Finalist
2020 Digital Workforce Challenge

Kiron’s Skill Booster Programs for the Future Workforce

Team Leader
Kathrin Dischereit
Solution overview
Our Solution
Kiron’s Skill Booster Programs for the Future Workforce
Tagline
Empowering refugees and underserved communities with 21st Century skills for professional growth
Pitch us on your solution

Less than 3% of refugees worldwide have access to higher education (UNHCR). Barriers to education impede the aspirations of millions of motivated and talented people worldwide, yet education is a key factor towards self-empowerment and economic opportunity. We believe refugees should have access to meaningful job opportunities & the chance to move up the economic ladder.

That is why we built our digital platform, the Kiron Campus, to ensure that refugees and underserved communities receive free access to high-quality education for academic, professional and personal growth. On the Kiron Campus, we offer a range of Skill Booster Programs for our students globally. We curated these digital certificate programs with a strong focus on 21st Century skills, digital literacy and careers in Tech. Upon successful completion of a program, students can quickly demonstrate their learning achievements and have their enhanced skills and knowledge recognized by employers.

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What is the problem you are solving?

The UNHCR estimates that among the 70.8 million displaced people worldwide less than 3% have access to higher education. Despite tremendous talent and incredible determination, refugees face numerous obstacles when accessing higher education: language barriers, lack of degree recognition, administrative difficulties and lack of financial resources (UNHCR). Similarly, gaining access to the labor market is associated with severe restrictions. Beyond higher education, a blend of both soft and hard skills is essential to enter today’s increasingly automated and digitized labor market. Many refugees need 21st century competencies in order to build their lives and successfully take-up skilled employment. In fact, refugees have great potential to contribute to their host communities. For example, in Germany, according to the reports of the German Agency for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), the majority of adult refugees are below 30 and have completed high school, vocational training, or university. However, only about 30% percent of asylum-seekers are employed, often in precarious positions (BAMF, 2019). Kiron’s mission is to address this issue. We have developed the Skill Booster Programs with the particular aim to empower refugees with the crucial skills necessary to enter the workforce and acquire sustainable and fulfilling employment

Who are you serving?

Currently, more than 7000 students are learning with Kiron. Our students are often living in precarious situations, yet still have the determination to improve their future prospects. Free access to higher education and the opportunity to make informed choices about one’s professional development is a critical tool in building a more prosperous future.  

Through the variety of content and learning activities available, students are encouraged to deepen their knowledge, develop critcal thinking, discernment and effective communication skills. The various support structures on the Kiron Campus such as language classes, personalized guidance and  constant feedback measures: assessments, quizzes and ratings; help students and us reflect on their learning. Through these co-creation measures we include our students in the continuous development of the Kiron Campus, ensuring that it is student-centric, answers our students’ needs and helps them achieve their goals. In addition, students become active contributors who think independently and exercise initiative - capabilities that will help them meet the demands of the job market and, beyond that, become active and engaged citizens. Students gain more self-esteem and play an active role in their host communities’ development, which, in the long-run reduces barriers between different groups and fosters diverse, inclusive societies.

What is your solution?

Our 21st Century skills programs include digital literacy, intercultural skills, language learning, personal management and more. They are combined with the Skill Booster Programs. Each program consists  of up to five condensed courses focused on particular skills necessary in today’s workforce, such as python, web design and computer skills. The whole program is completed by a certificate which enables students to prove their newly acquired skills on the job market. The Skill Booster Programs form part of a larger educational package that includes tutorials, language acquisition tools, community building, and social cohesion initiatives. Students have the advantage of learning from experts in their fields, acquiring relevant and sought-after skills through quality content that is continuously improved. We strive to enable our students to become confident and independent learners, possessing skills and abilities that will lead them to success in the rapidly changing 21st century society.

The access to the Skill Booster Programs is through the Kiron Campus - a portable, agile, digital learning platform. It is a single-page application learning environment, mobile-first, and accessible via any standard web browser on a desktop or mobile device through campus.kiron.ngo or the Android mobile app from the Google Play Store. Kiron offers free, tailor-made learning programs using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from renowned educational platforms, Open Educational Resources (OERs), and learning materials developed in house, tailored to the students’ needs.

To ensure robustness of the Kiron Campus, it is built as a progressive web app that makes the learning experience faster and more reliable for all users, and is especially powerful in unstable network conditions. For the same reason, the Kiron Campus communicates to its management layer via a Graph API4 that allows interaction with multiple nodes in a single request. Using these modern APIs drastically reduces the data usage on the user’s end, which is a crucial factor to cater to the students’ needs especially in remote regions. To provide scalability and high availability, all services are replicated in a distributed kubernetes cluster.

All learners benefit from Kiron’s continuous deployment of software updates and improvements using state-of-the-art technology such as React, flow and webpack. The platform guides the user from Course Unit to Unit with a simple-to-understand UX Design as well as constant feedback measures that help users reflect on their learning. Kiron hosts and handles data with the utmost care and complying with the GDPR.

Select only the most relevant.
  • Increase opportunities for people - especially those traditionally left behind and most marginalized – to access digital and 21st century skills, meet employer demands, and access the jobs of today and tomorrow
  • Support underserved people in fostering entrepreneurship and creating new technologies, businesses, and jobs
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
Berlin, Germany
Our solution's stage of development:
  • Growth
More about your solution
About your team
Your business model & funding
Partnership potential
Solution Team:
Kathrin Dischereit
Kathrin Dischereit
Kate Muwoki
Kate Muwoki
Head of Donor Relations