Builders + Backers is partnering with Education Design Lab (Lab) to take its Idea Accelerator curriculum (participants learn skills around problem solving, ideating, and experimenting), and translate this curriculum and learnings into stackable credentials that signal soft skill mastery. These credentials will act as a validated market signal to showcase why a young participant has the experience necessary to launch a business and/or connect learners to employment in high growth careers.
Builders + Backers knows there is an inequitable onramp to gain entrepreneurial skills and/or pursue as a potential career as well as an inequitable distribution of social and financial capital. The program provides a unique and low-risk path to develop these skills that also equip young participants with essential skills for the workforce. The Lab has worked with 135+ colleges, 60+ employers, 10 regions, and thousands of learners, to design and pilot programs, credentials, and pathways for “new majority learners” – black, latinx, indigenous, first-generation, working parents. The Lab’s research has shown that employers/educators believe that 21st Century Skills (mobility skills, power skills, durable skills) are essential for young people and that skills such as collaboration, problem solving and empathy are in demand by employers. Individuals who acquire skills through non-traditional routes, such as an idea accelerator, need to verify these skills as digital badges to employers. Builders + Backers is removing the hurdles that keep people from seeing themselves as builders and pursuing their ideas, and is excited to work with the Lab to develop the first credentialed Idea Accelerator that targets underrepresented entrepreneurs and learners.
To learn more about Builders + Backers, please visit the website at buildersandbackers.com
