Bridge - Where Education Connects with Innovation

The 2 social problems that Bridge proposes to solve are: 1. Lack of development of soft skills with formal education and 2. Gap between companies and education. 

97% of employers surveyed stated that the soft skills (cognitive, social, and emotional skills) are equally or more important that hard skills. They state that soft skills are critical to an employee’s career success. Unfortunately, there is a disturbing trend in the skills arena that is making employees less employable. A survey conducted by the Association for Talent Developers found that 92% of executives agree that there is a gap in workforce skills. The survey also found that 44% believe that people lack sufficient soft skills to help businesses succeed.  

The World Economic Forum states that there is an urgent need for humans to develop social and emotional capabilities to not only close the current workforce gap but also for individuals and organizations to survive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The crux of the argument is that in addition to adapting to technological change, humans need to cultivate the capabilities that will enable us to add value where machines fall short.  

According to Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, social-emotional, noncognitive capabilities are malleable into adulthood and can be developed with the right resources, environment, and incentives. An MIT study tested this theory, and found that a 12-month workforce training program focused on improving communication, problem-solving and decision-making, time and stress management, financial literacy, legal literacy and social entitlements, and execution excellence significantly impacted productivity. This program delivered a 250 percent return on investment (ROI) within eight months of completion, with much of the gain being attributed to a jump in productivity. 

The world economic forum states that education and training systems need to keep pace with the new demands of labour markets as these markets are continually challenged by evolution every day. In a recent OCDE report it is refered 4 possible scenarios for the future of education: Schooling extended, Outsourced education, Learning hubs and learn as you go, showing that school as it is today has many opportunities to change into something different that will create better skilled people tomorrow for work and life.

Bridge is the connection between education and innovation, positioning itself as a complementary solution to formal education. Through innovative and collaborative programs, and with the support of technology, we promote the development of socio-emotional and digital cognitive skills. We involve different educational actors, including as education agreements, between education and the world of work. We measure the impact we make, so we can share results and optimize processes. And because we believe in the concept of a circular economy applied to education, we are a company that reinvests in our team and in our society. 

The Igniting Innovation Program, is a 17 week program, composed by monthly activities highly impactful but just taking 2,5 days/month of time to learners. This 17 week program is composed by 5 hackathon rounds, 4 networking events and 4 Team Coaching Events.  

The Hackathon’s will be 2 shift days event were real life problems (education linked) will be solved using the methodology of change. Also, during this hackathons identification of the problem, communication/pitching  and negotiation workshops will be included in the flow of the process. On the 2nd half of the 2nd day of the hackathon 2, 3, 4 and 5 teams will need to present their process to corporations that will be part of the jury. 

As these hackathons are for learners, they can also be attended by internal teams from our corporative partners so that they can introduce new change process implementations and become more productive. However internal teams from corporation can’t win the prizes within the hackathons as they will be attending punctually. Prizes will be for the participants registered at Bridge. 

The networking events (2-3h) can be organized within the space from one of the corporation partners or at any of the co-working space where Bridge operates. When it is at the company space, then there will be 2-3 people from the company explaining (with practical examples not just a presentation) what kind of skills are necessary to do certain jobs and there will be hot seats for the people of the companies, where Bridge learners will ask any questions that they feel they should. When the event happens at Bridge space, then more than 1 company can be present. 

The team coaching event, is an asynchronous event where each hackathon group will record a video and paste on the Bridge’s app, saying where they are now, where they want to go and why they are not there yet in their problem resolution. Mentors from Bridge will allocate 2 teams to answers each group, so that everyone will ask for help and everyone will have suggestions of improvement. This task will need to be done within a period of time, as it is repeated every month for the 17 weeks period of time. 

After launch, this program will work on a sales value of the 17 week program, paid directly through the app. The value will be a shared value. Part will be invested by the learner and part will be invested by the corporations. Depending if the company is a Silver or a Gold company, they will invest 10k or 30k, having different benefits within Bridge. 

This program is to happen 2x year: September-December and February-May 

The targets for this program are students from professional schools and teachers from the same schools as these type of schools are more open to innovation, so they will be the entrance niche. 

In beginning these programs are presential. Hybrid modality to be evaluated. 

Global Collaborations Program (year 2) will include Workshops for Learners, Workshops for Transformation and after year 3 Bridge Conference. 

There will be 3 workshops for learners a year (½ day) where a simpler version of the theory of change will help participants to make 1 change at a time in their school or their teaching methodology. Problems to solve will be previously selected eg: how to change the curriculum, how to make a hybrid school, how to implement active learning etc... The targets are students in the last year of master degree in education and teachers in general and want to innovate. These workshops will be organized outside the period of the Igniting Innovation. These workshops are to be paid in separate of the Igniting Innovation Program. In the future, these workshops might become hybrid to guarantee more systemic impact. 

Workshops for transformation will be a set of continuous 3 workshops between the schools and the companies that are Bridge’s partners. The goal is to create change in the courses of the schools involved so that they develop better profiles that companies need and on the other side, the companies involved will be responsible for true internship or shadow processes to test the changes that both have created, creating then a true partnership between schools and corporations. This set of workshops will be for Gold Corporation Partners, as they will have no charge fee for participants involved. 

The Bridge Conference will only happen after a bigger traction of the project exists but basically it will be a moment where, all educational community s can share and connect to innovation processes from education. Selection of works to present will be in charge of a jury composed by scientific societies, innovation societies and Gold Corporation Partners from Bridge. This conference it will be a hybrid event to make sure it impacts worldwide and not just Portugal. 

The 1st wave of target population are professional schools: students and teachers. They are more open to change because they are already a more hands on schools. In Portugal alone, we have 122.200 students/year and 15.400 teachers at professional schools. 

There is a disconnection between school-student and Teachers on the verge of burn-out as they feel burdened, disrespected, isolated and demotivated to change. Teachers have difficulties in finding companies that accept students into internships, and companies complain that they have difficulty in recruiting people with the right skills. Bridge will promote their contact, an increment in communication, then connection leading to true partnerships that will serve everyone better. 

Currently the founder and team is just me. The reason why I am this project to happen it has do to with my own story which is similar to the stories of so many others. Formal education did not provide the right skills for real life, not to study (methodologies), not to work, not to create your own business, not to life in general. And even though I was an exceptional student in school and later in all universities I've enrolled this is what I felt after a conscious process that took some years to reach.  

To better have a better understanding of this market, I read literature about the challenges, I talked to people, created surveys and a 1,5 year ago I took the position of consultant at Kinderpedia to gain some leverage and credibility in the area. I've been optimizing this project for the past 2.5 years (as I can only apply currently 1 day a week to it). I runed a couple of pilots that led to the evolution of the project as it is today.  

I'm interested in raising funds. If I would say the opposite I would be lying. However, I also want a lot of other things that Solve can offer. I want to have the coaching, mentoring and strategic advisory (preferably online) for me and the future team. I want the credibility that exposure from SOLVE can give. I want the access/networking to impact-minded leaders across industries (online) and sectors and who knows if I don't find parners that would like to bring this solution into the US?

1. Process per se Different/Innovative: According to William Glasser, the greatest learning comes when we discuss, experience and teach others. So in these HUBs, we will follow these maxims and repeatedly to cement the process of evolution and learning of skills. 
 
2. Measuring impact: What is not measured is not seen. We want to understand what this methodology and the frequency of repetition brings in terms of the evolution of skills acquisition and other indicators. We also want to optimize according to the target population and later publish in indexed journals to share the innovation and gain credibility. 
 
3. For profit can have social impact: Good social impact (internal and external) can be achieved by for-profit companies. These HUBs will be good examples: measures of emotional salary for the team, creation of Passe Educação and being a B-corp company, in addition to the impact of the programs on students, teachers and companies. 
 
 
4. Accessible: It will be accessible in different areas of the country, through our collaboration with co-working spaces (ease of expansion) in order to have a more systemic impact and cover more national talent. It can be performed in a hybrid format if the need arises. 
 
 
5. Active Collaboration: Following the principles of Active Learning, we promote active collaboration, both among participants as well as between participants and partner companies, thus reducing the distance between education and corporations. 

Bridge intents to facilitate processes of change with a systemic effect. We expect that the impact will be at an individual and societal level and because it's an educational solution it will also have an impact in economy.

1. Improving the quality of education: As we know that formal education as no major evolutions or improvements for the last 100 years, the students and teachers that are generating from this type of education find difficult to fit into the current world. For that matter, Bridge with both programs "Igniting Innovation" and "Global Collaborations" means to facilitate the develop of skills and provide all learners new tools that they may use to get different personal and professional opportunities. 

2. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth : It is known that economic. society and education are linked. Education is the backbone of any society and therefore these 3 items should always have a 2 way communication. However, because of lack of trust, empathy and communication, walls have been raised on both sides and the majority of schools and corporations don't partner in what truly matters. Within Bridge, we will provide several continuous moments where schools and corporations can start to communicate, trust each other and therefore truly partner: both will look upon how to change educational courses to become more effective and both will promote synergies in order for students to have real internships (with shadowing concepts), real job opportunities too and impact positively in local society and economy. 

3. Strengthen means of implementing and revitalizing global partnerships for sustainable development : With partnerships things can be far more difficult. Networking is a key element nowadays and when we involve everyone, and share results in scientific forums, projects will have a far more bigger impact (systemic). For that, the results produced at Bridge will be measure, processes will be optimized, will be published and partnerships with innovative and scientific society is a must for Bridge. 

KPI's linked to  

Goal #4. Quality of Education: 
 

• Measurement of the evolution of skills in students and teachers (Evolution of 25% from time 0 to time 3 on year 1) 
• Number of internships (with shadowing) provided by partner companies (1 per partner company on year 1) 
• Participants' degree of satisfaction at the end of each Learners Workshop (85-100%) 
• Evolution of the number of participants in the Learners workshops (start year 2: growth of 20% per workshop until reach 50 people/workshop) 
• Number of "repeating" participants in the different workshops (year 2 - 10% repeats, year 3 - 25% repeats, year 4 - 50% repeats) 

Goal #8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all: 

• Level of satisfaction of the teams and CEO of partner companies at the end of each hackathon (85-100%) 
• Number of companies that participate in the hackathons (2 per company per program) 
• Renewal of companies sponsorships for year 2 (90%) 
• Growth on number of sponsor from year 1 to year 2 (40%) 
• Number of "Fast Network" events organized by partner companies (1 per company/program) 

Goal # 17 Strengthen means of implementing and revitalizing global partnerships for sustainable development in particular: 

• Number of partnerships with scientific entities or innovative entities (1 new per year) 
• Number of publications of articles and posters in conferences (1 per year) 
• Number of partnerships with companies-sponsor (year 1 - 4, year 2 - 7)  
• Number of companies that participate in the hackathons (as internal talent - see above; and jury - 3 participations in 1 program on year 1) 
• Number of "Fast Network" events organized by partner companies (1 per company/program) 
• Number of partnerships between companies and schools created with the aim of transforming education together (start year 2) 
• Number of partnerships maintained @ Bridge (80-90%) 

• Customer journey process (onboarding and talent and team management) will be carried out through digital platforms.  
• The “Team Coaching” from the Igniting Innovation Program will be carried out by the app in asynchronous process. The other 2 events described can be held in a hybrid format if we identify this need.  
• With the development of the project it is possible that more processes can be optimized by the use of technology.  
• Technology will also be a sinequanone condition to be used as a solution (total or partial) in solving real problems during hackathon events. 

Even though there is not a direct response to this particular UN sustainable goal it's a concern I have, as being a woman who faces so many difficulties in creating a for profit business in Portugal. In fact, in a recent OCDE report it states that women are still the group least represented in entrepreneurship and I would have a word or two to say about this.  

Therefore, I would like that all the team created now and for the future @ Bridge will have a 50-50% representation between women and men. Also, I've come from multicultural environments in previous jobs and that enriches a lot any project. Therefore, the requirement is that everyone needs to speak Portuguese and English. On year 1 - 1/4 of the jobs will be for non-Portuguese and on year 2 - 1/3 of the jobs and we'll analyse in on year 3 we can go to 1/2 of the jobs from multicultural backgrounds (which we have a lot in Portugal).

• Selling Impact (ROI): Companies and Foundations Sponsors
• Innovation Awards (national and international private entities and/or European Union)
• European Funds
• Sale of Bridge programs with a 5%/year price increase after 2-3 years of life
• Merchandise sales (future): Hoodies, Notebooks, Backpacks
• VC's capital (future)
• Crowdfunding for 1 project within Giving Back to the Community (Business Model Canvas)

To perform the 1st pilot, what I did was selling out the impact that those brands would have. To have the first finantial availability to start-up this project for real, I've applied to a local program called "Mais Ajuda" and I'm contacting also some companies. One of the companies - LACS - that was present in the 1st pilot is onboard (they donate the space).