United in Tearing the Paper Ceiling

Accenture has been leading the professional apprenticeship movement in North America since 2016, helping bridge the gap between talent and opportunity. Our apprenticeship program follows a learn-and-earn model with benefits providing a pathway to a full-time role with Accenture typically after a 12-month apprenticeship. To date, we have hired more than 2,000 apprentices and in FY22 apprentices made up 20% of entry-level hiring.

At Chevron, we work to make the world a better place and we are committed to unlocking human potential and reducing barriers to equity. The Paper Ceiling campaign seeks to eliminate hiring barriers by shifting the focus to on-the-job learning, or work experience, as an alternative route to build valuable skills. We strive to empower people around the world to improve their lives, achieve their aspirations and meet their full potential by creating jobs and building local workforce skills.

With a belief that the tech industry can serve as an engine to unlock economic mobility in communities around the world, the Cognizant Foundation works to ensure all individuals have equitable opportunity to thrive in the jobs driving the future. Since 2018, the foundation has awarded more than $65 million to organizations working to support historically excluded communities—including STARs—and build more equitable pathways into the tech sector.

At Gap Foundation, we know we can’t solve large-scale problems alone, so we partner with nonprofit organizations and other funders to combine resources and invest in initiatives that promote system-level changes. This supports our social license to operate and strengthens our connections with employees, customers, and communities. We are committed to supporting STARS through Old Navy’s This Way ONward program – since 2007 we have provided mentorship, coaching, and on-the-job skill building for more than 15,000 young STARs.

Google is committed to providing economic opportunity for everyone. Google Career Certificates provide job seekers with access to more than 1.5 million in-demand jobs through rapid reskilling in IT support, data analytics, digital marketing, and more, without the need for a college degree or prior experience. There are over 70,000 certificate graduates in the U.S., and 75% of graduates report an improvement in their career within six months of completion.

IBM is a skills-first employer, investing in the future of work with a holistic approach that fosters access to education and training while creating a more diverse pipeline of applicants. With a commitment to skill 30 million people globally by 2030, IBM is working to close the skills gap through policy, programs, and recruiting.

We know that talent is universal, but opportunity is not. Indeed has committed to helping 30 million job seekers facing bias and barriers get hired by 2030. As the world’s #1 job site, by putting skills-based hiring at the forefront of everything we do, we believe we can make hiring better for the 3.5 million employers on our platform and create a more equitable workforce for the 350 million people who use Indeed to find a job each month.

Jobcase launched in 2015 as the only social platform dedicated to workers. Jobcase is now the 2nd largest destination for career services (Comscore Media Metrix, Aug 2022) with 20M+ active members monthly in the Jobcase Network and helping thousands of employers grow their workforce. Millions of workers connect on Jobcase to help each other get ahead at work by getting answers to questions, finding jobs, and getting support and motivation.

LinkedIn’s vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. We partner with community organizations around the world to support STARs in accessing the skills, networks and knowledge needed to build meaningful careers. We’re also helping companies shift toward a skills-first approach, creating more equitable outcomes for STARs, and better matches for hiring managers.

We are excited to recruit, hire, and grow more STARs at McKinsey. Many of our entry-level tech roles in the US, for instance, are open to STARs with degree-equivalent skills and experience, and we’re scaling support for apprenticeships, bootcamps, and training that accelerate pathways into our firm. This holistic approach recognizes candidates’ problem-solving ability, intrinsic capabilities, and potential over academic pedigree.

Walmart values skills and knowledge gained through work experience, volunteer work, while serving in the military or through formal education, whether online or in-person. Since 2015, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have invested in organizations that work to create multiple pathways to equitable advancement for workers who do not have college degrees.

At Workday, a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, we believe skills are central to navigating the changing world of work and are committed to supporting the shift to a more skills-based workforce to drive more opportunity for all. We deliver on this mission in the way we think about talent, the way we innovate, and the way we help shape meaningful skills-focused policies for the world around us.