Generation: You Employed

Generation's vision is a career-launching job for every disconnected learner anywhere in the world.

To achieve this goal, we break bias barriers that can prevent nontraditional candidates from economic success. We have found that technology professions provide a ripe opportunity because of the scarcity employers face in hiring. Through our technology programs, we are training and placing a range of alternative profiles in digital jobs, including women (despite these professions being male-dominated), people with vocational degrees (when employers prefer university degrees), and those with liberal arts backgrounds (when employers prefer STEM backgrounds).

The employment skills gap affects hundreds of millions of people globally, there are 75 million young adults unemployed, three times more who are underemployed, and 375 million workers of all ages who will need to learn new skills by 2030. If they aren't connected to the right skills and stable employment, these individuals, their families, and their communities face significant economic and social challenges--with the greatest impact being felt by those with the fewest resources to handle it. In particular, mid-tenure workers who have lost their jobs due to digitization or automation have few program options today to enable them to enter new careers.

Generation directly links those who are disconnected from the workforce with hiring employers. We have developed a proven approach that, within 4-12 weeks, provides the training and support that people need to launch new careers in 26 professions, including a number of new technology professions.

In Europe, and globally, we have a strong track record over our first four years of operation--with more than 27,000 graduates who have earned cumulative salaries of $100 million through placement with 2,900 employer partners--and we are poised to scale dramatically in serving learners of all ages.

Generation serves young people, ages 18-29, who are unemployed or underemployed. Generation's learners are 55% female and 42% have dependents. ReGeneration serves a mid-career worker, typically in their 40s and 50s, who have just lost their job or who are forced to return to the job market after a hiatus.

In Europe, we have programs in Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom.

Generation Spain has more than 1,800 graduates, who were unemployed an average of 5-7 months before joining the program. We have helped nontraditional candidates find success with technology employers. Over 60% of Generation graduates in digital programs come from liberal arts backgrounds, yet their placement and retention rates match STEM peers. Fifty-five percent of Generation's digital graduates are female, even though female workforce participation is only 20% in the industry. And 25% of graduates have a vocational degree, but are supported to enter jobs that employers previously believed required a university degree.

In the UK, Generation's cloud support engineer program is 35% women (vs. 17% average in the UK technology sector). Ninety percent of them are an ethnic minority, and more than half have been out of work for more than six months.

Generation has a holistic seven-part methodology for recruiting, training, and placing nontraditional candidates in career-launching jobs, with the fastest growth in our technology roles:

1. Jobs and direct engagement with employers. We identify roles that have scarcity, churn, or productivity variation, and pre-confirm job vacancies with employers.
2. Recruitment. We select learners based on literacy/numeracy, intrinsics for each profession, and personal commitment.
3. Integrated 4- to 12-week training. Bootcamps provide intensive practice of the most important activities for each profession, integrating technical, behavioral, and mindset skills.
4. Social-support services. We provide support services, such as stipends, transportation, and child care, and we provide mentorship during the program and first months on the job.
5. Community. We cultivate a supportive social circle through events and alumni networks.
6. Return on investment. We track impact on participants (personal and financial well-being) and return for employers (retention, productivity, quality and performance, speed to promotion).
7. Data at the heart of our work. We gather data on our learners and their performance in the bootcamp and on the job to refine our approach and support their success.

We deliver Generation's methodology through partners and existing community infrastructure, supporting our partners with content (including curriculum and technology tools), quality assurance, data analytics, and business development.

Generation is well positioned to scale, globally and in Europe, with a strong team in place, a strong funding base, and a number of exciting multi-country partnerships already established to fuel growth over the next few years.

Many workforce programs focus solely on training and therefore have job placement rates that are 20-50%. For those that train and place youth in jobs, they tend to be small annual volume, expensive, and single-country focused. Further, few programs are able to measure return on investment (ROI) for both learners and employers. Lastly, few programs exist to serve mid-tenure workers who are forced to enter new careers.

Generation is a global program that integrates all of the steps in the education-to-employment value chain. We are tested across nearly 100 cities, twelve countries, and 25 professions. Our ROI enables us to be 50% self-financing toda, and we aspire to reach 100% over the coming few years.

Our unique approach has resulted in industry-leading placement and retention rates for graduates. We are poised to scale dramatically in Europe and beyond through our relationships, including Google.org, Amazon Web Services, and Intesa Sanpaolo.

Our approach to this vision is innovative along four dimensions. First, Generation is one of the few global workforce programs, spanning twelve countries and 100 cities. Second, we connect directly to employers to pre-confirm job vacancies; and, in the design of our curricula, we focus on those activities that truly differentiate high-performing employees. Third, we gather return on investment data for both learners and employers. And last, with more than 27,000 graduates in only four years, we are the fastest scaling and the largest global demand-driven youth employment program by annual volume.

Technology professions are a cornerstone for Generation. We offer an expanding range of programs: cloud support engineer, web development, digital marketing, Java development, IT help desk, robotic process automation, and digital customer success. These programs are growing rapidly due to high demand and the partnerships we have with organizations like Google.org, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services.

In addition, Generation relies on technology to improve and deliver our program.
- Data and analytics: A secure database and dashboards help us monitor progress. This data allows us to identify problems and rapidly adjust interventions. For example, we know that students who miss one day of class in Week 1 have a 45% chance of dropping out, and those who miss two have a 90% chance. We personalize social support services for students accordingly.
- Digital learning assets: We record Generation classrooms around the world to monitor instructional quality, and a central team then reviews footage and provides remote coaching to instructors. We also use digital simulations of the workplace context to provide our students with repeat and intensive practice in the skills they need.
- Blended programs: We are experimenting with programs that have both classroom and online modules. Starting in June, we will offer a blended digital marketing program, and we are planning one for cloud support engineers next year.

We have experienced digital and technology team that supports the organization in using our technology platforms and continues to develop new technologies to support our success.

In four years, Generation has become the largest and fastest-growing global program that trains and places youth in jobs, by annual volume. We have 27,000+ graduates in twelve countries, 100 cities, and 25 professions. Globally, our graduates have a job attainment rate of 81% within three months of graduation and a continued employment rate of 66% at one year after placement. We have more than 2,900 employer partners, and 84% of employers say our graduates outperforming their peers.

Employment enables financial independence. Generation graduates achieve income gains of 2-6X what they earned previously. Collectively, they have earned more than US$100 million. And with 42% of graduates supporting dependents, this stability positively impacts whole families and communities.

In Spain, Generation's 1,800 graduates earn at or above the 50th percentile for their national peers. Average salary for digital marketing graduates is 1,100 euros, average salary in Java and Front end programming is 1,300 euros, and in robotic process automation is 1,330 euros.

And we are beginning to have impact that can change the employment landscape for other nontraditional candidates. Generation is now filling 7% of annual digital marketing vacancies in Spain with its graduates, which is evidence of transforming how employers recruit and train.

In next year, we are focused on: 1) reaching new mid-career learners by expanding ReGeneration, 2) expanding geographic footprint, with Brazil, France, and the UK all launched already this year, and Australia in "pre-launch", and 3) experimenting with programs that blend online and in-person learning.

A short-term goal is to explore how Generation's methodology stretches to other populations, particularly through our ReGeneration program. We are starting to run programs for mid-career workers who are finding themselves displaced and need to transition into new professions. We are running ReGeneration programs in the US and Singapore, and will be expanding into Europe next.

We see both internal and external risks:
- Internal risks: maintaining program quality while the program expands. Ensuring that we have high graduation rates, job placement rates, job retention rates, and income gains for our graduates is our primary focus. This requires that we deliver the same quality experience in every Generation classroom and interaction across every city where we work.
- External risks: recruiting enough students and employers to meet our growth goals. We have ambitious growth goals across Europe and beyond. Before we start a class, we must pre-confirm jobs with employers and we must recruit a full classroom of students. 

Internal Solutions: We have created quality assurance tools, processes, and support services that help everyone--from instructors to mentors to implementation partners --to deliver the program successfully. In addition, we have data dashboards that we scrutinize on a daily, weekly, and monthly level to provide leading indicators of challenges. And we have started testing blended programs that combine classroom and online time to make it even easier to ensure consistent quality External Solutions: We have invested in multiple channels to time-effectively mobilize jobs, particularly with small and medium enterprises who often represent the majority of job demand but can be elusive to reach (e.g. in Spain, 70% of private sector jobs are with small and medium enterprises). With learners, we also use multiple channels, from social media to relationships with public labor agencies and community-based organizations in order to build our brand awareness.

Generation's founding CEO is Dr. Mona Mourshed. She began her journey with a focus on K-12 education, and led research on top-performing and fast-improving school systems that have been widely recognized as seminal in the field. She has spent more than a decade working on improving educational outcomes, and her commitment to the issue has fueled her own personal evolution from a deep research interest to leading an organization that is having global social impact.

Generation is managed globally and operated locally, with more than 300 full-time staff members around the world. At the global level, Generation is organized by functions, including strategy, partnerships, curriculum development, instructor training, technology, finance, communications, and data. At the local level, country-level staff oversees programs on a day-to-day basis in four areas: student recruitment, operations (including building the capabilities of local implementers and managing their performance, program coordination, student support services, mentorship, and data-gathering), employer relations, and new programs. In addition, there are boards of directors in place at the global and local levels that provide counsel and oversight to Generation leadership.

In Europe, Generation has programs in Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom. Each country operation is an affiliate of the global organization, with a team on the ground that supports and implements the program. Having local teams enables Generation to build partnerships, connect with employers, and implement successful programs for specific unemployed or underemployed demographics. In Spain, for example, 75% of graduates are hired by small or medium sized businesses that are cultivated by the team on the ground.

This structure also allows Generation to provide central, global support to improve program operations. For example, programs around the world benefit from a common recruiting platform and a set of dashboards that provide real-time information about student performance and program efficacy at the individual, class, program, city, and country level. This structure sets countries up to achieve successful outcomes as quickly as possible.

Generation has amplified our work through communications with awarding organizations and used coverage to gain credibility with employers, and funders.

Recognition
- WISE Award 2018
- MIT SOLVE Finalist
- MacArthur 100&Change Top 200
- S4YE Portfolio

Press
- Le Figaro, Google alloue 3 milions d'euros a l'inclusion numerique en France (2019)
- La Repubblica, Intesa Sanpaolo Lancia 'per Merito', prestito fino a 5mila all'anno agli universitari (2019)
- Stanford Social Innovation Review, Six Lessons for Getting Work Training and Employment Right (2018)
- El Pais, Como encontrar empleo? La brecha entre lo que eres y lo que quieren las empresas (2017)
- Financial Times, Paying young Americans to learn the right skills (2017)

Generation's goal is to become financially self-sufficient. Philanthropic funding is a catalyst for new programs as we make a case to employers and local governments.

We define sustainable funding as that from employers and governments, supplemented by small learner fees in some countries. By the end of 2018, Generation had achieved 50% sustainable funding, a breakthrough for the sector, and we expect to reach 54% by the end of 2019, with an ultimate goal of 90-100%.

In Europe, government funding and multi-country partnerships have set us up for success. For example, the European Social Fund has allocated more than 5 million euros to our work in Spain, making us 90% self-financing there. In the UK, our first cohort of AWS cloud support engineers is majority funded by employers. Google.org is providing funding to train and place 6,500 young adults in Spain, France, and Italy in digital marketing.

If Generation were named a Solver, we would use the resources and recognition to accelerate our impact on the technology sector in Europe. Resulting publicity would bring greater attention to our Spain program and help fuel expansion of newer programs in France, Italy, and the UK. In addition, we would use the prize funding in two ways. First, we would extend our online outreach to nontraditional candidates who can be harder to reach--including women and minorities. Second, we would bolster employer outreach, focusing on small and medium enterprises who are an outsize portion of hiring employers.