Gladeo: An Inclusive, Next-Gen Career Development Platform

Gladeo is building an inclusive, next-generation, research-based career exploration and development platform for the future of work. Linkedin is a valuable career advancement platform for people who already have careers and networks. Gladeo, however, is a new online platform for people who aren’t yet “linked in,” who don’t have a career path, who lack relatable role models and access to one-on-one career guidance. Gladeo helps users from all backgrounds see the stories of relatable role models, discover exciting career paths, find educational and training programs, discover and tap into professional networks, and find entry-level internships and jobs, online, for free. By providing free, online access to high quality career guidance, Gladeo is breaking down barriers to socioeconomic mobility in the U.S., building inclusive, scalable on ramps to high-paying middle- and high-skill careers in sustainable industries.

Gladeo is addressing workforce skills shortages and gaps, income and wealth gaps, and an unsustainable student debt crisis. Of employers surveyed, 45% report struggling to fill roles due to lack of skills. At the same time, some 30-45% of the working-age population in the U.S. are unemployed or underemployed. The workforce continues to be stratified by race with African Americans and Hispanics grossly underrepresented in the higher-paying industry sectors. Young Americans are being saddled with a student debt burden that could cripple their ability to achieve a sustainable economic future, and it is becoming more and more evident that a bachelor’s degree alone is not enough. As labor market demands evolve and become more difficult to navigate; these gaps will only widen without innovative solutions like Gladeo that are designed and built with equity, inclusion, and impact at the forefront.

Our primary audience is 16-24 year olds. But our users range from younger than that to mid-career changers in their 30s and 40s. 

The service delivery model to help low-income young people access employment currently relies on school counselors and case managers at government-run career centers. These programs are severely under-funded, under-resourced, and aren't able to provide the type of intensive, individualized services needed to provide young people with the information, skills and experience required to successfully navigate career pathways. Every year resources and funding are cut further, and these over-burdened systems are asked to do more with less.

The cost-effective way to provide young people with what they need in a way that appeals to them is through an innovative user-facing tech platform. Other online career platforms have videos and basic career information, but none except for Gladeo's employs equity-oriented and impact-oriented design methods backed by research to ensure the intervention will be effective for our target population.

Gladeo's platform leverages purposeful storytelling, open knowledge sharing, impact-oriented UX design, data, and cross sector collaboration, to help everyone have equitable access to high-paying middle- and high-skill careers in sustainable industries.

First, finding and following a great career is a privilege often reserved for those with means and networks. If you come from a group that’s historically underrepresented, like African Americans in tech, Asian Americans in media, or women in STEM, it can be paradigm-shifting to see someone like you doing something that you never thought possible. Gladeo uses research-based storytelling and inclusive videos to increase the visibility of relatable role models who have successfully achieved careers in fields where they are historically underrepresented. Here are a few examples:

https://gladeo.org/spotlight/creative-director-watch-and-listen-chrissis-story

https://gladeo.org/spotlight/tv-writer-watch-and-listen-raamlas-story

https://gladeo.org/spotlight/video-game-designer-watch-and-listen-akiras-story

Secondly, Gladeo’s platform uses videos, storytelling, and a rich, digital informational interview database to facilitate the dissemination of all the kinds of knowledge (explicit, implicit, and tacit) that are crucial for successful career navigation. On Gladeo, users can take a free personality and interests assessment which matches them with potential career pathways. Our Career Profiles, digitized from hundreds of informational interviews with professionals, provide information like a typical day at work, education, skills and certification requirements, career progression maps, tips on how to land your first job, links to helpful resources and online courses, etc. (https://gladeo.org/career/entertainment-marketing)

Thirdly, Gladeo utilizes impact-oriented UX design and big data to drive measurable outcomes by guiding users to take meaningful steps to advancing their careers. While a career exploration journey on Gladeo might begin with a user watching a video about Jeanette the data scientist or advice on what coding language she should learn, the platform then directs her to real-world resources, optimizing recommendations based on data and her Gladeo profile, for education programs (like an e-learning course on Coding Python on Coursera.org), networking events (like a Meetup for Data Professionals in LA), and career-building entry-level internships.

Lastly, by partnering with workforce development stakeholders, Gladeo is harnessing the power of cross-sector collaboration to address the problems we are trying to solve efficiently and at scale. Gladeo partners with K-12 school districts, community college districts, community-based nonprofits, workforce training programs, employers, economic development corporations, and city/regional governments to participate in rolling out the regional sections of our platform, starting with Los Angeles County and San Francisco Bay Area.

Gladeo is innovative for its impact- and data-driven approach to UX design, for using research-based methods to design for equity and inclusion, and also for our user-centered approach to maximize meaningful, long-term impact for all stakeholders we serve - the career seeker, the teacher or career counselor, the employer, and the regional workforce board or government.

Gladeo’s platform utilizes impact-oriented UX design and big data to drive users to offline action and measurable outcomes. By processing actionable insights on demographic and behavioral data gathered on each user, Gladeo is able to optimize recommendations for resources, tools, events, and educational programs for each Gladeo user according to their unique personal profile, location, career development stage, and career goals.

Gladeo also applies research-based methods derived primarily from four research frameworks to ensure that our intervention is designed for maximizing equity and inclusion for marginalized groups. They include Social Cognitive Career Theory, The Motivational Theory of Role Modeling, “Growth Mindset”, and Culturally Responsive Teaching. These frameworks guide our team as we develop and iterate our career development intervention to effectively serve low-income, first-generation, and historically underrepresented minorities and women, and the uniquely challenging barriers these groups face when choosing, starting and pursuing career journeys.

These theories inform (1) the human-centered UX design of our platform and future product roadmap, and (2) our content and narrative strategy, including the diversity of interview subjects, the attributes we highlight, and the priority we put on reflecting authentic stories (i.e. relatable life experiences, challenges, failures and successes) 

Please click on the following link to view Gladeo's Theory of Change

https://bit.ly/3cazL4r

Our platform which launched May 2018 has served over 340,000 users and registered over 60,000 subscribers.

Within the next year: 

(1) That Gladeo triples its user and subscription base.

(2) That Gladeo has fully built out regional sections for Los Angeles County and San Francisco Bay Area.

Within the next five years:

(1) That Gladeo is widely known and utilized as THE trusted platform for career inspiration and navigation for millions of learners from all backgrounds.

(2) That our regional Gladeo sections are built out across the U.S. and have successfully created meaningful collective impact and collaboration across workforce stakeholders in education, workforce training, employers, and public services.

(3) That Gladeo has achieved significant, measurable impact increasing participation and success for millions of low-income and historically underrepresented youth in high-paying middle- and high-skill careers in sustainable industries.

(4) That high school counselors, teachers, and parents across the country use Gladeo to introduce careers to students. That every teacher, no matter how under-resourced their school, has access to quality, current, youth-friendly, culturally-responsive career guidance information and is empowered to support every student's career exploration journeys, including helping them make well-informed education and training program decisions.

(5) That Gladeo’s hybrid structure social enterprise is profitable and continuing to pursue its mission in newer, more innovative, and more impactful ways.

Funding and cash flow

Raising growth capital. Securing workforce grants and licensing revenue for our college versions.

2 Full-Time Staff

Various contractors including video production, reporters, writers, technology

(1) Content Creation: Combined 25+ years of experience in video, editorial and entertainment experience. See https://gladeo.org/spotlights for examples of our work. 

(2) Technology Development: Successful track record for launching tech product. See Gladeo.org for our current quality of work. Experienced team of advisors from leading Edtech VC and companies.

(3) Navigating Government and Politics: Successful at building relationships with workforce stakeholders in government, economic development corporations, and education.

(4) Education and School counseling: Top school counseling experts (https://gladeo.org/index.php/advisory-council)

Alameda County Department of Education

Contra Costa Department of Education

Earn & Learn East Bay

Also in talks with major Los Angeles County workforce stakeholders.

Gladeo's platform is free to users. We monetize with regional workforce grants, licensed college versions, job listings, corporate sponsorships, higher ed marketing revenue, and affiliate revenue.

We are applying to the Digital Workforce Challenge to be a part of the MIT Solve’s community. We are hoping to match with potential donors, funders, and partners who share our values and our mission to create a more inclusive, equitable, and prepared workforce of the future.

City and Regional Economic Development Corporations and other significant regional workforce coalitions.