Skillspire - You Aspire, We Inspire

As a wave of unemployment hits the nation, with over 42 million workers filing jobless claims, it is evident that the most affected individuals to the pandemic are the most vulnerable to employment: women, people of color, and workers without a degree or credential. Even when the economy is at its best, deeply embedded systemic barriers prevent many workers from accessing training and reskilling programs, which is essential to quickly find a new job to support themselves and their families.

Skillspire’s mission is to advance the careers and futures of underrepresented talent: women, immigrants, and people of color.  We envision a tech sector that better reflects the population it serves by training and supporting diverse, historically underrepresented communities in their journey to enter technical careers. We believe that every individual – and especially those from underrepresented communities – should have the opportunity to pursue their dreams in the tech sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a major blow to the U.S. economy, especially to workers who are disconnected from the economic mainstream—those in low-wage, entry-level jobs who do not have a college education. As a wave of unemployment has hit the nation, with over 42 million workers filing jobless claims, it has become increasingly clear that the most
susceptible individuals to the pandemic’s economic impact are also the ones most vulnerable to employment or wage loss in general: younger workers with seasonal or part-time jobs,women, people of color, and workers without a postsecondary degree or credential. Even when the economy is at its best, deeply embedded systemic barriers prevent many workers from accessing training and reskilling programs, which are of utmost importance in order to quickly find a new job that will allow them to support themselves and their families. Moreover, worker displacement caused by automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is only expected to accelerate as a result of the present recession, with large businesses cutting costs as much as possible and smaller companies struggling to stay afloat.

Skillspire's solution is to partner with community-based organizations and workforce development boards to reach diverse communities and those affected by unemployment. By providing technical training in in-demand jobs and mentorship, we help students navigate networks and promote themselves in ways they often haven’t been exposed to. 

Skillspire’s approach is innovative because we are improving tech diversity by harnessing the diverse – but underutilized - talent that is already here. With their diverse backgrounds and daily challenges in mind, we provide affordable and accessible technical upskilling while coaching, mentoring and training on the soft skills to navigate our tech ecosystem. Our programs are:

• intentionally affordable at 1/5th the price of similar coding bootcamp programs;
• intentionally flexible, to allow community members supporting families to continue working full-time jobs; and
• taught by instructors who are working in industry, who our students can also relate to, as the instructors also come from underrepresented backgrounds.
• The technologies that we teach are Full Stack web development with Reach, Python, Data Analytics tools, SW development with Java & C# and Cyber Security.

The final step is apprenticeship, which will provide the needed real world experience that every company expects from a prospective employee. 

Our goal is to reimagine pathways for those who have been affected by the pandemic and diverse communities. These are the under-served populations, like Afican Americans, Latinos, refugees & immigrants and women. In working with these communities, we have established a relationship with groups whose identity, experience, or community are systemically stereotyped, feared, dismissed, or marginalized. By providing personal mentorship, coaching, technical skills development, and job search assistance, we are making a change in the lives of these people. 

Through word of mouth recruitment, designing our courses with underrepresented populations in mind, and grassroots outreach to community-based organizations, Skillspire has already graduated over 200+ students across King County with one in four placed with local tech employers. By providing that paired with our growing network of businesses and community partners committed to diversity and harnessing talent in the region have allowed us to begin building out employment and apprenticeship partnerships.

By providing pathways in digital skills and technology, we are elevating their choices for a more secure, and high paying job.

Skillspire’s approach is to provide access to high-quality, affordable learning, skill-building opportunities for those entering the workforce, transitioning between jobs, or facing unemployment. With their diverse backgrounds and daily challenges in mind, we provide affordable and accessible technical upskilling while coaching and mentoring on the soft skills to navigate our tech ecosystem. 

With the pandemic, there are millions of people looking to transition to tech career which would provide a better pay. But life challenges are a barrier to pursue the career of their choice. Keeping in mind the lack of network that our students face, we become their ally.

Full time staff - 1

Part- time staff - Marketing, Social Media and Business Relations - 3

Contractors/Instructors - 8

Being an immigrant woman from a minority community, the people that we recruit come from all backgrounds. Out of the 12 employees, 5 are women. Our Instructors come from different backgrounds: person of African descent, Latino, Asian etc.

Each person of our team brings a unique insight to a huge issue that we are tackling. In working with people from various countries and languages, we understand the challenges that these communities face. We meet them at their level to help them navigate and create pathways to a secure future.

When our students see instructors who look like them, from similar backgrounds and have successfully pivoted careers, they feel a sense of optimism and confidence. This plays a huge role in how they learn and navigate situations.

As an immigrant, a minority woman in tech, a community activist and a proximate leader, I understand firsthand the challenges faced by the under-represented communities. Skillspire was born out of the need to bridge the opportunity divide that exists in the workforce of the future. Some of our competitors like Coding Dojo, General Assembly and Flatiron are run by big companies that do not necessarily understand the population and are not fianancially viable. The personal touch that we provide goes a long way. At Skillspire, we are training a diverse population so that they will be the innovators of the future technologies. The break down of our students are as follows: 34% women, 66% Men. African descent 42%, Asian 25%, White 17%, Other 15%, 2% Latino. 

Our goal is for our local tech sector to look more like the populations it serves. We want to see gender parity in tech, and a much higher percentage of people of color in the tech sector. We are excited about the opportunity to invest more deeply in diversity and beyond in the years to come. Through word of mouth recruitment, designing our courses with underrepresented populations in mind, and grassroots outreach to community-based organizations, Skillspire has already graduated over 200+ students with one in four placed with local tech employers. That paired with our growing network of businesses and community partners committed to diversity and harnessing talent in the region have allowed us to begin building out employment and apprenticeship partnerships.

Skillspire's training includes lot of the in-demand technologies like Cloud Computing with AWS and Azure, Cyber Security, Full Stack web development, Software engineering and Data Analytics. Some of the the tools, we focus in are SQL, Power BI, Full stack technologies like React and Python. In addtion languages like Java and C# are versatile and very much in demand for students interested in software engineering.  

Skillspire was born out of the need to bridge the opportunity divide that exists in the workforce of the future. As AI is dramatically transforming the digital literacy skills required of the global workforce—and the very nature of work, this creates challenges and opportunities. We see the racial bias that exists in some of the AI-powered technology around us. Minorities and people of color are targeted innocently. And the companies that are building the AI-powered robotics need the diverse employee population, who can design the products keeping in mind the population that they are trying to reach. At Skillspire, we are training these diverse population so that they will be the innovators of these AI-powered technologies. 

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the role of “web developer” is expected to grow 13 percent from 2018–2028, much faster than the average occupation. And in LinkedIn’s 2020 Emerging Jobs Report, “full-stack engineer” is number 4 on their list of top emerging jobs for 2020. Full-stack engineer roles have seen a 35 percent growth rate every year since 2015, and according to the report, “The rapid pace of change in technology has made full-stack developers an asset to any company.” The top industries hiring for this type of talent include computer software, IT and services, Internet, financial services, and higher education.

The role of Data Analyst has finally become ubiquitous across industries and companies of all sizes. Why is this?  Whereas a decade ago data used to be gathered up solely by individuals for analysis, today it is gathered and collected by both people and machines.  Now the machines do more and more gathering every day, so more and more people are needed to manage and make sense of all this data. The World Economic Forum (WEF) identified that by 2022, 85% of companies will have adopted big data and analytics technologies.  WEF also found that 96% of companies were definitely planning or likely to plan to hire new permanent staff with relevant skills to fill future big data analytics related roles. As a result, the “new role” of Data Analyst is forecast to be one of the most in-demand jobs by 2022.

What started as a simple coding bootcamp is expanding into a dynamic, multi-layered community engagement, professional development, and training center that is changing lives. Being a proximate leader and partnering with workforce devekopment boards that reach a diverse population we have sucessfully trained over 200+ students. Here is a short testimonial video of the students - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW-dXmFQO-k

Skillspire is different from other coding bootcamps in that we are intentionally mindful about underrepresented communities from start to finish in the student experience. Thus, our services, mentorship, and course offerings are distinct from those offered by other tech schools that are predominantly attended by white men or affluent young professionals. The main population with whom Skillspire hopes to work and bring on as students encounter tough barriers, such as lack of financial resources, time, support or understanding from family and friends, and a well-connected network. And despite their prior training, education, resourcefulness, and community skills, many assertively and strategically pursue well-paying, professional jobs in our local information or tech sector economies.  

We are focused on developing our students, by first understanding the background and history of the person taking our courses. We partner with community-based organizations to source diverse talent and are incorporating mentorship and professional training into the curriculum, to help students navigate networks and promote themselves in a way that they may not have been exposed to before. Depending on their prior experience, their interests and available time commitment, we suggest the best course for them, thus providing guidance even before joining the course. Once the student is enrolled, the instructors (who themselves have pivoted from a different field) provide motivation and encouragement to hustle in this field, sharing their own stories and bringing in community members and recent graduates who are finding success in local tech. 

What started as a simple coding bootcamp is expanding into a dynamic, multi-layered community engagement, professional development, and training center that is changing lives. By the end of 2021, we want to have branches opened in Atlanta, GA and Los Angeles, CA. These are hubs for immigrant population and we feel that there is a huge opportunity to tap into the diverse population. In three years, our goal is to expand to 7 cities within the United States. And reach more states in 5 years.

In addition, we are also looking to expand internationally into Africa. More than 90% of our students are People of Color and the energy, grit and passion they bring with themselves is very heart-warming. With six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world and over one billion consumers, Africa is poised to play a pivotal role in the global economy. Just like companies look to skilled talent in China, India or Eastern Europe, we want to put Africa on the map for skilled talent. According to McKinsey report, "there an abundant source of talent in Africa. It’s the youngest population in the world; the average age of an African is 19.5 [years old], compared with 46 or 47 in Germany and Japan. And [the people are] hungry; they’re willing to learn—all they need is an opportunity." 

From the students that we have interacted in the past 3 years, I can confidently say that Africa is definitely the next place for us to be!

Any change we want to bring about on a large scale, needs partnerships with the right entities. Be it tech or community partners we want to forge strategic collaborations to help achieve our mission of closing the opportunity divide. A strong team that focuses on Marketing to the different populations is essential. For this, we need financial resources. Thus far, growth has been organic.To take it to the next level, we need to invest in a agile marketing team.  

Challenge with apprenticeships/placing students. Though about 1 in 4 Skillspire grads have found new tech roles, it continues to be a challenge to help place our graduates into jobs. There is an inherent mindset that bootcamp grads do not have the technical depth. Companies that are looking to hire entry-level employees pretty much always go to colleges and universities to hire them.

Advocacy. Tech jobs have never been an option for CBO clients. We need to amplify our voice to showcase the amazing changes happening in the lives of ordinary people. This involves media attention to focus on the effects of not just our work but the work of all our partners. As stated before, we are very focused about our mission and how this can bridge the opportunity gap that exists in the tech sector. Imagine a tech sector that truly represents the diverse population it serves. Imagine a world where every hard-working, committed individual is given a chance to excel, not by the connections and the resources they have. 

Invest in people who believe in our mission and promote expansion in Marketing and career readiness services. Currently with the limited resources, we have done some great work. But we are creating an aggressive marketing plan to reach more people in the coming years. 

Expand employer relationships with Skillspire and with students. In 2020, we have hired a manager whose goal is to establish partner relations with companies. By offering Career days with speaker panels and open houses, our goal is to demystify the tech sector and provide networking opportunities. This would include 1-1 career coaching and workshops on linked in, resume writing, and specific tips for navigating the tech sector such as recruiter interactions, github, salary negotiation and more; Speed mentoring and interview tips panels. We also want to engage with companies who are focused on volunteerism from those already working in tech who have similar backgrounds. This in turn will spur priority hiring and apprenticeships. 

Strengthen and formalize partnerships with community-based organizations to ensure this work is sustainable and student- and community-led. This will be by institutionalizing our existing programmatic work and partnerships, igniting an interest and passion, student-driven, and deeper and more sustainable impact

We collect data about age, gender, ethnicity, college degree, completion and placement in jobs. Although we keep track of where the student lands a job, we are unable to keep track of where and how they progress. 

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The Founder and CEO, Yasmin Ali, being a minority woman from an under-represented community is able to connect and understand the background of the people that Skillspire targets. Being a community activist for over 12 years, she sees firsthand the challenges that the under-represented communities face. Without the right network, mentorship, and financial resources, they are stuck in a vicious cycle not being able to get into a career of their choice. She has been able to establish relationships with several CBOs, affinity and religious orgs. Her ability to connect with every student has helped in the growth. Please check out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUdWXqOR2ig&list=PLcnK74EfSdzbHfADK3S-QTpoliH3B67l1

In addition, all our instructors are from diverse backgrounds, who themselves have gone through switching career fields and from non-traditional backgrounds. This helps the students to see themselves in the Instructor. 

By providing mentorship, networking and job support, we aim to bridge the skill gap and opportunity divide in the tech sector. By training students locally, we aim to source skilled talent locally so that tech companies don’t have to outsource or offshore, all while creating increased diversity in the tech companies. We have had some coverage in the local media about Skillspire: 

https://www.geekwire.com/2018/... 

BuiltinSeattle.com - https://www.builtinseattle.com... 

Female Founders Alliance - https://www.femalefounders.org... 

Newsweek - https://www.newsweek.com/insig... https://425business.com/inclus...

Skillspire is a Tech Hire school and a Microsoft Learning Partner. Microsoft will showcase Skillspire in the upcoming TedX Seattle. We also work directly with CBOs (community based orgs), religious orgs and advocacy groups to market to all segments of the population. We are also working with local government agencies like Workforce Development boards, Worksource and Department of Veterans Affairs. We are licensed by the WA Training and Education Board. Thus we are on the Career Bridge, where anyone looking for training or upskilling can find us. 

We also recently got approved for Veteran training benefits. Now we are forging partnerships with several entities that work directly with Veterans and active military. 

Some of the CBO's that we work with are: Trac Associates, King County Workforce Development Council, Neighborhood House, Veterans Affairs, Seattle Jobs Initiative, International rescue Committee, Goodwill, Dress for Success, Partner in Employment, Welcome Back Center, YearUp, TWC and more.

Our work to build national partnerships with community-based organizations will help strengthen current relationships in Seattle, but also help open doors to new ones. Our work with some these groups is in the pilot phases and we hope to see a deeper partnership develop in the next year.

Skillspire’s goal is to address 3 problems in the marketplace.

1. Individuals from under-represented communities (e.g. low-income households, refugees, etc), women and minorities do not have an opportunity to apply and get jobs and vocations suitable for the skill sets they have. Also, these individuals often lack access and motivation to get trained in technology (e.g. cloud, mobile etc.), and this can result from lack of professional network and financial resources. 

2. There is a huge demand for skilled talent in the tech sector. The skill sets of the tech sector not only demand traditional IT skills (e.g. experience with Oracle, Microsoft etc.) but also emerging technologies such as cloud, mobile, artificial intelligence, NoSQL databases, etc. 

3. There is a broad lack of diversity and inclusion in the tech companies, and there is shortage of talent when looking at the typical talent pools. Being able to percolate the hidden skill set of individuals by intentionally identifying, developing, and promoting under-represented communities is needed to meet the growing demands of tech talent, but also to be more intentional about diversity and inclusion in its broadest and most comprehensive way. 

Skillspire mission is to be at the intersection of these problems by providing affordable technical training that is tailored to the needs of these communities.

Our funding model is through tuition. Although the tuition is kept at an affordable price, this is the major source of revenue. From 2017 to 2018, our growth in revenue was 250%. From 2018 to 2019, our growth has been 51% and in 2019 to 2020 is 20%. The reduction in growth is because we are investing in a team to scale the business gradually. We are already financially sustainable. Now we need to focus on scaling our operations.

Secondly, we had a partner join Skillspire in August of 2019 with an investment of $150K. He strongly believes in the mission of Skillspire and invested capital, which has helped scale our business in the last 6 months. He also brings in years of experience in building companies and marketing.

We raised funds from an angel investor in 2019. He invested $150,000 for 30% equity. He has been quite involved in areas of marketing and finance. We are generating revenue since 2017. The revenue is increasing year over year and its at $110,000 in the past 10 months. We have lot of room growith as we realize that we are fulfilling a need that has not been addressed. 

The leadeship team believes in growing the business slowly but gradually before going for any venture fund capital. Once a business is able to sustain itself, then to accelerate growth additional resources in terms of finance, mentorship, strategic partnerships are essential. Being a minority woman the resources that are available are limited. This particular challenge seems very much in line with our mission of increasing opportunities for people who are marginalized. 

Our hope in applying for this challenge is to amplify our voice that the challenge of bridging the opportunity divide is real. Its a much bigger than Skillspire's mission. This is something every company has to make a priority for us to grow as a community. 

With grant money of $125,000, we will be able to scale our operations to reach more cities and states that have been affected the most by the pandemic. 

Executive Comp $50,000

Rent $30,000

Taxes and Licenses $3000

Operations $8000

Marketing $14,200

Advertising $20,000

Sales $40,000

Recruiting $10,000

Ops Staff $70,000

Total Expenses $245,200

The challenge "Reimagining Pathways to Employment in the US" is precisely what we are trying to achieve. That is our mission and we have been working on this for the past four years. 

With Morgridge Family Foundation, New Profit, and other Challenge partners  market reach and exposure, Skillspire can grow immensely with mentorship and media opportunities. Our hope in applying for this challenge is to amplify our voice that the challenge of bridging the opportunity divide is real. Its a much bigger than Skillspire's mission. This is something every company has to make a priority for us to grow as a community.

Be it tech or community partners we want to forge strategic collaborations to help achieve our mission of closing the opportunity divide. A strong team that focuses on Marketing to the different populations is essential. For this, we need financial resources. Thus far, growth has been organic.To take it to the next level, we need to invest in a agile marketing team.  

We strongly believe in strategic partnerships with the right entities to grow the business. We are aware of the huge mission and goal that Skillspire has set to achieve. The mission is much bigger than the business. It needs collaboration from community partners, industry partners and goverment agencies. We are creating a grass roots org to change the spectrum of digital skills achievement. 

Thus far, we are forging partnerships within different and diverse communities. We are aware of the limitations, given the lofty goals. But we are confident that we are heading in the right direction. 

We are a Microsoft Learning Partner, and Microsoft is highlighting our work in the upcoming TedX Seattle. This is just the beginning. We want to reach more companies that are vested in bringing diversity talent to their companies. 

There are several local and national organizations that we want to partner with. But some of the main ones are below: 

1. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - In their annual letter, Bill and Melinda talk about focusing on education going forward. And also on women's entrepreneurship. 
2. Skoll Foundation - drives large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and the innovators who help them solve the world’s most pressing problems. The problem that we are trying to solve is much bigger. With orgs like Skoll, we can help achieve this.
3. Black, Latino and women orgs - With recent events that have shaken our communities, we want to make a concerted effort to reach out to orgs that work with people of Arfican descent, Latinos and women. As a woman, I understand the challenges faced by women in the workforce. We want to reach more women to empower them with skills needed to succeed in their personal and professional life.