and others that might not immediately be able to tap into the STARs talent pool, what would you recommend for them as we consider shifting away from the paper ceiling?
Bridgette Gray:
Because we've done so much work with state government, we've also started to do some work with federal as well. So we provided some guidance to OFCCP, which is the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. We've done some work with EEOC on their hire initiative. And so this federal government question is a really good question, particularly around federal contractors. So before we plug into that, what I would love to do is just include what we already know about STARs in the federal government space and what this could mean if the regulations were changed in federal contracting. So STAR representation in the federal government, it actually mirrors that of the labor market, believe it or not.
When we talked about STARs earlier, we talked about 70 million or 50% of the US labor market are STARs. Actually, STARs make up roughly half the federal workforce, 49%. That's consistent with the representation of STARs in the labor market. They're actually better represented in the federal workforce than they are in state or local government because I think, if I can recall, in local government, STARs only comprise about 40% of the workforce. And STARs are also well represented from a diversity standpoint in the federal government. So there's a few things I would encourage federal government contractors to do.
First thing is, they can find roles that don't have a bachelor's degree or don't need a bachelor's degree requirement to help them fill them with STARs. They could look at the same data that I just dropped here and see how many STARs are actually in the federal government and use that as their proof of concept that STARs actually are amazing talent. The other thing that companies could do is see how many STARs you already have working in your company. Where did they start and where are they now? That tells you already that STARs have the ability for career mobility. That is your proof of concept right there, that a STAR has the abilities to move their career. They can talk to legislators and policymakers, lobbyists.
They can look at the position descriptions and start to revisit and rewrite them. And so being able to take those position descriptions and put them in a way where it's easy for people to understand. And then if people want to rewrite those descriptions, once their policy changes happen, they would be ready to start to tap into the STARs hiring pool. I just say all of that to say, STARs are well represented in the federal government now, but the federal government doesn't have that nomenclature and contractors don't know that. And if they're already hiring STARs, they would have an opportunity to look at how many STARs are already there and start to think about how they open up more doors.
Jennie Brooks:
Wow. Bridgette, with the numbers that you cited earlier in our conversation, if we just are able to capture a small percentage of that year over year over year over year, we move in the right direction.
Bridgette Gray:
We do. And our entire mission is about rewiring a labor market. If we do that, we've completely rewired the labor market. We've started to think about people in a very different way. If we were to take those measured approaches as companies, they would see so much value just to their business. There's nothing in the world better than having a diverse amount of people around the table. Their business needs to be represented from all backgrounds and people, and it's better for their bottom line.
Jennie Brooks:
Bridgette, at the end of every podcast, we give our guests some free space to share their final thoughts with those listening. What would you like to leave us with today?
Bridgette Gray:
Oh, great question. I would love to leave you with a few things. I want employers to understand they can tear the paper ceiling. They can stop using that as a barrier to screening STARs out and think about the amazing talent you're missing out on. Think about a person in your life that you know that may not have a bachelor's degree, and think about all the things that make them a beautiful human, but also make them an amazing talent, and utilize that thought within your own business. How do you open your doors up and create a much more equitable workforce? That's what I would hope people would take away from today, and there's a way for us to do it. And opportunity at work can help in that space.
Jennie Brooks:
Tear up the paper ceiling. Thank you, Bridgette.
Bridgette Gray:
You're welcome. Thank you.
Jennie Brooks:
Thanks for listening. Visit careers.boozallen.com to learn how you can be unstoppable with Booz Allen. Be the future. Work with us. The world can't wait.