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.

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–XPRIZE, the world�s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, today announced that 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.

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, job placement rate, and retention rate.

“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 87%, 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.

“As we enter the competition’s final round, we look forward to working with XPRIZE and the selected innovators to build new, replicable pathways to rapidly reskill American workers. At this exciting stage in the Future of Work Grand Challenge, New Profit is committed to amplifying the impact of this program by investing in expanding proven solutions, and fostering collaboration to accelerate implementation across the education-to-employment ecosystem,” said Dr. Angela Jackson, Managing Partner, Economic Mobility at New Profit.

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, 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.

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.

ABOUT NEW PROFIT

New Profit is a venture philanthropy organization that backs social entrepreneurs who are advancing equity and opportunity in America. New Profit exists to build a bridge between these leaders and a community of philanthropists who are committed to catalyzing their impact. New Profit provides unrestricted grants and strategic support to a portfolio of organizations led by visionary social entrepreneurs to increase their impact, scale, and sustainability. It also partners with social entrepreneurs and other cross-sector leaders to shift how government and philanthropy pursue social change to ensure that all people can thrive. Since its founding in 1998, New Profit has invested $325+ million in more than 165 early- and later-stage social enterprises. Learn more at www.newprofit.org.

Contacts

Caden Kinard, 949-280-0182

caden.kinard@xprize.org