Virtual work experience - opening up access to digital skills

The challenge

Forage is a mission-led company working to bridge the gap between the world of learning and full-time employment. This gap is evident, even expected, for early career talent, but also exists for career changers. Forage’s Founders (Tom & Pasha) started the company to solve this problem, as for too long there has been such a huge disconnect between ​education​, ​skilling ​and​ then​ how that translates to job success. This rings true, in particular, for roles where new digital skills are required. This knowledge gap will not come as a surprise to many, with Forage’s platform showing that in the UK:

• Understanding the role: only 35% of users on Forage’s platform say they have a good understanding of what many companies do before completing a job simulation. This level of understanding jumps to 88% after completing a job simulation. 
• Confidence: only 45% of Foragers report feeling confident about the work they would be doing at a company before completing a job simulation. This confidence level jumps to 83% after completing the job simulation. 
• Disproportionately felt by underrepresented groups: these gaps in understanding and confidence are greater for those who come from underrepresented backgrounds (i.e. first generation university students, lower socioeconomic backgrounds).

The solution

Forage is an EdTech company that seeks to solve the skills gap (including the digital skills gap).​ It does this through free open access virtual job simulations.​

Forage uniquely enables people anywhere in the world, no matter their background or circumstance, to learn the most important and relevant job skills from the ​top​​ ​companies in the world for free. Most relevant to digital skills, the platform includes programmes on software engineering, cyber security, artificial intelligence and legal tech. Forage works with individual employers to develop bespoke ‘day in the life’ content to upskill their pipeline of talent in the digital skills needed in that organisation, now and in the future.

Using Forage is simple. Forage asks ​career explorers​ to create a profile, undertake the programme in their own time and obtain a certificate. Along the way, candidates obtain practical job-ready skills (think Python in ​JP Morgan’s Software Engineering Programme​ or front-end design / UX in bp’s Digital Design & UX Programme). Candidates can then share the data with the employer, and feature the experience on their CV. The platform provides a safe space where young people can come and learn for free and in a flexible way given the short modulized nature of the courses. Candidates emerge from the programme with practical skills to do the job and set them up for success. This flips the traditional hire and train model to train and then hire. It also provides employers with a more job-ready candidate pool, reducing time and screening costs and increasing the time it takes for candidates to be productive​ in role​.

Forage works with a number of organisations particularly in the digital skills space including: bp, Visa, Tata, Lyft, Walmart, Cognizant, PwC, Accenture, Deloitte, Qauntium, General Electric, KPMG, AIG, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs, British Airways, BCG, Electronic Arts, Cisco, Skyscanner, Infosys, Hewlett Packard.

Any individual can leverage Forage’s platform and learn what it takes to become an investment banker, lawyer, marketer and so on. Most recently, Forage has seen a real drive from employers to produce programmes upskilling young talent in digital skills, particularly in software engineering and product roles. How better to learn, build confidence and obtain job ready skills than by doing? 

Candidates that complete Forage job simulations are 4x more likely to land a job at the employer partner, showing the success of the programmes in deepening understanding of the skills needed to complete the types of tasks and challenges they may face on the job.

Access the Forage platform.

Some advice for other businesses looking to close their own digital skills gaps

The business community has a role to play in inspiring and empowering students to opt in and be ‘ready’ for that job. Top three tips:

• Lead from the front: no one is better placed to upskill the next generation on the digital skills your business needs to succeed in the next 1, 5, 10 years - create your own skilled pipeline, and you’ll end up with the best talent from a wider pool

• Do it at scale: tech now enables businesses to reach pockets of talent it once couldn’t - with tech you can reach more people, upskill asynchronously and enable flexibility
• Inspire: digital skills and the jobs that require them are still relatively ‘new’ - we must inspire talent to consider and opt into these careers and show the opportunities they present - as often they may feel more risky than the ‘well trodden path’