Village Capital (VC) and Lumina Foundation are looking for start-ups involved with workforce readiness for a program aiming to connect them with advisory boards to validate (or not) their work on improving participant outcomes. VC and Lumina will run business development workshops for participants, and two start-ups will be peer selected for an initial $75K investment in their product ideas.
Applications are due April 10th. Learn more about the application process here.
Excerpted from the VC site:
According to a 2013 Gallup report, only 11% of employers think that graduating students have skills that fit their needs and studies find that up to 96% of employers are unhappy with their labor pools and new hires. HR teams are making an effort to find top talent, but 83% of HR managers say their systems need an overhaul. This is a double-sided issue crippling the potential of the US workforce and employment marketplace alike.
Employees want to build the right skills for the job, but struggle to identify the skills they already have, where to go to fill in the gaps with the ones they need and how to prove mastery to employers. The numbers are staggering, 46% of American workers consider themselves underemployed and among those who do have a job, 75% say they are not using their degree or training.
Village Capital is seeking US-based higher ed and workforce-related investments that are focused on building the desired skills to be hired, validating these skills among employers or helping current employees get the training needed to reach the next step in their careers. While engaging in our unique diligence process, Village Capital and Lumina Foundation, along with an ecosystem of partners, will support and scale these innovative ventures