BUILD – BUILDing Generation Entrepreneurs

BUILD‘s mission is to ignite the potential of youth in under-resourced communities to build Career success, Entrepreneurial mindsets, and Opportunity. The aim is to help youth become CEO’s of their own lives. BUILD partners with educators across the United States with Regional Hubs in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington D.C., Boston and New York.

The BUILD team are incredibly excited to have been chosen for an Ignite award to support the development of their digital badging program. Part of BUILD’s career-connected focus to help youth from middle and high school, the digital badging program helps build the professional skills for the world of work. 

By providing a competency-based assessment system that gamifies the learning experience, youth will gain a mastery of 21st-century, career, and life skills, while their earned online badges document their learning.  It begins with opportunities that reinforce a proven four-year Entrepreneurship Curriculum, including career readiness, and marketable job skills. Through strategic partnerships with industry leaders, youth complete modules (e.g., resume writing) and obtain industry-recognized certifications (e.g., Microsoft Office Suite). 

As youth are engaged (with BUILD’s guidance), they will understand the connections between what they learn and badges they earn to the skills needed for future careers and ultimately build their social capital, and create economic mobility. Their capacity to impact their communities will grow and these lifelong learners will be able to lead the change they want to see in the world.