$5M XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling Competition

Practera is proud to be one of 10 teams globally advancing to the qualified teams round of the $5M XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling Competition, sponsored by nonprofit venture philanthropy organization New Profit in partnership with Jobs for the Future (JFF).

Working with future-focused workforce boards across the US, Practera will develop and demonstrate breakthrough experiential learning solutions to more rapidly train and place displaced & vulnerable American workers into higher-wage, higher-skill jobs. Qualified Teams were selected by an independent panel of experts from among 118 teams from 20 countries.

At Practera, we are inspired by XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling’s vision of a future in which all workers have access to gainful and meaningful employment. A vision that so closely aligns with our mission, values, and work to date.

XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling incentivizes teams to develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of rapid training and reskilling solutions for individuals most vulnerable to employment loss in the United States. The solutions developed in this competition will reduce training time by at least 50% for occupations with a living wage and will be provided at no cost to the individual.

Congratulations to all teams on their achievement – we’re proud to be working alongside some amazing innovators as part of the Future of Work Grand Challenge.

We’re super excited and are looking forward to the competition!

Find out more about our experiential learning technology platform and programs.

The Lunar New Year marks one year since the start of the current pandemic for most people.

As we usher in the year of the OX, let’s hope it bring along what it stands for. A year of calmness, stability, great opportunity and economic prosperity.

Wishing all our partners, friends, students and families around the world a very ” Happy Lunar New Year.”

We look forward to another year of achieving positive outcomes for “Learners, Students, Businesses, Universities, Educators and Mentors through Practera’s technology platform, learning design, and programs.

Dino Willox director of student employability at the University of Queensland, and Laura-Anne Bull executive director for academic partnerships at Practera, explain how to develop employability skills virtually especially after the upheaval of Covid-19 to Times Higher Education The Campus. They emphasise that while there are plenty of options for enhancing employability virtually,  it is how students reflect upon and learn from their experiences as an important factor. At practera, we power experiential learning programs with our feedback loops to drive critical reflection, deeper learning and improved performance. As the authors point out, this important ingredient makes students gain enhanced employability skills and get them career ready.

Feedback from students and employers has indicated that by engaging in digital industry projects, enhanced by feedback loops from industry, peers & educators at the right points students fostered and developed much sought-after employability skills and capabilities such as innovation, resilience, emotional intelligence and creativity.

Read the full article on boosting student employability through virtual experiences.

We are excited to kickstart 2021 by announcing a new partnership between Practera and King’s College London.

The King’s Careers & Employability team will be using the Practera platform to deliver digital industry projects for students to gain professional insights and develop essential employability skills needed for a modern career.

We look forward to unfolding the partnership and its digital projects in the year ahead.

Andrew Wright, Head of Employer Engagement at King’s said, “Practera has demonstrated itself as an industry leader across Australia and other key geographies and we are delighted to help them launch in the United Kingdom in 2020. The platform allows us to develop, design and implement high-quality virtual meaningful work projects for our students, working alongside industry at scale to build unique experiences in these challenging times. We are excited about what we can achieve in 2021 through group projects targeted at final year undergraduate students and those from under-represented groups.”

Practera Co-Founder & Co-CEO Beau Leese said, “We’re proud to be partnering with a leading Careers Service like King’s College, and delighted to be supporting their vision to build success for students, graduates, staff and employers across King’s College London.”

Practera also starts 2021 with a new UK team led by Jane Hallett, Senior Manager Academic Partnerships. Jane returned to London to work with our UK customers following 3 years with Practera in Sydney. Read more about the partnership.

Practera is very proud to be part of The University of Sydney Business School’s Job Smart Edge “BIG” program win at the Global QS Quacquarelli Symonds “Reimagine Education Awards”.

Job Smart Edge is The University of Sydney’s Employability program powered by Practera. The program prepares young people for a rapidly shifting future through access to career coaching, masterclasses and authentic real-life industry project experience.

The University of Sydney dominated this year’s QS Reimagine Education awards. The Business School’s Job Smart Edge initiative won the overall Global Education Award for its comprehensive program to provide international students employability skills and experience for their future careers.

The Reimagine Education Awards program, the world’s largest awards program for innovative teaching, is led by the Wharton SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management at the University of Pennsylvania and the World University Rankings. It aims to reward innovative approaches that enhance student learning outcomes and employability.

Massive applause to all involved on a well deserved and outstanding award!

If you want to learn more about our products or discuss how we can help you design an award-winning employability skills program, please contact us here at connect@practera.com. We look forward to having a chat!

As 2020 draws to a close the Practera team wishes you and your families a happy festive season, and a bright, healthy 2021.  In particular, all our love and support to those who are unable to see friends and family this year. 

In 2020 we were privileged to be able to continue with our mission and help more educators deliver high quality, digitally-enabled experiential learning to students and professionals. Thanks to our awesome customers and team for your support in this most volatile of years – your resilience and spirit have been our inspiration. 

We are also delighted and excited to be ending the year on a hight by being nominated as a finalist for 👉Excellence in International Student Employability and Career Development 👉 Victorian International Education Awards. It’s great to be acknowledged by the Victorian Government and Study Melbourne for demonstrating excellence/innovation in employability and careers services to International Students. Find out  more here 

We look forward to updating you on Practera’s continued success in January. 

For now, if you can’t wait for 2021, here’s some light reading;

•  We released key research on Quality in Online Project Learning analysing a sample of 5237 students from 22 Universities. Get the whitepaper 
• Three interesting articles on the future of experiential learning – remote internships, improving equity, higher ed employer collaboration

If you’d like to learn more or discuss ideas to grow your experiential learning impact in 2021 – let’s have a chat in January!