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NPOs Team-Up On Career Services, Training Platform
NPOs Team-Up On Career Services, Training Platform

SkillUp Coalition, a nonprofit launched during the pandemic to connect job seekers with high-growth opportunities that don’t require a college degree, is partnering with two other nonprofits to expand its outreach programs including the free career services and training platform it debuted in June 2022.

The upgraded platform will leverage career navigator technology from WhereWeGo, a New Orleans-based nonprofit whose mission aligns with SkillUp’s, to deliver a sleeker and more worker-centric experience to users across the country. The upgraded site will include resources specific to 37 gateway occupations and 900 short-term training programs aligned to high-paying, high-growth industries along with “earn and learn” opportunities that combine full-time pay and benefits with on-the-job training.

The enhanced platform is being supplemented by a partnership with Opportunity@Work, a civic enterprise launched by the New America think tank in 2015 in conjunction with a White House initiative to connect overlooked communities with job openings in technology and other fields. SkillUp has joined Opportunity@Work in an ad campaign called “Tear the Paper Ceiling” aimed at removing barriers to opportunity faced by millions of Americans who lack a bachelor’s degree but who have developed skills through alternative routes (STARs). The campaign seeks to develop awareness and visibility for this talent pool and to encourage employers to remove four-year degree screens that perpetuate inequity and limit economic mobility. 

“SkillUp is a proud partner of this campaign and is committed to elevating the important role of STARs in our workforce,” Desiree Jewell, SkillUp’s vice president for marketing and communications, told The NonProfit Times.

The developments follow SkillUp’s other recently announced initiative to develop a remote jobs catalog aimed at increasing access to high-quality employment for workers in rural areas. The project, which is supported by a $1.5 million grant from the Truist Foundation, has a rollout planned for this Labor Day weekend and will supplement SkillUp’s local partnerships in New Orleans and roughly a dozen other metro areas. The initiatives are intended to further advance its mission of supporting workers “anywhere, at any stage” of their career journey.

SkillUp’s platform is completely free of charge to both job seekers and employers. “We are not a jobs board pulling in any listing,” Jewell said. “Our partners are committed to providing high-opportunity jobs that include on-the-job training, education benefits, upward growth potential, and more.”

SkillUp launched during July 2020 in San Francisco for the initial purpose of offering career services and support to frontline workers impacted by pandemic-related layoffs and downsizing. It has since provided career, training, and job support to over 1.3 million people nationally and grown into a coalition of more than 100 partners including other nonprofits as well as training and education providers, technology developers, policymakers and employers.

Further information can be found at www.skillup.org.