CareerVillage Articles

Career Readiness for All: Meet Coach by CareerVillage!

We are thrilled to announce that version one of the Coach learner experience is available and free to try! Coach is designed to help everyone from students to job-seekers navigate their career readiness journey through activities focused on career exploration, skills development, post-secondary and job prep. Starting today, you can explore a new era of career development with over 30 interactive, personalized career readiness activities, all powered by cutting-edge AI technology built in coalition with 20 career-focused institutions. You’ll see even more activities and features added to the platform in the coming months.

The easy-to-navigate Coach Learner Dashboard features modules and career readiness activities recommended based on a learner's career goals and interests.
The easy-to-navigate Coach Learner Dashboard features modules and activities recommended based on a learner’s career goals and interests.

Our Commitment to the Safe Development of AI for Career Readiness

Since its conception a year ago (time flies!), Coach has been developed with a steadfast commitment to the safe and responsible use of AI. With 12+ years of experience developing safe and accessible career development technology, the team behind Coach understands the importance of AI safety.

Coach has been developed following the eight principles of our Responsible AI Framework, ensuring that it’s ethical, transparent, and fair. Over the past year, we’ve worked with a coalition of 20 industry leaders, including educational institutions, workforce boards, and nonprofits, to co-design and refine Coach. Our coalition partners offer critical advisory support, provide product feedback, and share their catalog of resources and services with Coach’s recommendation library. This collaborative effort has also included classroom testing with hundreds of students and educators from diverse communities across the US and around the world.

CareerVillage is also proud to be an inaugural member of the EDSAFE AI Alliance Industry Council, dedicated to making AI technologies SAFE: Safe, Accountable, Fair, and Effective. Additionally, we’ve invested heavily in robust data security measures and moderation and monitoring practices to protect all users’ personal information.

Building Career Readiness AI That’s Measurably Effective

Coach isn’t just a tool; it’s a measurable solution for career readiness. We’ve integrated the CAAS-SF (Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Short Form), a validated survey used worldwide, to measure career readiness. This survey surfaces at the beginning of a learner’s journey and after a period of time to track their progress. We also prompt mini-surveys after each activity to gauge the impact on career readiness traits like interest, self-efficacy, and self-concept. We’re committed to releasing aggregated, anonymized impact reports on a regular basis and sharing data and insights with institutional partners and educators.

We are also excited to announce two pilot studies in partnership with Per Scholas, a nonprofit working to advance economic equity through rigorous training for women and people of color pursuing tech careers. Over the course of two 3-month pilot periods, the studies with Per Scholas aim to boost confidence and improve outcomes for adult learners transitioning into tech careers and navigating the job market. Through these studies and other strategic partnerships (announcements coming soon!), we expect to learn a lot about how Coach can be used, which activities are effective, and to use what we learn to improve the experience.

Up Next: The v1 Educator Experience

Stay tuned for the upcoming release of Coach for Educators later this summer! This version will feature tools that enable teachers, career services staff, and workforce educators to integrate Coach into their educational settings seamlessly. Educators will be able to create rosters, invite their learners, assign and track activities, and much more, making it easier than ever to support their learners’ career development.

Screenshot of the Coach Educator Dashboard
An early look at the Coach Educator Dashboard – more soon!

Shout-Outs to Our Coalition and Funding Partners

This journey wouldn’t be possible without the incredible support of our coalition and funding partners.

Coalition Partners:

  • AVID
  • Arizona State University, Next Lab Imaginarium
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Mass
  • Braven
  • Caps Network
  • Empower Work
  • Generation.org
  • Hats & Ladders
  • MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board
  • MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board
  • Mentor California
  • Mission Bit
  • Mouse.org
  • Opportunity@Work
  • Portal Learning
  • STEDY
  • SFUSD
  • UpChieve
  • Year Up

Funding Supporters:

  • Elisabeth C. DeLuca Foundation
  • Google.org
  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Atlassian Foundation
  • Schultz Family Foundation
  • Cisco Foundation
  • GitLab Foundation
  • Salesforce
  • ServiceNow
  • Twilio
  • HPE

Join us in celebrating this milestone and try out Coach today!