The Future of Work Pulls Closer as $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling Announces Semifinalist Teams
The eight Semifinalist Teams from four countries advance to the large-scale field testing phase where they will partner with partners across the U.S. to train individuals for the fourth industrial revolution
XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, announced that 8 teams from 4 countries are advancing to the Semifinalist round of the $5M XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling competition, a three year competition reimagining the future of work and transforming how we train and educate workers.
“The technology from our Semifinalist Teams is already producing very promising results, and with another year left in the competition, I’m extremely encouraged to believe these teams will deliver on XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling’s original goal of quickly reskilling workers for the digital revolution.”
Launched in June 2020, XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling is sponsored by nonprofit venture philanthropy organization New Profit and in partnership with JFF. The competition incentivizes teams to develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of rapid training and reskilling solutions for individuals most vulnerable to employment loss. The solutions developed in this competition will reduce training time by at least 50% for occupations with a living wage and will be provided at no cost to the individual.
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“The United States is going through a historic reassessment of labor across all industries,” said XPRIZE CEO Anousheh Ansari. “More individuals are looking to change careers than ever before, and the technology being developed in XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling will empower individuals to find new pathways to better education, better training solutions, ultimately leading to a better career.”
The eight Semifinalist Teams were selected from a pool of ten qualified teams. The ten qualified teams were paired with Workforce Development Boards across the United States to recruit new learners and deploy their respective training solutions to achieve training rates 50% faster than the current standard for their chosen occupation.
“XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling will be able to help individuals expand their skill set in unprecedented time, creating new opportunities and providing many more options for work,” said Dr. Monique Golden, Social Science Lead for XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling. “The technology from our Semifinalist Teams is already producing very promising results, and with another year left in the competition, I’m extremely encouraged to believe these teams will deliver on XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling’s original goal of quickly reskilling workers for the digital revolution.”
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The 8 Semifinalist Teams are:
- Alelo, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Dignity of Work, Spokane, Washington, USA
- Pragya, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Practera, Sydney, Australia
- REAP, Dubin, Ireland
- VITAL, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- SHIFA, San Diego, California, USA
- HireMEE, Bengaluru, India
The Semifinalist Teams will now enter the large-scale field testing stage of the competition, in which each team will need to demonstrate their proposed solutions will rapidly place trained workers in 60 days or less, and then support the workers to ensure job retention of at least 90 days.
The Semifinalist Team solutions are a mix of online learning management systems and digital apps to train for occupations such as Community Health Worker, Medical Assistant, Machinist, Construction Laborer, Medical Equipment Preparer, and Sales Representative.
After completion of the Semifinalist Round, a milestone award in the amount of $1,500,000 (USD) will be shared equally between up to five Finalist Teams whose solutions received the highest scores from the Judging Panel for successful implementation of their solution.
XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling is powered by New Profit and JFF as part of the Future of Work Grand Challenge, which aims to achieve broader systemic change to help prepare 12 million Americans from underinvested communities for workforce success by 2025. The Grand Challenge is made possible by lead funders, Walmart.org and Strada Education Network. Additional funding is provided by Accenture, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Comcast, Imaginable Futures, Joyce Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Lumina Impact Ventures, Morgridge Family Foundation, Schultz Family Foundation, Siegel Family Endowment, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The initiative also brings together a consortium of design and operating partners driving positive change in workforce development including Accenture, Brandeis University, Education Design Lab, Goodwill Industries International, and Jobcase.