What is the name of your solution?
Life Culture Audit
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
Tech readiness tool assessing coding game play, lifestyle vision, goals, and obstacles to motivate learners to begin tech studies.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Wall Street Journal, Pew Research and SHRM have highlighted the majority of employees quitting their jobs during this Great Resignation are Blacks seeking career development for higher pay. Although 65% of jobs require post-secondary credentials, companies are afraid to reskill front-liners as front-liners have dire Post-secondary dropout rates 89% for low-income first-generation and 62%, for African American learners. Educational and business leaders have no idea how to solve this dilemma as it is the chicken vs egg situation.
Automation has caused Black families to drop out of the middle class. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2020, reported that the median annual wage for computer and information technology occupations was $91,250. This wage is $50,000 higher than $41,950, the median annual wage for all occupations. Wealth has been soaring for the top 10%, highly-educated white families with Bachelor's and post-graduate degrees employed in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematical (STEM) occupations. They own 76% of American wealth. The wealth for the bottom 50% of families, mainly 75% Black and 67% Hispanic with a high school diploma, has been declining as they only own 1% of American wealth. Wealth discriminates. The higher the educational attainment in STEM, the higher a person’s annual earning capacity, the higher wealth gained. (OECD, 2015)
Oxfam America shows that 52 million U.S. workers — or 32 percent of the country's workforce — earning less than $15 an hour and need STEM post-secondary training to improve their career. These are parents of k-12 students. Children unconsciously replicate the behavior of their parents. (Nielsen & Tomaselli, 2010). Invisible Talent Market quotes, Pew Charitable Trust noted that 62% of Americans raised in the top fifth income remain in the top two-fifths, and conversely, 65% raised in the bottom fifth remain in the bottom two-fifths. This phenomenon has created a caste system of never-ending poverty.
"Family background plays a more important role in the US," states Corak an economist at University of Ottawa. Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. Even Representative Paul D. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who argues that overall mobility remains high, recently wrote that “mobility from the very bottom up” is “where the United States lags behind.” A Family Affair: Intergenerational Social Mobility across the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Countries finds that social mobility between generations is dramatically lower in the U.S. than in many other developed countries.
According to the OECD report, the main cause of social immobility is educational opportunity. The report states, “It turns out that America’s public school system, rather than lifting children up, is instead holding them down.”
Cathy Duffy in Government Nannies, documented urban schools provide diluted curriculum that stifles imagination, critical thinking, innovation and invention. Hence, students within these schools are unprepared for college by no fault of their own. For example, classes in schools that serve the middle class or upper-middle-class population would include residential architecture, the designing of commercial structures, broadcast journalism, advanced computer graphics, a sophisticated course in furniture design, carving and sculpture, 3D-Animation or an honors course in engineering research and design. At many Black schools, in contrast, these courses are basic without hands-on experimentation. Difficult subjects like STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - are often taught straight from a textbook rather than in a laboratory format that forces innovation, critical thinking or problem-solving skills. Even when a course title denotes college preparatory, its students often receive a diluted course.
National Center for Education Statistics reports there are 15.3 million 9th to 12th-grade American students who will be entering the workforce by 2025 and 51% are considered economically disadvantaged.
What is your solution?
Invisible Talent Market highlights, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.” Currently, working-class and underclass people across America are treated as the scum of the earth. Almost everything in their world screams PERMANENT FAILURE, which is why failure is so prevalent in their neighborhoods.
The Life Culture Audit App is a mobile tech readiness tool assessing coding game play, lifestyle vision, goals, and obstacles to motivate students to begin and complete tech studies to escape failure and poverty.
Here are the steps of app usage:
- Learner registers or logs into the app.
- The learner navigates through the splash screen and onboarding pages.
- The learner plays 1 level of the Maze Game page.
- App displays “You created # of lines of JavaScript.” to indicate the learner is learning code.
- The learner plays ten levels of the Maze game, with each level indicating the # of lines of JavaScript created.
- After completing level 10 of the maze game app displays, “you have great Tech problem-solving ability.”
- The learner is then redirected to a Create Vision page to add a photo for each goal.
- Each goal is added to a goal list.
- Each goal photo is added to the vision board collage.
- The app sends the vision board and goals to the analytics framework.
- The analytics framework computes a portion of the learner profile.
- The analytics framework sends a portion of the profile to the app of the learner.
- The learner views the received part of the profile on the profile page.
- App directs learner to add current and future obstacles.
- The learner adds individual obstacles.
- The app displays current and future obstacles on 1 page.
- The analytics framework receives future obstacles for learner profiles.
- The analytics system expands on the user profile.
- The app prompts learners that it would send notifications to keep engaged.
- User confirms prompt.
- The system sends administrators notifications to check new user profiles through the desktop.
- The administrator reviews the updated profile and sees recommended actions in response to profile information.
- The administrator saves the information for each student.
All information is compiled onto a Full Profile page where students can see their skills, vision, goals, and obstacles in one snapshot. Students will receive reminders to review their Full Profile page often as they receive potential high-demand career options, such as cybersecurity. Cybersecurity Ventures state the cybersecurity industry needs 3.5 million professionals and are willing to pay the median income for these jobs of $92,600. These reminders raise life expectations, motivation and grit to stay focused on their STEM educational tasks to escape failure and poverty.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
The population we will serve are economically disadvantaged K-12 parents and their children. Most economically disadvantaged K-12 parents are first-generation post-secondary learners who come from households where the median family income is $37,565, compared to $99,635 for continuing-generation learners.
Blacks and economically disadvantaged families do not receive adequate resources to enter digital careers. Most first-generation post-secondary learners attended public high schools where the student-to-counselor ratio is 482 to 1 and community colleges where the student-to-counselor ratio is 1,000 to 1. (Fuschillo, 2020). The impact is noticeable in career selection and preparation. A 2020 Deutsche Bank report highlights that 76% of Blacks and 62% of Hispanics could be under-prepared for 86% of jobs by 2045 as these jobs are dependent on tech skills. Black students noted in the 2009 Lemelson- MIT study that they know they are not prepared well for technology or inventing careers; Thus, they are fearful of matriculating to post-secondary institutions to specialize in technology. (Byrd-Hill, 2017)
By assisting k-12 learners and their parents to discover they have tech problem-solving abilities and document their bigger life vision, they will be able to develop the mindset to complete STEM education and hence, secure a high-paying STEM job to break out of poverty and into wealth. Upon the acquisition of a high-paying STEM job, adult learners will purchase and maintain homes for their families at a luxury standard. Retail and businesses will move into their neighborhoods. Children would attend fully funded public schools and be able to master standardized exams to matriculate to post-secondary training to secure a high-paying career. Children will repeat the upward economic cycle as adults and so on for the next 10 generations.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Our CEO, CTO and VP, Academics are African Americans and first-generation techies, who struggled to secure IT professional jobs matching the Master degree credentials they acquired in college. CEO majored in economics and data analysis highly tied to computer programming. The COO, VP, Innovation and VP, Academics secured degrees in Information Technology, Physics and Software Management/ Information Assurance. CEO has spent 15 years assisting k-12 students and their parents to prepare for the tech on-ramp. CEO, 28 years after acquiring degree, enrolled in Cisco Certified training to discover what barriers students face in securing tech certification training. This team believes IT certification would have sped up corporate acceptance in jobs. They invested their skills into Automation Workz for 22 months as an tech certification pilot to see if a 12-month program would be a faster on-ramp to higher-paying tech jobs.
VP Academics created the Life Culture Audit Workshop to determine what students would successfully complete this training. The Black community felt they were screened out of STEM opportunities as they lacked the traditional academic credentials for admissions to traditional training programs. Automation Workz developed a hands-on applied tech readiness tool, housed on a learning management system, to discover there is a lot of tech talent in economically disadvantaged communities that is overlooked. Many have been graduating from the 12-month cybersecurity/ network engineering training to earn incomes between $50,000 to $120,000.
Current learners suggested the tool needed to be redeveloped as a mobile app for those with only cellphone internet service.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Facilitate meaningful social-emotional learning among underserved young people.
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
Detroit, MI, USAOur solution's stage of development:
PrototypeHow many people does your solution currently serve?
50
Why are you applying to Solve?
Automation Workz hopes to expand the prototype pilot to a larger population and to receive monitoring and evaluation support to validate impact measurement so as prepare for sales to k-12 schools. Case studies need to be built to market to schools to garner sales.
Sales to schools require a 9-12 month lead time. We are seeking introductions to school districts across the world.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Monitoring & Evaluation (e.g. collecting/using data, measuring impact)
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Ida Byrd-Hill
What makes your solution innovative?
The Life Culture Audit App revolves around the Whole “Child” Learning concept. Students are immersed in learning environments to foster a sense of community and encourage interpersonal, problem solving, goal setting, creativity, autonomy, and self-accountability skills. These are the 21st-century skills corporations are seeking for today's talent. The Whole “Child” Learning concept looks at observational and aspirational data. Observational data is the past and current performance of the learner - standardized exam scores, grades mastery of competencies; Aspirational data is what users desire to achieve – vision and goals.
The standardized exam modeled after the Intelligence (IQ) test that measures abstract facts is the core data schools utilize. The standardized exam serves the same function as the IQ test - to determine mental retardation. Like the IQ test, a low score eliminates many opportunities. Blacks and economically disadvantaged students have been judged by observational data alone and hence they have not been pushed into advanced STEM classes in k-12 and hence they are not prepared to successful complete STEM coursework in post-secondary training. Standardized exams have subject matter questions Blacks have not covered, despite schools having Common Core standards across the country. (Byrd-Hill, 2017)
Our Life Culture Audit App inexpensive, scalable, online goal-setting and vision boarding program truly reengages learners and their parents. It awaken dreams they have long forgotten as they struggle through the harshness of poverty. It shows them they are valued and have a purpose in life. It prepares them to launch out of the social and economic class into which they are born. Research has shown goal setting and vision boarding as effective to improve academic performance and retention among learners (adult and K-12 students). One study showed that 50% of the athletes surveyed achieved their goals after building a vision board. (Mathew, 2020). Another study concluded that goal setting could effectively and efficiently enhance academic performance and suggested it might be particularly effective among struggling students. The positive impact is even more pronounced amongst males and visibly ethnic/diverse students and the educators that interact with these students. (Schippers, Scheepers & Peterson, 2015) Students and parents will be able to clearly see the vision for their life, and how successful completion of STEM education is a significant part of that vision.
The Life Culture Audit was first implemented for teachers, in 2006, at Hustle & TECHknow Preparatory High School, a cyber alternative high school, over three weeks to prepare them for a blended school catering to adjudicated dropouts in Detroit. Teachers were so motivated to rollout the Life Culture Audit Workshop for 130 9th-12thgrade adjudicated high school dropouts over an entire marking period. The Life Culture Audit Workshop included video games, crossword puzzles, etymology vocabulary building, personality test typing, learning style assessments, goal setting, vision boarding, leadership development, and academic benchmark assessment. Teachers compiled individual student data into educational development plans, as a roadmap to their life vision, for the student and their parent.
The principal framed and posted student vision boards like a museum exhibit, so students were daily reminded of their life goals. Teachers accelerated student engagement by aligning subjects into cross-curricular project-based learning to personalize virtual learning for the whole child. Here are the results:
- The attendance rate increased to 96.7% daily
- Collective grade point average increased from .500 to 2.825
- Students completed over 1000 vocabulary words in 1 year
- Collective Lexile reading levels increased 3.6 grades from 4.2 to 7.8 grade
- Sent three quarter-finalists out of 79 to the National Vocabulary Championship
- 80% graduation rate, 100% post-secondary matriculation
- School Won Educational Program of the Year 2007, Automation Alley
The Life Culture Audit Workshop was resurrected in 2017-2022 when Automation Workz requested 757 Detroit adults attending a Cisco Networking Academy Internet of Things course to enroll in the workshop. Approximately 60 African American learners, earning an average of $38,750 annually, enrolled. Those 60 learners matriculated through the rigorous Cisco Certified Networking Associate (CCNA) curriculum to receive job offers averaging $67,250.
Automation Workz learners, aged 34, are mainly African American parents in low-wage jobs. In 2020/2021, Automation Workz required every potential learner to complete the Life Culture Audit Workshop as an admission requirement. Only potential learners completing all assignments were admitted. Learner completion rate increased from 7.93% in 2017-2020 to 75% in 2021. One Automation Workz learner, a 33-year old laid-off restaurant manager, stated after completing the CCCNA course. “I have never completed any post-secondary training until now. Automation Workz has motivated me to pursue my goals.” This learner exposed her 8-year-old daughter to the programming video games within the CCNA course, preparing her daughter for a tech career.
What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and how will you achieve them?
Motivate economically disadvantaged students k-12 and their parents to embrace their tech solving ability
Motivate economically disadvantaged students k-12 and their parents to embrace their tech solving ability and to craft a broad life vision identifying goals and potential obstacles
Increase the frequency of discussions between student, parent and school staff or student and parent regarding education and relevancy to broader life goals
Inspire k-12 students to embrace and focus on mastering STEM education now
Inspire k-12 students and parents to enroll in STEM postsecondary training
How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?
Automation Workz tracks the number of participants completing the compilation of their vision board and profile within the Life Culture Audit.
Automation Workz tracks the number of participants who review vision board and profile within the Life Culture Audit once per month.
Automation Workz tracks STEM course grades of k-12 students and their parents who are attending post-secondary training.
Automation Workz tracks job offers received from parents attending their post-secondary training.
What is your theory of change?
Automation Workz provides the Life Culture Audit, an easy-to-use, tech readiness tool for economically disadvantaged students k-12 and their parents to embrace their tech solving ability and to craft a broad life vision identifying goals and potential obstacles. Our immediate goals is to increase the frequency of discussions between students, parents and school staff or student and parent. Children replicate the behavior of their parents. If parents are engaged in assisting students to define their abilities, goals and obstacle, the parent will begin to do the same for themselves. Both student and parent will see the relevance of education to their broader life goals. These immediate goals link to our long-term outcome of motivating k-12 students to embrace and focus on mastering STEM education now so they will be prepared to specialize in STEM at the post-secondary level to secure high-paying STEM jobs to move them out of poverty. To test some of these links, we've carried out small-scale tests in both the 9th-12th grade students and post-secondary learners/ parents the past 15 years. Both groups have experienced success at the post-secondary level to earn incomes above $40,000 annually.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
The Life Culture Audit App is a tech readiness tool that utilizes a coding game, lifestyle vision, broad life goals, and obstacle eradication to motivate end users to begin and complete tech studies. The app will automate our immersive experience with Artificial intelligence to speed up scale of usage within economically disadvantaged school districts. The Life Culture Audit App will operate on Android and iOS, where students will be able to input their data into the app. The app will create a profile page with their tech skills, goals, vision board, and obstacle eradication. This data will be transmitted to a data management system to provide insightful reports for school staff. Vision and career reminders will be sent via email and SMS.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new application of an existing technology
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
How many people work on your solution team?
2 full-time, 2 part-time, 3 contractors
How long have you been working on your solution?
Total 15 years
What is your approach to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity into your work?
Diversity Equity and inclusion is the core of Automation Workz as we connect with corporate leaders to convince them to employ our learners, who are predominately African American. America suffers from the lack of tech diversity, not just in Silicon Valley, but within the Midwest and East Coast. Often, our interaction leads to consulting assignments to educate executives to see the 9 trillion dollar diversity market they may be missing. We coach executives to develop a diverse lens to correct internal DEI issues that cause people of color to experience workplace barriers in tech. Our staff is 90% diverse.
What is your business model?
The team will initially sell the Life Culture Audit Mobile App to the K-12 public school systems, public workforce development systems, and post-secondary education institutions for adults – parent learners, teachers, and administrators. The team selected this audience for the following reasons:
- The K-12 public school systems have received $123 billion in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding designated for economically disadvantaged schools to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents were ill-equipped to supervise student education at home despite such investment as they struggled with their poor educational performance or extreme work hours. The Teachers struggled to educate parents on the process of keeping track of their k-12 students' educational performance. The Life Culture Audit Mobile App provides an opportunity to motivate teachers, administrators, and parent learners to increase their digital literacy and vision/goals.
- The public workforce development system is a network of federal, state, and local government-funded agencies and post-secondary programs that provide services to job seekers and employers "to develop the talent of our nation's workforce. It is funded by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act which requires assessments to determine basic skills. Recent legislation allows for digital literacy assessment as leaders seek to move workforce participants into middle-skills digital careers to re-establish the middle class.
In many formats - boot camps, community colleges, and universities- post-secondary education has realized that in 2 years without the SAT and ACT, they need a different mechanism to measure learners' unseen qualities, like grit and motivation, to complete their academic studies. The post-secondary dropout rate remained relatively stable, around 60%, without those admissions exams.
Currently, Automation Workz has contracts with workforce development organizations to supply tech training and have been utilizing to Life Culture audit to generate successful graduates.
The Life Culture Audit Mobile App will be free for end-users to input information and compile their profile. Institutions will pay $50 a user annually to access profile reports, profile insight, and goal progress. Institutions will also pay additional fees for training and consulting.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Government (B2G)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable?
Automation Workz sells its training services to both governments and corporations. We generated a profit for 2020 and 2021. We will sell the Life Culture Audit to governments to generate a profit. We will begin a capital raise to fuel its expansion as sales to government entities have a long lead cycle from 9 -24 months.
Solution Team
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Ida Byrd-Hill CEO & Founder, Automation Workz
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Our Organization
Automation Workz