Skilled through alternative routes
Skilled through alternative routes (STAR) is a term to describe adults in the United States without bachelor's degrees who have work experience and skills that position them for transitions to higher-wage jobs. First defined in a 2020 research paper by Peter Q. Blair in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), STARs made up approximately 70 million workers in the U.S. economy as of 2021.
Source: Wikipedia — Skilled through alternative routes (CC BY-SA 4.0)