"STARs Relevant" is a job posting filter in the Lightcast ecosystem, helping customers identify opportunities, companies, industries, and regions that prioritize capabilities over degrees in order to attract talent.
Opportunity@Work defines a STARs Relevant job as a role that provides economic mobility and is accessible to workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs). Below provides more details on the methodology and answers some frequently asked questions about specific roles.
STARs Methodology
The STARs Relevant job filter represents a significant structural upgrade from traditional degree-required filters by shifting the focus from academic credentials to proven economic mobility and skill-based accessibility. Bachelor’s degree requirements are frequently used as a proxy for capability, but the STARs Relevant filter identifies roles based on three rigorous, research-backed criteria:
The role must fall within a framework of proven upward mobility (Opportunity@Work’s O/G/D framework).
It must offer a median hourly wage of at least two-thirds the national median.
It must demonstrate at least 10% of the current workforce in the role are STARs.
By embedding this data-driven approach as an insight directly into Lightcast’s labor market systems, decision-makers can use the filter to turn the aspiration of skills-first hiring into an operational reality. Surfacing high-value roles where STARs can realistically succeed and gain economic mobility benefits workforce planning by eliminating the guesswork and risk associated with removing degree requirement, providing defensible data on the roles where skills-based hiring is already working.
FAQs
1. What does “STARs Relevant” mean?
“STARs Relevant” is a Lightcast job posting filter that helps identify opportunities, companies, industries, and regions that prioritize capabilities over degrees in order to attract talent. In Opportunity@Work’s framing, a STARs Relevant role is one that offers economic mobility and is accessible to workers who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs).
2. How is the STARs filter different from a simple “non-degree-required” filter?
Unlike a basic non-degree-required filter—which only shows roles where employers do not list a degree requirement—the STARs Relevant filter identifies occupations where workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs) already participate and can achieve economic mobility. To qualify, a role must align with Opportunity@Work’s mobility framework, pay a median wage of at least two-thirds of the national median, and have at least 10% of the current workforce made up of STARs. This means the filter highlights roles where skills-based hiring is already demonstrated in the labor market, not just roles where a degree requirement is absent.
3. Why is the STARs Relevant filter useful?
The filter is designed to make skills-based hiring more operational and less aspirational. Rather than relying on degree requirements as a proxy for capability, it highlights roles where STARs already have access, can realistically succeed, and can gain economic mobility. That gives decision-makers more defensible data when evaluating where degree requirements may be unnecessary and where skills-based hiring is already working in practice.
4. How are Registered Nurse roles considered accessible to STARs?
Registered Nurse roles are indeed accessible to STARs. In fact, STARs make up 27% of Registered Nurses nationally. Nearly all states accept an associate’s degree as the education requirement for taking the NCLEX-RN exam, and in 2023 there were about 1 million STARs working in RN roles. Access can expand further in states that offer alternative licensure pathways or participate in the Nurse Licensure Compact, where the share of STARs in RN roles is higher than in states without those options.
5. What about Accountants and Auditors? Are those roles accessible to STARs?
Yes, STARs make up 11% of Accountants and Auditors, but access is more limited because all states require 120–150 hours of college credit to qualify for the CPA exam, which generally amounts to at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent accounting coursework. Even so, STARs do work in these roles—about 185,000 in 2023—and many may enter through adjacent career pathways rather than direct CPA licensure. Common gateway roles include Accounting or Auditing Clerk, with transferable experience often coming from occupations such as Customer Service, Receptionists and Information Clerks, Billing and Posting Clerks, Bank Tellers, and Bill and Account Collectors.