Essential Skills Program (ESP)

The Problem: The pandemic has drastically altered the workplace. Individuals have to quickly adapt to find new employment or transition to remote work. Soft skills programs with measurable outcomes designed to serve broad populations are needed now more than ever. 

Our Solution: The Essential Skills Program team has spent the past decade leading a successful soft skills curriculum and training process where learners earn digital badge credentials employers actually value. We provide free lessons, customized content, and train-the-trainer sessions to support behavior change.  

Impact at Scale: Cultivating partnerships across the country provides input for the creation and hybrid delivery of our free soft skills content that is useful for job seekers and valued by employers. This collaborative, open access approach to scale will help build an empowered, educated workforce making economic mobility possible for those who need it most.

Today's workforce requires reskilling and upskilling. The Strada Education Network's Public Viewpoint: COVID-19 Work and Education Survey revealed 34% of Americans feel they need more education or training to replace a lost job with one that pays a similar wage or salary. While many workers need to reskill, less than half (44%) of Americans say they have access to the training they need.

In addition to technical skills, soft skills training programs are needed now more than ever. In their Global Trends Report 2019, LinkedIn surveyed 5,000 talent professionals in 35 countries for insights into employer needs across industry sectors. Although 92% of those surveyed considered "soft skills" of equal or greater importance compared to "hard skills," the report revealed the struggle companies face in training for and assessing soft skills.

Training programs that relied on in-person delivery of lessons now require updates for hybrid delivery. Often online programs do not contain digital badge certifications that are searchable by potential employers. Many MOOC providers include soft skills training embedded in other degree coursework. This limits the applicability of the skills to a particular field of study, rather than establishing baseline skills required in the numerous career pivots workers must make.

The Essential Skills Program has a comprehensive approach to training that addresses current limitations in the field through providing a full offering of free baseline lessons for the soft skills ranked highest in importance by employers. ESP’s skills list was established through a series of employer and industry advisory panels and verified through global job description data from Emsi and LinkedIn. 

Video lessons will be created for the following skills categories: Adaptable, Collaborator, Effective Communicator, Self-Aware, Resilient, Culturally Responsive, Digitally Literate, Empathetic, Innovative, and Problem Solver. The baseline lessons will explain the skill and why it is essential in the workplace. Self-reflection activities will be included to prompt analysis of personal patterns and preferences. Guidance will be given on how to identify the preferences of others to find common ground and achieve desired work outcomes. 

These free video lessons will be hosted on the ESP website for ease of access. They will also be hosted within ESP's white-labeled Learning Management System (LMS), and on open-access LMS platforms. In all locations, website and LMS platforms, the lessons will culminate in digital badge assessments built on Badgr's open standard platform to provide learners with portable certifications verifying their skills training. 

The ESP team provided free soft skills lessons and grant-funded trainings across 115 California Community Colleges under the New World of Work program (www.newworldofwork.org). Recognizing the growing need for skills training outside of formal education, we transitioned to focus on adult learners, job seekers, and incumbent workers.

Our engagement with diverse learners across California, which expanded into Oregon through workforce development board partnerships, allowed us to identify an immediate need of rural and urban job seekers, incumbent workers, and adult learners: refining interpersonal skills in order to gain or retain employment.  

Our goal is to develop new, free training lessons and digital badge certifications, tied to successful completion of assessments, that will allow our users to successfully convey and display their acquisition of the soft skills required by employers.  

We have a cohort of pilot partners acting as peer reviewers on behalf of the populations they serve. These include native tribal members, rural and urban low-income workers, immigrants, ESL populations, adult learners, and veterans. To ensure we are responsive to these target populations, a cohort of 300 test users will complete pre and post assessment surveys to provide feedback on the skills lessons and badge assessments prior to finalization. 

ESP is in direct alignment with the Reimagining Pathways to Employment Challenge because it focuses on the same core problems of unemployment and underemployment, heightened in historically underserved populations who lack access to technology and training. With a team background in education and workforce development, our solution to reskill/upskill adult learner, job seeker, and incumbent worker populations with a focus on soft skills directly addresses a primary barrier to successful employment. Our inclusive approach for a pathway to employment is to provide a baseline offering of free training, and to utilize open platform technology to provide digital badge certifications. 

Full Time Staff: 2- CEO & COO

Part Time Staff: 3- Curriculum Developer, Survey Assessment Developer, Digital Badge Data Analyst

Contractors: 3- Non-Profit/IP Consultant, Technology Platform Consultant, and PR/Marketing Consultant

Development Partners (providing in-kind match of expertise/time): 3- Equity/Diversity Expert, ESL Expert, Adult/Incumbent Worker Expert

We are currently under the Fiscal Sponsorship of the non-profit Social Good and have access to their Accounting, HR, and Project Development support teams: 13 Social Good staff members

To ensure our organization is diverse, equitable, and inclusive we have engaged three expert organizations:

Digital Promise will provide insights into their Adult Learner Variability Navigator, which explores the socioeconomic factors that impact learning in adults. Sarah Cacicio, Senior Project Director, will provide advising to ensure the ESP team can incorporate these concepts into skills training as well as our team culture.

Gear Up, founded by Gerard Purim in the Netherlands, will act as the point of contact for a collaborative group across multiple countries to provide feedback on ESP's resources through the lens of ESL/ELL needs. This input will also be taken into account for team onboarding.

Heather Singmaster, Director of CTE at the Center for Global Education, will provide peer review of the ESP lessons based on Asia Society's cultural awareness best practices, providing a check for both inclusion and equity within ESP's content and hiring practices.

Programs delivering soft skills are primarily part of a larger library of technical skills, with a few focusing exclusively on soft skills. Some organizations are: Skillsoft, Biz Library, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and Skills Camp. Programs should be evaluated on six key metrics. When doing so, the Essential Skills Program is the only organization that meets these metrics and creates a new dimension of performance.

• LMS Interoperability- Skills delivered through multiple Learning Management Systems
• Learner Experience Record- Data collected on learner interaction with lessons
• Assessments- Checks for understanding
• Open Badge Pathway- Portable digital badge certifications to showcase learning
• Advanced Analytics- Predictive analysis of data to enhance skills offerings
• Base Content and Customization Options- Skills content to start a learning journey and advanced skills 

Many programs offer LMS Interoperability and Learner Records, but Assessments often provide evidence of comprehension only. ESP has developed an innovative approach to address this by aligning assessments with digital badge certifications. Learner Badges are earned upon successful completion of trainings. These badges are "leveled up" through guided prompts/feedback in the LMS platform to earn an Instructor Verified Badge. Finally, an Employer Verified badge is earned when the individual displays the skill in the workplace, showing competency. This process is showcased through an open access online Badge Pathway. ESP Pathways will provide predictive analytics to see trends in soft skills needs across industry sectors. This data will also drive our development of customized content to expand beyond traditional skill definitions into combined skill sets required in specific workplaces.

ESP content development relies on two technology categories: a white-labeled LMS platform with export capabilities for online skills lessons and an open standard hosting platform for digital badges. 

ESP will work with NextThought (https://www.nextthought.com) to customize their LMS with our embedded instructional design components: pre and post surveys for learners linked to mentoring support, skills lessons organized into learning pathways, instructor feedback, and culminating digital badge assessments issuing skills credentials. Next Thought is able to create lesson exports for external LMS platforms while maintaining data collection within the system and in external systems. This enhanced data collection will ensure ESP’s predictive analytics capabilities. 

The ESP team worked with Concentric Sky’s Badgr platform (https://info.badgr.com) while creating the New World of Work 21st Century Skills Badges and will build upon this work while developing the Essential Soft Skills Badges. The platform allows ESP to design question and video-based assessment pages that can be aligned with cut scores to trigger the awarding of a digital badge. These badges will be collected using Badgr’s Pathway platform. The Pathway allows individuals to display their verified learning journey to employers, including through social networks. It also links to real-time labor market data from Emsi providing access to searchable soft skills listings embedded in national and international job descriptions. ESP badges, built on the Badgr platform, allow individuals to not only search out employment linked to their strongest skills, but also allow employers to find applicants with the verified soft skills they require.  

NextThought’s customizable Learning Management System is used as a tool for customer, employee, and partner training in online and hybrid online/in-person settings. Some of the companies using NextThought’s platform are: Accenture, Airbnb, Baker Hughes a GE company, Boeing, Chegg, Google, and HR.com. 

A demo of the NextThought platform can be viewed here: https://www.nextthought.com/#video-action-1

Badgr’s platform issues skills-based digital credentials, stackable learning pathways, and portable learner records. It is used globally by over 25,000 organizations including Microsoft, Mozilla, Starbucks, Dignity Health, International Code Council, and the California Community Colleges. 

Badgr demos can be viewed here: https://support.badgr.com/portal/en/kb/articles/webinars-and-archives

An overview of how Badgr integrates with real-time labor market data from Emsi can be viewed here: https://www.economicmodeling.com/2020/09/08/badgr-emsi-partner/

Dr. Kirsten Hill, Measurement/Evaluation Specialist, initiated our Theory of Change process and will help refine:  

Define and Align 

We defined two primary inputs for 2020-2021:

• Identifying the soft skills desired most by employers to create online training lessons.
• Designing digital badge assessments for each skill.

Outputs were aligned with the needs of groups served by our program to create support resources that achieve desired outcomes: 

• Employers- need employees who have received soft skills training based on the skills gaps they see in their workplaces
• Our partner organizations- need training resources to serve adult learners, job seekers, and/or incumbent workers
• Our learners- need effective soft skills training to gain or retain employment 

Focus and Create 

We focused on a rigorous way to evaluate and produce the best outcomes for these target groups by developing surveys that moved beyond the common soft skills titles to an exploration of the socially preferred behavior patterns represented by those skills in the workplace. The theory of change was that a focus on behaviors rather than titles could remove preconceived ideas individuals have about particular soft skills. This behavior data would then reveal learning outcomes to embed in our skills lessons that create the most value for learners in the workplace. This theory was first applied to our Needs Assessment Survey, vetted through cognitive interviews with employer groups. 

Collect and Analyze 

The Needs Survey will be distributed through our partner network and the behavior data will define the learning outcomes in our soft skills lessons. To aid this development, we will create pre and post surveys for learners going through the baseline skills lessons as test users. These learner surveys will provide user input to guide edits and help refine behavior-based learning outcomes in our lessons, and will provide a check for equity across populations. 

Our survey for partners will gather data regarding specific needs they have as workforce development, education, and training organizations when they provide our soft skills offerings. It will also rely on behavior-based definitions of skills to ensure train-the-trainer sessions we deliver to partners align with the skills training their clients receive. 

Our impact goal for the next year is to provide peer reviewed soft skills training lessons, aligned with best practice frameworks for addressing the needs of adult learners across demographic backgrounds, to 300 test users identified through our partner network. 

These users will also have the opportunity to earn digital badge credentials. The anticipated impact will be increased options for their employability based on their soft skills training verification. 

At the end of Year 1, from the feedback of these 300 test users, we plan to refine our skills lessons and badge assessment questions prior to a wider release. Our impact goal in Year 2 is to provide these lessons and digital badge assessments for free through our website, our customized LMS platform, and Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) sites. This will allow the widest learner pool possible and ensures our initial partners will continue to have access to the lessons and badges to use with their adult learner, job seeker, and incumbent worker populations. It also ensures individuals will be able to find and utilize the lesson and badge resources even if they are not associated with a partner organization. 

Our goals in Years 3-5 are to develop customized lessons and digital badges based on the needs of our growing partner network. Fees gathered for this customization will allow our non-profit to update and pay hosting costs for the baseline lessons and digital badges we offer for free, ensuring the content is available to anyone needing to upskill/reskill.

There are two barriers to address in achieving our goals over the next five years. 

The first is financial. We are committed to providing free baseline resources for our target populations of adult learners, job seekers, and incumbent workers seeking training. To develop and host these resources, we initially need financial support through grant funding. We are in the process of securing 60% of this funding through Walmart philanthropy, but we still need to secure the additional 40% of funding required for next year’s prototype phase where we will be developing and testing soft skills lessons and digital badges specifically designed for our new target populations. 

The second barrier that directly relates to scale over the next five years is the exposure required to grow our network of partners. Our current partners are primarily based in California, Oregon, and Idaho. They represent a range of organizations that serve our target populations by providing soft skills resources. In order to achieve scale distributing our free resources, and to achieve sustainability by continuing to work with organizations to develop fee-based customized content, we need to continually grow our network of partners. While running New World of Work, we saw this was most often done through exposure at conferences, in presentations/webinars, and by word of mouth from organizations that promote effective work being done to aid economic recovery. We seek to cultivate the same positive reputation and network of supportive organizations to promote our work as we develop our non-profit.

The funding from Walmart we are in the process of securing will pay for our lesson development, LMS platform, and partial staff time. To further address the first barrier, we are actively applying for grants aligned with workforce development that support the use of technology in delivering training to underserved populations. Securing this funding will allow us to develop and host digital badge assessments and a digital badge pathway, will help fund ESL/ELL onboarding resources for our target populations, and will support analytics features within our LMS platform. 

To address the second barrier, broad exposure required to grow our partner network, we are specifically choosing funding applications such as MIT’s Solve Challenge. In these applications, a core component is the opportunity to join like-minded communities of practice to receive mentoring and support. We feel mentoring support is invaluable when developing a new non-profit, as is establishing connections to a network of national organizations. 

New World of Work’s lessons were designed for delivery in classroom settings, and because there is no centralized data sharing agreement that exists among all 115 California community colleges, the only learner data we were able to collect was from optional surveys and digital badges earned. In developing the methodology of the Essential Skills Program, collecting consistent learner outcome data is a core goal. To do so, we plan to incorporate pre and post learner surveys into our LMS system, and embed them into the exports that will go into external LMS systems. In this way we can collect accurate data related to learner demographics (with all personal identifiers removed), completion of soft skills lessons, as well as digital badges awarded. In our post survey design, we plan to collect qualitative feedback from users on positive outcomes resulting from the skills training, including acquisition of employment.

ESP is hosted under the comprehensive fiscal sponsorship of Social Good Fund, a California registered non-profit that creates and establishes positive influences for individuals, communities, and the environment. Social Good sponsors and grows projects that positively impact and develop local communities into healthier and happier places to live and work, so they are uniquely positioned to support the work of ESP. Over the course of the next year, the ESP team will file paperwork to establish its own 501(c)(3) non-profit status. At that time, Social Good will release all intellectual property and assets created to the Essential Skills Program team.

The team that brought the New World of Work (NWoW) soft skills program to scale across 115 California Community Colleges now brings a decade of expertise to the Essential Skills Program. 

ESP's CEO and co-founder Rajinder Gill conducted career development research at Oxford University before starting NWoW. She will continue development work with Erin Maloney, who has expertise in instructional design and helped author the secondary and postsecondary NWoW lessons. 

ESP's COO and co-founder Kate O'Rorke brings years of experience directing non-profits and managing statewide partnerships through NWoW. She will work with ESP's partners in collaboration with Dr. Kirsten Hill. Kirsten is a nationally recognized researcher who designed the ESP Needs Survey and will also develop pre and post assessments for test users. 

ESP team member Billy Ogle will work with Badgr to establish badge assessment pages and a badge collection pathway. Billy brings his expertise developing the NWoW open source Learner Digital Badges, which resulted in over 21,000 badges issued to date. 

The team learned the importance of a shared understanding of soft skills, while also accounting for differences in backgrounds and beliefs, through working with the diverse California Community Colleges population. This included first generation college attendees, formerly incarcerated adults, veterans, minorities, and individuals with disabilities. The team understands how to create adaptations to address learner needs. As female non-profit founders and members of mixed immigrant families, ESP’s CEO and COO are very aware of barriers to equitable employment and seek to address these through openly available resources. 

Prototype partners interested in ESP were given options for participation: peer review of lessons and badge assessments, identifying individuals to test out lessons and assessments, distributing ESP’s Needs Assessment Survey to gather data from employers on soft skills needed most in their industry sectors, and/or applying for combined funding for content development. 

North State Together, a workforce development coalition serving the Far North counties of California, will provide peer review to guide ESP lesson development for rural environments with economically disadvantaged and immigrant populations. The group will identify test users of the lessons and share the Needs Assessment Survey across their network of employers. They will also assist in grant applications for combined funding.

Worksystems, an Oregon based workforce development board, will provide insights on their peri-urban and urban job seeker and incumbent worker clients who require soft skills training across multiple industries. They will send out the Needs Assessment Survey to gather feedback from employers.  

Mission 43, an organization formed to support post-9/11 servicemen, women, and their spouses by providing opportunities to succeed through the pillars of education, employment, and engagement, will identify groups of veterans to test out the ESP lessons and badge assessments.  

Native Forest Resources Inc., an organization that addresses the ongoing threat of wildfires by incorporating ancient tribal practices with the latest science and technologies to improve forest management, will identify tribal members to test the baseline lessons and badge assessments. They will also assist in grant applications for combined funding.

The ESP team recognizes that finding ways to improve job opportunities can be difficult for adult learners, job seekers, and incumbent workers.  Additionally, current options for online soft skills trainings can be expensive, time consuming, and are not always recognized by employers. To address this, ESP will offer an extensive range of products and services including free baseline lessons, digital badge certifications, and an open badge pathway encompassing the ten soft skills ranked highest in importance by employers.  

ESP will provide full access to all baseline products and services after the development and testing phases have been completed. To create a path toward financial sustainability, ESP has developed the following tiers:

Tier 1: Provide a full offering of FREE baseline lessons for each essential soft skill.

-Tier 1 will rely on grant funding generated from multiple sources to cover all development and testing costs, and will include in-kind contributions from a variety of partners.

Tier 2: Develop higher-level and/or customized soft skills content for a specific industry or organization.

-Tier 2 will include delivering Needs Assessment Surveys to client networks in order to guide the development of higher-level, fee based training materials. The development of fee-based training content is integral to the sustainability plan of establishing ESP as an independent non-profit.

Tier 3: Provide train-the-trainer sessions and analytics for organizations wishing to support sustained behavior change.

-Tier 3 will include organizations paying for a personalized training experience as well as access and support with advanced analytics.

ESP has developed a sequenced approach to sustainability. Phase One is the development of free lessons and digital badge assessments supported by a combination of grant funding and in-kind match time donated from partners. Phase One also includes the formation of an independent non-profit organization, which will allow for the transfer of all content and IP created under Social Good Fund to ESP. Under the guidance of Kelly Keller Esq. of the Keller Law Firm, who specializes in Intellectual Property (IP) regulations and Contracts, ESP will be completing 501(c)(3) paperwork during this time period in order to establish a separate, independent non-profit organization.

During Phase Two, ESP will develop higher-level or customized soft skills content for organizations or specific industries. Partners and organizations will pay for this higher-level customization, and funds received will be funneled back into the non-profit to support the hosting costs of the free content. 

Phase Three will provide train-the-trainer sessions and analytics for organizations to support sustained behavior change. This may include joint venture partners who will pay to create derivative soft skills content and generate data reports specifically for their organizations. This approach allows ESP and all partners to create true sustainability and scale within their own organizational structures.

Revenue generated by the non-profit will ensure the free baseline soft skills lessons are maintained and updated in addition to covering ongoing hosting fees.  Additionally, ESP will continue to apply for grants and work collaboratively with partners to identify and secure combined funding opportunities.

The Essential Skills Program launched with the support of a Walmart Planning Grant awarded Spring of 2020 in the amount of $200,000.  This grant opportunity initiated the fiscal sponsorship agreement between ESP and Social Good Fund and supported ESP’s content development activities, under a registered 501(c)3 non-profit that is fully mission-aligned.  During the planning grant phase the ESP team successfully transitioned the New World of Work program to the California Community Colleges Chancellors Office so they could continue to operate the program within the California community colleges system.  This process allowed the team to pivot and focus on the creation of the Essential Skills Program including the development of the organizational mission, vision, strategic plan, and complete business model.

During the Fall of 2020, ESP was approved by the Walmart Foundation to submit a Letter of Intent, which subsequently received review and approval.  ESP was then invited to submit a formal grant application through the Walmart Foundation National Giving grant portal in the amount of $500,000.  The grant application was reviewed and received full approval from the Walmart Foundation Board of Directors on November 10, 2020.  The ESP team is currently working with Walmart and fiscal sponsor, Social Good, to review and sign the complete grant agreement.  The grant application in process with Walmart will cover development costs including content creation, video lessons, a portion of staffing costs, and marketing/social media.

As a part of the Walmart planning grant, ESP established a partnership with Goodbets, an organization designed to support smaller teams with a big vision for the future. The Goodbets Group is a boutique fundraising firm focused on positioning, messaging, and building internal fundraising capacity. This partnership was critical in creating a list of potential donors that align with the mission and vision of the Essential Skills Program.

Currently, the Essential Skills Program team is seeking a combined funding approach by submitting grant applications with Walmart in the amount of $500,000, Amazon Web Services through the Imagine Grant in the amount of $100,000, and the Future of Work Grand Challenge powered by XPRIZE and MIT Solve to cover remaining development costs, with all funds expected by January 2021.

The Amazon Web Services Imagine Grant was submitted September 30, 2020.  Grant funds were requested for the development of the soft skills digital badge assessments, resulting in portable badge credentials, requiring a budget of $100,000 to cover infrastructure build-out and maintenance costs. The Essential Skills Program team is actively seeking funding for badge assessment development through the Amazon Web Services Imagine Grant as the badges are integral to soft skills verification and rely heavily on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) product solution platform.

ESP will utilize the MIT Solve grant to fund the cost of advanced analytics to embed our surveys into the LMS platform in order to provide soft skills data that could benefit and refine the entire field of study. 

We are anticipating support from the Walmart Foundation National Giving grant to cover 60% of the development costs necessary to fully fund the Essential Skills program.  ESP will need to secure close to $300,000 to fund the project in its entirety.  Through the application of combined funding from Walmart, Amazon, and potentially the MIT Solve Challenge, or a combination of other potential funders, the complete project will include lessons for all ten essential baseline soft skills, the design and hosting of digital badges and the digital badge pathway, ESL and ELL onboarding resources, and advanced analytics capabilities from our LMS platform.

Upon request, ESP will provide a detailed program budget for the 2021 fiscal year.  The program budget includes a breakdown of all expense categories including personnel, program implementation and activities, materials and supplies, consultants, marketing, and evaluation.  The projected date for project launch is January 1, 2021.

Through the Reimagining Pathways to Employment in the US Challenge, the Essential Skills Program team will be able to address all potential barriers to success. While initial funding has been secured from Walmart, in order to develop, test, and scale the program in its entirety, further funding sources must be identified and secured.  Walmart no longer commits to funding projects at 100% and challenges organizations to seek additional funding sources in order to achieve project completion.  

The Essential Skills Program methodology and business model is an ideal fit for this application because it combines education, innovation, and technology to create skill-building and training opportunities for job seekers, employees, incumbent workers, and those currently unemployed/underemployed.

This opportunity also provides the Essential Skills Program team with the possibility of expanding their internal and external partner networks.  By engaging with workforce development boards, ESP can readily test and deliver FREE content and accessible technology solutions to support workers at the national and international levels.  The awarding of IBM Cloud Credits and virtual coaching with IBM technical experts will be critical in the development and implementation of the technology platform and open badge pathway.  Our team seeks to collaborate with a variety of partners to identify the most accessible solutions for the reskilling/upskilling of employees in order to fuel economic mobility for those who need it most.

We are seeking advice from solution technology partners to support our LMS platform and enhanced analytics capabilities.

Partners who may provide assistance with product/service distribution can aid with product testing and delivery to the end users.

We would welcome advice on funding and revenue models to further our organizational mission and secure enough funding to transition from the prototype phase to a fully established non-profit organization. 

In the process of establishing a non-profit, ESP would benefit from guidance on identifying board members/advisors to help further the organizational mission and vision.

Partners who can assist with marketing, media, and exposure can help to fuel the widespread use of the FREE baseline lessons and possibly identify future funding opportunities or clients that wish to purchase customized content.  

Other desired support includes advising on long-term data collection tied to employment outcomes.

We would welcome the opportunity to partner with any/all of the workforce development boards listed in this challenge to have our Needs Assessment Surveys distributed to their employer partners and/or to have their partners as test users of our content.  The following partners would be able to provide assistance with the distribution and vetting of our products and services with a real time audience and we would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with:

Capital Workforce Partners

Serving: North Central, CT 

Michigan Works!

Serving: Western & Southwest, MI

San Diego Workforce Partnership

Serving: San Diego, Chula Vista, & Carlsbad, CA 

Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas

Serving: Dallas, Forth Worth, & Arlington, TX

MassHire Central Region Workforce Board

Serving: Worcester, MA & CT

Hampton Roads Workforce Council

Serving: Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Newport News, VA/NC