LRNG: Building Pathways to Success

Connecting disenfranchised young people to community-supported learning and employment opportunities

LRNG is a youth-first, technology-enabled and community-supported approach to spark youth passions, build connections, and prepare underserved youth in the United States for jobs of the future. LRNG is the first venture of Collective Shift, which combines the vision and structure of a nonprofit with the business rigor, product development mentality, agility, and growth potential of a technology company.

LRNG integrates  local education and workforce systems to help low-income youth (ages 16-24 years) in the United States develop and apply lifelong learning and labor skills in the workplace. We prioritize career preparation and lifelong learning because we understand that early employment is key to advancing equity and opportunity, and we understand that our young people will change jobs on an average of at least once every five years. Getting and maintaining a first job is transformative for all youth, building both competencies and confidence and setting them on a life trajectory of success. But obtaining and retaining  that first job is challenging, particularly for low-income youth. Low income neighborhoods and communities of color are particularly impacted. Persistently disenfranchised young people are less likely (by 37 percent) to be consistently employed as  adults compared to those who are not (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 2014).

Educators, employers, and others are grappling with questions of how best to level-up the job readiness of local young adults  and prepare them for meaningful careers. “Playlist” is the term coined by LRNG to describe a linked set of online or in-person learning experiences that connect young adults with peers and mentors and to real-world activities and opportunities. These high-quality learning experiences are designed by educators and experts in the field to be both relevant to young adult and potential employers. Playlists give young people the power to figure things out at their own pace, in their own way, and through a medium that they enjoy. As evidence of the knowledge and skills they build through playlists, young people earn “digital badges” that signal substantive learning. Badges function as a powerful form of alternative credentialing – identifying competencies and skills beyond what are traditionally captured on a transcript or resume and thus helping to level the playing field in an increasingly competitive economy.

LRNG is a unique alternative to other edtech and career strategies.

1. Equity Gap: LRNG uses technology to broaden the pathways for disenfranchised communities.
2. Community-Embedded: LRNG is designed to strengthen young people’s ties to existing community-based assets and resources.
3. Alternative Credentialing: LRNG utilizes Open Badges to connect young people to career and learning pathways.
4. Integrated Data: LRNG integrates data from education and workforce systems so that the adults supporting young people can monitor progress, and credit learning across systems.
5. Open and Adaptable: LRNG is a massive open educational and workforce resource that enables educators, organizations, and employers to share their practice.

LRNG uses a cloud-hosted and client-based technology that allows us to scale and flex horizontally. Everything is designed with an eye towards the look and feel of the young person’s world; we work with young people to design user interface and user experience. Throughout 2017, new features were added to increase user engagement on the platform. The back end (Scala) and front end (Mongo) are built for big data and scale; the platform can react seamlessly to high traffic times, while also quickly sorting large data sets. Badges can be uploaded into other Open Badge compliant platforms.  

• Engage 75,000 youth on the platform

• Establish a scalable model for building competency-based pathways that meet employer needs, can be implemented within local ecosystems of learning and work, and reach 100% of low income young people in our communities,  

• Create new playlists and related assessments and badges that align with the competencies identified by employer partners in high-demand industries, such as advanced manufacturing, health care and technology.

• Partner with universities to ensure badges earned on the LRNG platform unlock both employment opportunities as well as college credit.  

The first phase of our work was about building local networks of support. This next phase is about connecting local networks to employable career/education pathways. To do so, we will:

1. Further develop and link playlists and badges to what employers need and what universities require for credit and certification, with a focus on general career readiness and entry level skill development in technology, advanced manufacturing and health care.
2. Build an online community that connects disenfranchised young people to a network of employers and mentors to increase their social capital and support employers in hiring and retention.

Our approach to scale supports both hyperlocal content creation with broader, global content delivery. We do this with a multi-sided platform that gives youth access to LRNG experiences and playlists while, at the same time, allowing local organizations to develop and customize content to meet the needs of local young people. Our open-walled platform enables practitioners and employers to create and share local learning and work experiences and remix experiences created by others. The combination of local creation, easy access, and local customization enables practitioners and employers to attend to individual needs while accessing best practices from around the country.

Since launching in 2015, more than 45,000 young people and 550 organizations have used LRNG, including summer youth employment programs in 15 US cities. In total, young people have completed more than 133,000 learning experiences and have earned more than 23,000 badges to signal their skills and what they’ve been able to accomplish. In Chicago, young people with LRNG badges are 90% more likely to be awarded jobs through local job fairs than those without.  Similarly, in an initial pilot period with a national employer, more than 50% of those completing LRNG playlists were offered jobs.

We plan to reach 75,000 young people in the next 12 months. Three years from now, we plan to reach 200,000 young people. For young people on the platform, we expect to see effects related to behaviors and knowledge gains. At least 45% will demonstrate positive behavior changes (e.g., earning an opportunity for a job interview, earning credit in school, increasing attendance on-the-job, managing their time effectively to get their work done by deadlines, etc.). At least 50% will increase their knowledge about teamwork, on-the-job professionalism, and other areas (as determined by specific learning experiences).

LRNG is led by Connie Yowell formerly the Director of Education at the MacArthur Foundation for fifteen years. There she oversaw the Digital Media Learning initiative that focused on how young people learn, socialize and civically engage with digital media. Connie has assembled an experienced and respected leadership team. Granetta Blevins, Chief of Staff, 30+ years’ experience building and leading for profit and non-profit organizations. Kylie Peppler, Chief Learning Officer, 15+ years’ learning science experience. Megan Madel-Stiles, Vice President Product, 10+ years’ experience leading product teams. Larry Fraze, Vice President Finance and Administration, 20+ years’ experience leading financial teams.  

Our revenue mode for LRNG encompasses three primary revenue streams:

• Corporate Support: This revenue stream has the highest funding potential for LRNG. Estimated annual corporate spending on Cause Marketing with Nonprofits is $2 billion. LRNG helps corporations get “youth eyes” while solving a serious workforce supply issue. We believe this segment could generate $3 million for LRNG by 2020.

• Philanthropic Support: LRNG offers a technology product that is flexible enough to align with foundations interested in such issues as future of work, educational equity, and/or mentoring, among others. In addition to proposals submitted directly by Collective Shift, this revenue stream also includes joint proposals with strategic partners with long track records and with regional customers to support local implementation (e.g., we received support from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in collaboration with San Jose Public Library).  

• Direct-to-Organization Memberships: Through surveys and additional research, we know there is opportunity to sell directly to youth serving organizations at a fairly low price point and encourage the development of mini-networks with potential to evolve into city and/or regional ecosystems.

By 2020, our goal is to generate 30-50% of income from Memberships and Corporate Sponsorships.  

Our approach is predicated on local cross-sector partnerships and the active engagement of national employer and IHE partners. The Solve community can help us stay abreast of promising or best practices in edtech, future of work and related fields, and make introductions to local or national organizations where there may be partnership potential. Also, as a relatively young organization with large ambitions, we are eager for more people and organizations to learn about our work. We also have much to contribute to the community, particularly for entities that are considering how to move through early stages of development.

1) Local HR departments are struggling with transitioning to a skills-based hiring model, which disadvantages young people from disenfranchised communities.  

2) Employment culture. Many managers are not adequately prepared to engage entry-level employees from diverse backgrounds.

3) Research suggests that disenfranchised young people lack the confidence and experience to seek advice and support in their new work environments.

We are working with employers to align learning with employer needs and to better prepare workplaces for entry-level youth workers. We are building online communities of support. We would welcome guidance from the employers and scholars within the Solve community.