Shad Ahmed is senior vice president & chief partnerships officer at Opportunity@Work whose mission is “to rewire the U.S. labor market so that all individuals Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs) can work, earn, and learn to their full potential.”

Ahmed explains, “A STAR is a worker in America who does not have a four-year college degree, but has, at least, a high school diploma. We realize that’s 71 million workers and the vast majority of them have skills that could be transferable for higher-wage work.”

Opportunity@Work’s vision for the next ten years is “to enable at least one million working adults to translate their learning into earning – generating a $20 billion boost in annual earnings.”

The organization’s work has three calls to action, including employers’ restructuring of job postings, adopting skills-based talent practices, and looking for new sources for talent.

WorkingNation interviewed Ahmed for #WorkingNationOverheard as a media partner with the JFF Horizons 2020 conference. You can watch all the interviews on our YouTube channel.

Learn more about Opportunity@Work: https://opportunityatwork.org/
Learn more about Jobs For the Future: https://www.jff.org/