Work for Humanity

Most workforce development programs focus on teaching specialized skills for specific, in-demand jobs. Such programs are both time-consuming and costly to produce, sometimes forcing employers to wait years for a reliable stream of graduates. In fast moving industries, training programs can be obsolete almost as soon as they are created. 

We are proposing a 6-month experiential learning program that teaches people how to teach themselves nearly anything, leveraging the vast learning resources that already exist, and then apply that learning in a variety of contexts. As Zach Stein, a philosopher of education, has said, “Education today must prepare us for the future, even though the future is a moving target.”  

We aim to produce confident learners who have the drive, independence, and technical skill to succeed in nearly any job and adapt in a constantly changing environment. This creates viable alternative pathways to economic and professional mobility for marginalized populations.

Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum forecasted the core skills required for most jobs will change by an average of 42% by 2022. For workers, a front-loaded education will no longer be enough to sustain one's entire career. For employers, they must not only hire for the skills they need today, but the skills they will require in the future, which may not be knowable or possible at the time of hiring. These problems are exasperated by a pedagogy focused on knowledge specialization, rather than equipping learners to be agile and adaptive.

At the same time, 65 million adults toil in low-wage jobs that offer little opportunity for professional advancement. In fact, these workers are more likely to exit the workforce than move up the job ladder. What's missing is a fast, affordable, and effective education program that liberates human potential at scale and gives everyone a chance at the American Dream. We need options for those who do not have the time, resources, or inclination to pursue a traditional college education. And we need mechanisms to help workers without a college degree demonstrate they are equally capable of valuable, complex work, if given the opportunity.

We work with parents aged 25 and older who currently don't have a college degree and have aspirations for a better career. Our team has a long history in career coaching and workforce development. Between us, we have worked intimately with hundreds of people to escape low-wage jobs and create a new professional trajectory without having to get a college degree. Our program meets our students' needs by:

• Helping students discover new professional interests and complete the program in just six months;
• Sourcing projects and mentors from the local community, so they have the exact skills and network they need to change jobs;
• Utilizing income share agreements to eliminate upfront costs. We cap payback at 1.1x and set high income thresholds for repayment;
• Providing a small weekly allotment to cover additional childcare or transportation costs that may be incurred;
• Leveraging technology as much as possible to provide flexibility for those with unpredictable schedules;
• Providing career assistance from assessments to help choose a new career to advice on resume writing, interviewing, and networking for jobs.

As the world of work changes, it becomes difficult to find employees with experience in emerging technologies and work practices. Our goal is to produce good learners who have a solid foundation in digital literacy, critical thinking, problem solving, and soft skills that can be applied to any number of jobs and who can adapt in their industries over time. This is in line with recent HR trends where an individual’s potential for growth will be more important than the potential for filling a static role. 

Our 6-month program is divided into two parts. This first half is focused on learning how to learn. This is the one skill that never goes out of date and yet is never explicitly taught in our education system. Here we leverage the vast existing educational resources already available online and through MOOCs, as well as new technologies such as VR/AR. We teach our students to set their own learning goals, find and vet appropriate educational resources, and seek out mentors to obtain feedback on their work. These are exactly the kinds of skills that will be required from lifelong learners in the workplace.

The second half of the program focuses on how to think and apply new knowledge in a variety of contexts. Unlike most workforce development programs, we expose students to multiple industries and environments instead of just one. This develops the psychology needed for constant learning and adaptation. We do this exclusively through project-based learning opportunities in collaboration with local businesses and non-profits. This provides a variety of projects for students to work on and also gives them access to mentors who can help them develop the specific skills they'll need in their new professions.

At the conclusion of the program, we provide career counseling to help students land a new job or explore starting their own business.

Our program draws together three key concepts, all of which have a solid research basis: 1) the often overlooked importance of psychology and mindset for learning and resiliency; 2) non-cognitive skill development, which provides the foundation for effective self-guided learning, adapted from the Habits of Mind approach from Acosta and Kallick; and 3) project-based learning, which has been scientifically shown to result in a greater depth of understanding of concepts, a broader knowledge base, improved communication and interpersonal/social skills, enhanced leadership skills, increased creativity, and improved writing skills.

1. We produce agile learners, not just good knowers. Thanks to the internet, knowledge is abundant and easily accessible. At the same time, knowledge is incredibly fleeting. Last year's best practices may no longer be relevant. We focus on helping students understand how to learn, how to think about what they’ve learned, and how to apply that knowledge to real world business problems where there are no easy answers. Those with high levels of learning agility tend to learn more from their experiences, work with others constructively, and are cool and resilient under the pressures of change. They are also curious, have a passion for ideas, like to experiment with test cases, and naturally engage in skill building activities in their spare time.
2. We develop mindset in addition to skill sets. We believe the future of education looks more like coaching than teaching. It is one thing to talk about taking responsible risks in the abstract, for example, but it is quite another to summon the courage to expand your comfort zone and constructively learn from the experience.
3. Our entire program is experiential. We ask students to tackle new projects over and over again, so they get used to the discomfort of doing something they've never done before. They still learn domain and industry specific knowledge, but they learn how to find, assess, and apply that knowledge on their own and with the guidance of mentors.

1. Currently, we have zero students.
2. In one year, we anticipate working with 100 students at two different locations.
3. Once the course material has been tested, refined, and proven to work, we will move to an online format with certified trainers around the country who can guide the local project selection and mentoring. In five years, we expect to impact 10,000 students/year across 25 or more different locations. We expect to continue to expand exponentially in this fashion.

This year we need to formalize our agreements with local partners, choose relevant projects for the students to work on, and recruit the first cohort to begin the program. We also want to develop better assessments that demonstrate how someone's skill as a learner has improved as a result of our program. 

Over the next five years we'll evaluate how much of the material can move to an online format and develop a "train the trainers" certification, which will allow us to expand (or franchise) the program to many different locations simultaneously. We'll also be looking to bring significant media attention to the success of our students, as one of the outcomes we're most excited about is changing the perception that those without a college degree are only capable of "low-skill" work. 

Our biggest barrier is getting the start-up funds we need for adequate staffing. There is quite a bit of upfront work involved in developing the right partnerships as well as choosing and scoping the projects for students to work on.

Market barriers: Additionally, we will need to formalize partnerships with organizations to assist with recruiting participants, providing the training and offering project-based learning experiences.

Over the next five years, we'll have more technical challenges as we figure out how to offer blended learning that brings the best of online learning and in-person experiences and coaching. We'll also want to develop data analytics to demonstrate the enhanced learning agility of our graduates.

Financial barriers: We're currently in discussions with a partner to provide seed funding for one of the locations we want to operate in. We are applying for a number of grants/prizes for early-stage efforts, and we're also building a pitch to take to local philanthropists. Finally, once we've formalized our initial partnerships, we may explore city or federal funding for workforce development. 

Partnership barriers: Our team has established relationships with dozens of nonprofits, schools, workforce training programs and businesses from prior experience to draw from. We have begun developing partnerships specifically for this project in Seattle, WA, Ocala, FL, and Charlotte, NC already. Given the innovative approach we have developed, we are confident that it will resonate with many more in our professional networks.

Technical barriers: One of our members (Gresham) has significant contacts with organizations with expertise in online learning, psychometric assessments, and expertise acceleration. We'll utilize these contacts to convene a Board of Advisors that can guide us in technology development, implementation, and hiring.

We are currently under fiscal sponsorship with the nonprofit The Foundation for Inclusion.

We currently have one full-time staff member, two part-time staff members, and one regular volunteer. 

Dr. Jennifer Gresham has helped hundreds of people around the world find greater fulfillment and financial success as a high performance coach and business strategist. She is the former Assistant Chief Scientist of the Human Performance Wing for the Air Force Research Laboratory and is the author of several publications on human performance augmentation. As a 20-year military veteran, she has personal experience performing a wide variety of jobs, teaching herself what she needed to be successful, and doing it all over again every 3-4 years.

Pam Dibbs has coached leaders and teams at organizations including Microsoft, Costco Wholesale, Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Avanade, and Redfin.One of her specialties is driving dramatic performance improvements by enhancing emotional resiliency and leveraging humor. She has a Psychology degree from Leicester University, UK, and post-graduate diploma in Training Management.

Matthew A. Poland's focus areas include understanding the impact of automation and emerging technologies on the economy, developing high-quality relationships with businesses and employers, and developing meaningful work-based learning experiences. He has more than 19 years of experience in workforce development for marginalized populations, and he brings the perspective of people who face barriers to education and employment to every project.

Christina Houghton is a small business advisor, program manager, and organizational leader. She has experience managing large, complex technical initiatives with planning, coordination, risk management, financial oversight, metrics, and performance reporting. Christina has an MBA in IT Management, and her career experience includes working for AT&T, Microsoft, Safeco, and the Association for Talent Development.

Key beneficiaries:

- Parents currently working in low-wage jobs: we provide a 6-month educational experience that helps them learn new skills, develop a portfolio of relevant projects, connect with local area mentors, and career counseling to land a new job.

- Local businesses: we provide a pipeline of new talent who has basic level skills in the industry and the ability to independently teach themselves new skills over time, so they can adapt and grow with the business.

- Communities: We aid economic development efforts by creating and/or filling good-paying jobs, increasing earnings in underserved communities, and building resiliency in local talent pools. 

We plan to reach financial sustainability through a variety of revenue sources:

1. Income share agreements with students: this essentially acts as a loan, where students pay nothing up front, and then are asked to pay a portion of their salary upon graduation, with a cap of 1.1x the loaned amount. In order to keep this amount small, we will test a loan of $2500 per student, with pay-back starting once they have a job that pays $35,000 or more. This will ultimately generate $200,000 per year per location, once the first round of loans are complete.
2. Sponsored projects: we will ask those entities submitting a project to pay a small fee to cover costs of needed equipment/educational materials. We anticipate these costs to be between $500 and $2500, depending on the project. 
3. Sustained donation/grants: we will have a full-time person doing fundraising after the first year, where we can share success rates and stories.