Building Education and Workforce Readiness in a Digital World

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BUILDING EDUCATION & WORKFORCE READINESS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

!Tess Posner

Managing Director!

@tessposner@samausa_

Ved Photo

SamaUSA provides low-income Americans with digital skills and access to internet-based jobs to help them move out of poverty.

OUR MODEL

SamaUSA trains low-income populations to earn money through online job platforms. By bringing digital literacy and Internet-based work opportunities to disadvantaged areas, we aim to transform communities across the nation through technology.

MARKETABLE SKILLS

Business and Personal Blogging!Customer Service!Virtual Assistant!

DIGITAL WORK READINESS

Soft skills!Entrepreneurship !Financial Literacy!

ACCESS AND EXPOSURE

Representatives from online work platforms provide extra coaching !Each graduate is equipped with a laptop

CURRENT OPERATIONS

SamaUSA developed an online work training program that piloted in March 2013. !After meeting our pilot benchmarks, we began grew to serving six communities nationwide. We currently are expanding both online and internationally.

THE FUTURE OF WORK

Knowledge Economy

Global Competition + Collaboration

Gig Economy

Fluid Work Arrangements

Remote Work

Rapid Change

Globalization

Technology

Recession

Sources: RAND, DOL, Future of Work, Jacob Morgan

Demographics

INCREASING DEMAND OF TECH SKILLS

56% Female

In 10 years, 75% of jobs are predicted to require tech skills, up from 50% today.

Percent of jobs

requiring tech skills,

2024

Source: Pew Internet Project

STRATEGY 2013 (EST.) 2014

RISE OF THE SELF-EMPLOYED WORKER

0%

20%

40%

60%

1989 2014 2020

Today, there are over 53 million freelancers and they are projected to be 50% of the workforce by 2020.

*Projected

Source: oDesk/ Elance, Intuit Report

Online work is growing over 22%, compared with 3% in offline jobs. !!There are over 80 online work platforms posting millions of jobs per year in hundreds of job categories.

VIRTUAL JOB MARKETPLACES BOOMING

Source: oDesk/ Elance, Intuit Report

 Curriculum !Prepare students for the new economy with core skills needed for jobs of the future.!Program Structure  Able to adapt and change along with labor market.!

OLD MODELS NEED REFRESHING

Workforce training and education must evolve in response to the changing economy:

1

2

CORE SKILLS FOR THE NEW ECONOMY

Digital skills !

Entrepreneurship !

Flexibility and adaptability !

Life-long learning!

SUCCESS STORY: FROM LOCAL TO VIRTUAL

“I’m learning to use the Internet as a tool to teach myself new skills” !Kristen Logan, 40, Merced, CA Administrative Assistant !!Virtual Assistant

WORKFORCE EDUCATION PROGRAM STRUCTURE

Responsive to labor market changes1

Agile and Iterative2

2 Data-driven

BUILD

LEARN MEASURE

Build baseline program

Implement baseline to test assumptions & measure relevant metrics

Apply learning to the next iteration of the program

This cycle allows us to quickly generate hypotheses, test assumptions, and make improvements based on collected data.

LEAN STARTUP FOR AGILE PROGRAMS

CHANGE BRINGS OPPORTUNITIES!Greater access to information !New sources of income + jobs !Meaningful work + lifelong learning !Collaboration on a global scale!

THANK YOU!

@samausa_!

facebook.com/samausa1