The Program Giving Workers Without College Degrees a Leg Up

For Americans that have completed higher education, figuring out which skills to acquire is less of a concern when it comes to applying for a job. But for workers without a college degree, the roadmap to getting hired is a bit trickier.
That’s a narrative underscoring the growing skills gap across the country, where an estimated 4.8 million jobs were not filled in August while 9.6 million Americans remained unemployed, according to BloombergAs it becomes more apparent that higher education is not the only answer to unemployment — after all, 73 percent of U.S. jobs do not require a college degree — more companies are stepping up to help Americans find the necessary skills for these available jobs.
LearnUp, a skills training platform focused on entry-level positions in retail, goes as far as to pair potential hires with openings at companies including Gap Inc., AT&T, Office Depot and Staples. The two-year-old company provides training programs tailored to each job, helping applicants learn the specific skills needed to land a position.
“The average person has 15 to 16 jobs in their lifetime. You need something that keeps your skills relevant,” says co-founder Alexis Ringwald. “Our vision is to have training available for every job.”
Ringwald, who formerly launched and sold a software startup, frequented unemployment lines before starting LearnUp to get a better sense of the hardships of finding a job. The entrepreneur and co-founder Kenny Ma then launched the platform in 2012 in the San Francisco Bay area and has since expanded job postings across the country.
Since its inception, LearnUp discovered that spending one to two hours of training in one of its modules triples a worker’s chance of landing a position, Fast Company reports.

“Having a series of realistic situations is the most effective way to teach job skills,” Ringwald says.

While not every applicant receives a job offer at the end of the process, the platform does manage to actually bridge the unskilled unemployed with companies seeking out new hires. And for many, that’s time worth spending.

MORE: Teaching Low-Income Youth These Skills May Just Solve the Tech Job Hiring Gap

How Second Chances Are Helping States Reduce Their Crime Rates

Being convicted of a crime can certainly have lifelong ramifications that don’t necessarily involve life behind bars without parole. It can mean a lifetime of unemployment.
Minneapolis-raised Kissy Mason witnessed this firsthand in her own family. “People in my family were being locked up, and then they were locked out of a right to live, a right to employment,” she told Nur Lalji of Yes! Magazine.
Seventy percent of people released from prison commit another crime within three years, and part of this recidivism rate is due in part to how difficult it is for them to find a job.
Mason was determined to make better choices for herself than those being made by her family members. But in 2006, she was involved in a domestic argument that escalated, leading to a felony conviction. Although she never went to jail — she served probation instead — whenever she filled out an application for employment, she had to check the ubiquitous box indicating that she was a convicted felon. This status also disqualified her for low-income Section 8 housing.
Instead of lamenting the situation, Mason worked to change it. She joined the campaign to “ban the box,” which was started by All of Us or None (a group founded by formerly incarcerated people that had difficulty finding work) in 2003. Since then, 12 states have removed this question from job applications. Employers can still conduct criminal background checks, but by the time they get that far in the hiring process, they’ve usually had a chance to study the applicant’s other qualifications.
Mason’s home state, Minnesota, enacted legislation banning the box in January 2014. Because of the initiative, one of the state’s major corporations, Target, has stopped using the check-off box on job applications not just in its Minnesota stores— but throughout the country.
“Sometimes people bar you from jobs forever because of one incident, and I don’t think that’s fair,” Mason told Lalji. “People should be given another chance. It shouldn’t be one time and you’re out.”
MORE: Meet A Former Big-City Police Chief Who Wants to Turn American Law Enforcement On Its Head
 

Are You One Skill Away From Your Dream Job? Meet the Man Who Will Help You Find Out

When it comes to serving his community, Jason Green has a lot to live up to. He’s the son of a preacher, and the great great grandson of Garey Green, a carpenter who helped build his Maryland town’s first school for African American children in 1874 — offering opportunity when there was none. Walking through the creaky two-room school house, which still stands today, Jason can’t help but feel inspired. “Knowing that with minimal resources, this community was able to educate an entire generation is a motivator for me.” Last year Jason left his job as an associate council to President Obama, moved back home and started a small company called SkillSmart — a 21st century education tool. 
SkillSmart, which launches this summer, is an online platform that connects job seekers with employers based on their skills. “I want to help people see where one skill can be transferable to another career, and figure out how to get there,” he says. The site will also identify what skills are in demand, and helps individuals find the training resources to become more marketable in the workforce. Watch to learn more about the program and the family history that inspired Jason to start it.