The Jobs of the Future Can Hold Promise for STARs
In a recent report, the World Economic Forum (WEF) predicts that emerging professions are expected to double as a proportion of the workforce over the next five years. The rapid growth of these new to world jobs represents a significant challenge to employers hoping to fill these positions using traditional hiring requirements, as college programs can’t scale quickly to meet the growing skill need. Even under current economic conditions with high unemployment, employers express concern about filling key roles.
However, STARs, workers who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes, have the requisite skills and can fill these emerging roles, if employers change the way they source, hire, and develop talent.
Opportunity@Work, working with McKinsey & Company’s Organization Practice, examined pathways to emerging roles and found significant opportunities for STARs. Consider, for example, Patient Care Coordinators, who work with patients to keep track of their health data and provide consultation on care. This is a relatively new role: about 340,000 exist today, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is expected to grow by 8% in the next 10 years — faster than the average occupation. Sixty-nine percent of the postings for these jobs require a college degree, effectively blocking STARs, who make up 60% of the workforce.
Our analysis shows that STARs have the skills to do this work and some have been able to navigate to these roles despite the degree barrier. We reviewed 8,000 resumes of STARs who are currently Patient Care Coordinators and found that there were over 3,000 unique pathways STARs took to become Patient Care Coordinators. The majority of these workers moved through a series of healthcare and administrative support roles, such as medical technicians, medical billers, and administrative assistants to achieve the better paying Patient Care Coordinator role. Our analysis finds similar patterns for other emerging roles where STARs moved from Computer Support Specialists and Operational Research roles into fast-growing Data Analysts and Cyber Security Specialists roles. These transitions may sometimes require “last mile” training or certifications, but in many cases, STARs develop most of the skills needed to move into these roles through prior work experience.
These pathways forged by STARs provide a template for employers looking to source talent for the hard to fill jobs of the future.
Employers can leverage roles with similar skills profiles as a potential source of new talent, and design training programs and talent development strategies that cultivate STARs to fill these in-demand roles. For example, while Home Health Aides do not have the skills to transition directly to Patient Care Coordinator roles, they do have the skills to fill Medical Assistant jobs, which can, in turn, lead to Patient Care Coordinator roles. Employers planning to hire more Patient Care Coordinators could design training programs for Home Health Aides to become Medical Assistants, as a long-term strategy to fill their Patient Care Coordinator Roles.
Employers could do something similar for STARs who they’ve already hired in support and entry-level roles. For example, employers planning to expand their data analytics capabilities could create a skills-based pathway to that role from Administrative Assistant through Business Analyst, a position that our analysis shows is a “gateway” into the Data Analyst position.
STARs hold a unique promise to fill the jobs for the future. Our analysis shows that STARs have already forged their own pathways into these roles. With intentional action, employers can put more STARs on these pathways, which not only will meet their needs, but also set STARs up for economic opportunity in the economy of the future.
This blog post was written by Martin Evelyn, Insights Manager at Opportunity@Work as part of the new STARlight Blog Series.
The STARlight Blog Series shares data, insights and stories, from Opportunity@Work research as well as the research of others in the field, to shed light on barriers to and opportunities for economic mobility for STARs.
