5 Organizations Reimagining Career Navigation for Adult Learners

The United States Department of Education has announced five finalists in its Future Finder Challenge, a competition announced last September seeking digital tools to help adult learners navigate from education to careers. Each finalist will receive $50,000 to help develop a prototype as well as six months of "virtual accelerator" assistance to further develop their product, ED explained in a news announcement.

In stage one of the competition, the challenge received 76 submissions from teams including minority, women, veteran, LGBTQ+, and Native American-owned organizations across 29 states. Project prototypes ran the gamut from skills assessment and career matching to mentor access and job application tools; submissions were evaluated by multidisciplinary judging panels with expertise in adult education, ed tech, career navigation, industry, and inclusion and accessibility.

The five finalists are:

  • BestFit, a platform that matches learners with on-campus, community, federal, and philanthropic resources such as childcare, healthcare, transportation, meals, and financial assistance, to help them design their own support networks;
  • Gladeo, a regional career navigation platform that combines a virtual career day with a program finder, self-assessment quiz, and personalized news about resources and opportunities;
  • Territorium, creator of a mobile application that matches adult learners' knowledge, experience, and interests with current hiring needs and supports learners through the career navigation process, including exploration, training, and application;
  • Wingspans, a web platform that provides adult learners with access to more than 700 career stories and employer profiles; and
  • Workbay, a platform deployed across national, state, regional, and correctional programs that links career exploration, skill-building, job postings, and applicant tracking.

Stage two of the competition offers the finalists access to virtual resources, webinars, and mentorship from subject-matter experts across a variety of topics, including adult education, design research, product design, storytelling, and growth and sustainability, ED said. Upon completion of this "virtual accelerator" stage, finalists will submit market-ready tools and proposals, as well as present at a live demo day this fall. One grand-prize winner will be selected to receive a $500,000 prize, and two runners-up will receive a share of at least $250,000.

The challenge will continue to support the winners into 2024 as they deploy their solutions, ED said. In addition, a repository of challenge resources and videos will be openly available to both challenge entrants and the public.

For more information, visit the Future Finder Challenge site.  

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • a hobbyist in casual clothes holds a hammer and a toolbox, building a DIY structure that symbolizes an AI model

    Ditch the DIY Approach to AI on Campus

    Institutions that do not adopt AI will quickly fall behind. The question is, how can colleges and universities do this systematically, securely, cost-effectively, and efficiently?

  • Copilot Propels Microsoft to Lead Position in Analytics/BI Market

    A new Gartner report on the analytics/business intelligence market places Microsoft in the lead position of the field. The Redmond cloud giant stands apart and alone atop the axes for both the ability to execute and completeness of vision in Gartner's latest "Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms."

  • white desk with an open digital tablet showing AI-related icons like gears and neural networks

    Elon University and AAC&U Release Student Guide to AI

    A new publication from Elon University 's Imagining the Digital Future Center and the American Association of Colleges and Universities offers students key principles for navigating college in the age of artificial intelligence.

  • scientists working in a lab

    Learning Engineering: New Profession or Transformational Process?

    Learning engineering combines theories from the learning sciences with problem-solving approaches from engineering, to create a process that can transform research results into learning action. Here, Ellen Wagner guides an exploration of this transformational process.