Shift_Up Learning Gyms

Learning alone is hard. This key problem limits the desirability and effectiveness of online training as a category. Solving this would unlock the potential of affordable and flexible online training that would unleash economic power for millions of Americans.

Shift_Up created "learning gyms"—physical and virtual spaces with support for online learners—to solve this.

Shift_Up curates training content from top online providers, creating a diverse one-stop community for learners. We wrap this content with physical study space, peer community, accountability, live coaching and events, feedback and assessments, and employer connections—a model more affordable than alternatives that also boosts overall capacity.

We launched a successful gym--in-person, then online during COVID--now with 56 paying members, 96% retention, 73 NPS, and a 60-employer network. We're rolling out partnerships with Coursera and the National Association of Workforce Boards.

Learning gyms can scale through and reinvigorate American Job Center classrooms, helping modernize training across the country.

The priority area within the Challenge problem we are working to solve is the following:

• Increase access to high-quality, affordable learning, skill-building, and training opportunities for those entering the workforce, transitioning between jobs, or facing unemployment. 

Specifically, adults looking to transition careers are often stuck with two bad options: Pay for expensive bootcamps (average cost: $12,000) or college, or else learn alone online.

Online course retention is, broadly speaking, quite low: Just ~50% of first-year students retain annually at online colleges, and less than 5% typically complete MOOCs (massive open online courses). Completion is roughly the same for low-cost, paid courses, too, based on our conversations with instructors at major global learning platforms.

Shift_Up learning gyms are a new middle option between paying for expensive bootcamps and learning alone for free. Shift_Up provides wraparound services for affordable online programs, boosting student retention while maintaining flexibility and affordability.

Memberships range from $99-249/month and allow learners to "try before they buy" with new skill paths, before committing to any specific track. Members access curated learning roadmaps, live drop-in coaching sessions, peer community, accountability, live events, feedback and assessments, and employer connections. Members choose between joining 1x/week classes or pursuing self-paced flexible options.

Outside of our learners, gyms also serve three more key stakeholders: Online training providers, physical space providers, and local employers. Shift_Up is the glue that manages relationships between these essential players and adds critical support systems and community that create a stronger student experience and improve outcomes.

Shift_Up learning gyms are designed to be entirely competency-based. Soon any person who joins our program will be directed to take an assessment of their skills, review their gaps, if any; learn at our gym to close their specific competency gaps, re-assess their skills, and get connected to employers if/when they pass. Anyone can get connected to employers immediately if they pass on the first try.

We target working adults, generally low- to mid-income (often $25-60k in income), and often in their 20s-30s. We regularly conduct user interviews, collect anonymous feedback, and incorporate customer design suggestions. Importantly, our solution impacts their lives not just in economic ways, but also social and emotional ways -- the problem of isolation and loneliness is not just present in the online course experience, but also more broadly in many peoples' lives in other ways. Our learning communities create a new strong social fabric that addresses needs many members didn't even realize they had when they signed up.

Shift_Up is extremely well-aligned to most criteria of the Challenge.

1. Our solution creates a new middle path for learners between bootcamps and learning alone that increases access to high-quality, affordable, effective learning.
2. Our solution creates an affordable way for learners to "try before they buy" when learning skills in a supportive environment, helping them make informed decisions about which pathways and skills best suit them
3. Our solution is 100% competency-based, even allowing learners to just sit for an exam and immediately get connected to employers, if they pass without any knowledge gaps
4. Our solution connects employers to education providers and job seekers at the local level in each gym's geography, leading to stronger local relationships and talent pipelines

Full-time staff: 1

Part-time staff: 36

Shift_Up was founded with a commitment to serve those disadvantaged across our economic and education systems. Over 70% of our membership (customer) base are underrepresented minorities or women and so are 48% of our staff. This is a reflection of our welcoming, inclusive approach across everything we do and an underlying commitment to serving our target demographic.

Learning gyms are a new product category. Though some blended learning services such as hybrid colleges exist, Shift_Up's solution is unique in that it goes beyond just serving online college degree seekers: We design for a user journey starting with in-demand skill development, and importantly, we also aren't tied to any single provider: We offer a number of vetted provider options from which the learner can choose. In addition, we are building proprietary technology and assessments that complement our existing services.

Since our opening last fall, Shift_Up has demonstrated strong preliminary results: 96% learner retention and 73 average net promoter score, with 56 members.

In the next year we will continue online enrollment growth during COVID and begin expansion of in-person spaces post-vaccine, with three new locations during an intermediate, multi-region testing phase encompassing 2021 and into 2022. When ready we will expand quickly, serving over 40,000 learners annually by 2026.

Our services are region-specific, so as we move to new geographies we need to be able to quickly understand each new market's idiosyncrasies and develop key relationships. Our services are also people-heavy, so we need to effectively manage that employment growth and eliminate potential bottlenecks.

We are partnering with organizations that can help us quickly understand each market and connect with key stakeholders, such as the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB). We are also recruiting key advisors and executive staff related to people management and operations so that we proactively address likely challenges as much as possible.

Given the early stage of several of our programs (many specific skill classes launched in just the last few months) we don't yet have good cohort graduation data and placement rates, nor do we have clear outcome data upon exit from our programs (where we ask each member if they accomplished "success" per their original goal upon joining); thankfully, that is mostly because our retention rates are high and we simply haven't had many learners leave this past year. We also have yet to launch some of our key partnerships and do not yet have outcomes data related to those.

- Ray Batra (CEO/founder) has more than a decade of experience innovating in the education sector. He previously worked for two venture-backed startup companies focused on higher education and workforce innovation (Entangled Group, EdSurge), former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Detroit Mayor Michael Duggan, the University of Michigan Digital Innovation team, and as a substitute teacher in one of Detroit's hardest-hit neighborhoods.
- David Chase (Growth) led marketing at CodeCombat, one of the largest coding education companies in the world with 12M+ users, and previously led growth at eSpark Learning and product marketing/content strategy at Xbox Live.
- Shift_Up is supported by Kristen Berman, co-founder of the Irrational Labs behavioral science consultancy, co-founder of the Common Cents Labs at Duke University, and behavioral economics founding team member at Google; and Dr. Israel Touitou, Michigan State University learning science researcher with expertise in curriculum and assessment for students from low-SES backgrounds, as well as program evaluation.

- Together our team leverages expertise and networks in higher education and workforce innovation, local and federal policy, learning science, behavioral science, and more, to accomplish our mission.

We partner with the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) to help assist local workforce boards that want to leverage their space and resources more effectively for hybrid learning programs.

We are also partnered with Coursera, the largest online learning platform in the world -- they are promoting our wraparound support services to their local users. We have LOIs for similar arrangements with 23 other online providers.

Shift_Up sells learning gym memberships that help consumers affordably learn in-demand skills using flexible online content plus wraparound services.

Memberships range from $99-249/month (financial aid available, and we are also piloting income-share agreements). Members access curated learning roadmaps, live coaching, peer community, accountability, live events, feedback and assessments, and connections to employers upon successful completion. Members choose between joining structured classes or pursuing self-paced flexible options, both with full access to membership community benefits.

This provides a new "middle path" between expensive bootcamps (often $10k-30k, upfront or deferred) and learning alone with free/low-cost online courses.

In addition, we partner with vetted online training providers to license learning gym memberships for their local students.

We are nearly profitable today, with additional investment in place to grow the team and our service offerings.

Shift_Up recently partnered with the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) to conduct learning gym validation pilots with local workforce boards in 2021-2022 regardless of the outcome of the Challenge. Given the extremely close alignment of the goals of this Challenge with the goals of our partnership, Shift_Up is applying to the Challenge to access aligned funding for the pilots and would also welcome MIT Solve implementation support.

Our solution is people-heavy; talent recruitment will play an outsized role as we scale. We welcome recruitment support in many forms.

With regards to monitoring and evaluation: This next phase of growth is one in which evaluation should play a more significant role, as we have established a successful proof-of-concept and are now moving into a more substantive pilot phase.

We always welcome additional marketing, media, and exposure support.

For CSU-Global, we would love to explore if there may be a partnership opportunity to pilot learning gyms memberships for your online students.