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

  • SXSW EDU

    Explore the Future of AI in Higher Ed at SXSW EDU 2025

    This March 3-6 in Austin, TX, the SXSW EDU Conference & Festival celebrates its 15th year of exploring education's most critical issues and providing a forum for creativity, innovation, and expression.

  • man working on laptop outdoors

    Digital Leadership Must-Haves for 2025: A CDO's Picks

    Now that he's more than a year and a half into his chief digital officer role at NJIT, we've asked Ed Wozencroft to reflect on his areas of concentration: What work must digital leaders "own" in 2025?

  • From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah's Digital Signage Evolution

    Jake Sorensen, who oversees sponsorship and advertising and Student Media in Auxiliary Business Development at the University of Utah, has navigated the digital signage landscape for nearly 15 years. He was managing hundreds of devices on campus that were incompatible with digital signage requirements and needed a solution that was reliable and lowered labor costs. The Amazon Signage Stick, specifically engineered for digital signage applications, gave him the stability and design functionality the University of Utah needed, along with the assurance of long-term support.

  • digital artwork of glowing, interconnected neural-like shapes on a gradient background of deep blue and vibrant purple

    Google Announces Upgrade to Flagship Gemini AI Platform, Enhancing Multimodal Capabilities

    Google has launched Gemini 2.0, designed to empower enterprise users and developers with advanced multimodal capabilities and enhanced performance.