XPRIZE Announces the Five Finalists Shaping the Future of Work

Five finalist teams advance in the $5M XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling competition to quickly reskill under-resourced workers for the digital revolution.

XPRIZE, the world's leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity's grand challenges, recently announced five teams are advancing to the finalist round of the $5M XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling competition, a three-year competition reimagining the future of work and transforming how we train and educate workers. 

Launched in June 2020, XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling is sponsored by nonprofit venture philanthropy organization New Profit and in partnership with Jobs for the Future (JFF). The competition incentivizes teams to develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of rapid training and reskilling solutions for individuals most vulnerable to employment loss.

With the competition in its final year, XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) are partnering to expand the prize's mission and impact. Throughout 2022, XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling and CAEL will publish blogs, host webinars, and engage with community members on the future of work and how we can all shape it.

Eight semifinalists competed in round two of the field test stage of the competition, with each team deploying their proposed solutions to quickly reskill under-resourced workers. Judges evaluated all semifinalist testing data, moving five teams forward as finalists because of their reduction in training time, and improvement in job placement and retention. 

'We are excited to see how the five finalist teams in this competition have tackled the challenge of closing the skills gaps,' said XPRIZE CEO Anousheh Ansari. 'The trainings offered are empowering workers and increasing accessibility to full-time, living wage jobs; radically changing lives; and bringing abundance for all. The finalists are reimagining job training and career development, leveraging AI, VR, and disruptive technologies, and their efforts are paramount in demonstrating the value of fast-paced training programs.'

The five finalists teams are:

• Alelo, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Dignified Work, formerly Dignity of Work, Spokane, Washington, USA
• Team Isotonik, formerly HireMee, Bengaluru, India
• SHIFA360, San Diego, California, USA
• VITAL, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

'The finalists exceeded all expectations following the field testing stage,' said Dr. Monique Golden, Social Science Lead for XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling.'We hoped teams would increase job training by 50%; so far their solutions have increased training by 84%, with another round of testing to optimize their ideas.'

The competition's final round looks to hasten the adoption of the solutions that emerge from the competition on a massive scale. Finalists are challenged to achieve an exponential increase in results by training at least 5,000 individuals in three different occupations in three different industries (including the one they had trained for in Round 2 of the field test) and placing them into relevant jobs. The five teams will test their solutions from May to August, with judges set to review the data later this year. 

'Equitable economic growth and social mobility can't happen if learning - in all its forms - isn't well-aligned with rapidly evolving workforce needs,' said Christine Carpenter, senior vice president of engagement for CAEL. 'The XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling competition is spurring innovation around not only work-relevant learning but how to improve access to it.'

XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling is powered by New Profit as part of the Future of Work Grand Challenge, which aims to achieve broader systemic change to help prepare 12 million Americans from underinvested communities for workforce success by 2025. 

The Grand Challenge is made possible by Strada Education Network, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Comcast NBCUniversal, Goodwill, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Schultz Family Foundation, and many others. The initiative also brings together a consortium of design and operating partners driving positive change in workforce development including JFF, Accenture, Brandeis University, Education Design Lab, Goodwill Industries International, and Jobcase.

XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling is seeking outreach partners to pilot and amplify the reskilling solutions in the prize's field test. Do you have clients who could benefit from learning new job skills? Are you looking to scale EdTech and workforce development solutions? Contact us at rapidreskilling@xprize.org to learn how to join us in revolutionizing the future of work 

For more information on the competition, advisory board, sponsors and partners, and more, visit rapidreskilling.xprize.org.

ABOUT XPRIZE

XPRIZE is a global future-positive movement, delivering truly radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. XPRIZE inspires and empowers a global community of problem-solvers to positively impact our world by crowdsourcing solutions through large-scale competitions, tackling the world's grandest challenges in exploration, environment and human equity. Active competitions include the $100 Million XPRIZE Carbon Removal with Elon Musk, $15 Million XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion, $10 Million XPRIZE Rainforest, $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling and $1 Million Digital Learning Challenge. Donate, sign up or join a team at xprize.org.