On March 13, 2023, Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order that removed college-degree requirements from most jobs in state government.
“You don’t necessarily need to have a degree to be great at your job and North Carolina is in need of talented people who can get things done,” Cooper explained. “This order makes it clear that we recognize the value of work experience and don’t want the lack of higher education to be a barrier to starting or advancing in a state career.”
North Carolina’s action was hardly unique. Other employers have also excised degree requirements from jobs that never truly required college-level training to perform. Twenty-five states have done so in the past two years, by either legislation or executive order. There’s even a trendy term for the phenomenon, STARs, an acronym for workers “skilled by alternative routes.”…