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Our GitLab Foundation Grant Reaches an End

We ended our GitLab Foundation funded project “Bridging skills and Opportunities for Navajo People with AI-enhanced Employment Matching” on the 30th September 2024. We completed our initial user evaluations with very positive feedback (apart from the actual user interface experience). We have updated our website (https://edtechforlearning.org/) and it now includes the final report for our Navajo project. If you want to find out more about that project then use the link: https://edtechforlearning.org/workforce-services-app/. For the next few months we will keep our proof-of-concept Workforce App available at: https://edtechforlearning.app/. Those of you who have tried it know that the user experience needs a lot of work and we have started that reworking. The underlying technology for the app has also gone through several revisions (the ChatGPT API and the Weaviate Vector Database in particular). We hope to make available a new open version early in 2025 and expect the operational version to go live for the Navajo People in March/April 2025.

Our ultimate objective is to place 1,000-1,500 Native American Peoples (building upon our relationship with the Navajo and Blackfeet Tribes) into net-new quality ‘Thriving Wage Jobs’ or better paying jobs in the period 2025-2027, and for this number to increase annually as the range of jobs with validated competency maps and the number of Native American job seekers complete guided upskilling plans increases. Traditional methods for creating job competency maps, job-seeker profiles and learning plans are labor-intensive. Usage of Generative-AI, large job-related data stores and online digital learning materials will accelerate the gathering of data about jobs, job seekers and learning opportunities for job seekers. We will scale and localize job candidate data with novel, AI-driven “interview” tools. We now anticipate a factor of 100 increase in the number of job maps and job seeker profiles created for the Navajo, Blackfeet and other Native American Peoples.

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Wrapping Up Our GitLab Foundation AI for Economic Opportunity Grant

We are coming to the end of our GitLab Foundation funded project “Bridging skills and Opportunities for Navajo People with AI-enhanced Employment Matching”. We have entered into our initial user evaluations phase and this will be completed within the next 8 weeks.
 
We have just relaunched our website (edtechforlearning.org) and it now includes a lot of support information about our Navajo project. If you want to find out more about our Navajo project then use the link: Navajo Workforce Services App. In fact, you can try out our new proof-of-concept Workforce App at: edtechforlearning.app.
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GitLab Foundation Announces Inaugural AI for Economic Opportunity Fund Grantee Cohort

Gitlab grantee

So, we have very exciting news. Our first application for funding has been successful and we have secured funding from GitLab Foundation. The title of our project is: “Bridging skills and Opportunities for Navajo People with AI-enhanced Employment Matching“.

The summary of the project is:

Our objective is to place 200-500 Navajos into net-new ‘Thriving Wage Jobs’ or better paying jobs in 2024 and for this number to increase annually as the range of jobs with validated competency maps and the number of Navajo job seekers complete guided upskilling plans increases. Traditional methods for creating job competency maps and job-seeker profiles are labor-intensive. Usage of AI and large job-related data stores will accelerate the gathering of data about both jobs and job seekers. We will create matching reports to show job seekers the jobs for which they are best prepared and provide them with pathways in learning aligned with their missing competencies. We will scale and localize job candidate data with novel, AI-driven “interview” tools. We anticipate a factor of 10 increase (cf. the current manual process) in the number of job maps and job seeker profiles created in the Navajo context and beyond.

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Introduction

We are a new non-profit, called EdTech for Learning, established to champion access to, and the usage of, education technologies (EdTech) to improve teaching and learning.  EdTech for Learning will create a range of EdTech solutions that are low cost, easy to deploy, manage and use.

These systems will be built upon open source technology and use EdTech interoperability standards to enable the establishment of EdTech Ecosystems.

More importantly, the emphasis will be on identifying, enabling and supporting local social entrepreneurs who will improve teaching and learning in their communities around the World through the use of these new EdTech Ecosystem solutions.