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The Future of Work Grand Challenge

The $12 million Future of Work Grand Challenge is powered by New Profit, JFF, XPRIZE, and MIT Solve

The Challenge of Our Time

Automation. A growing skills gap. Low wages. Crippling student debt. The enormous challenges we face related to the Future of Work have now been heightened by the global pandemic and rising inequities.

How will we rebuild the economy and create a future of work that works for everyone? This is the challenge of our time, and we need your help solving it.

Powering the solutions

By identifying and funding the most promising ideas and solutions, New Profit’s $12 million Future of Work Grand Challenge, powered by XPRIZE, MIT Solve, and JFF will:

  • Empower social entrepreneurs to pilot their solutions through workforce boards with at least $100,000 in funding.
  • Rapidly reskill 25,000 displaced workers into living-wage jobs in the next 24 months.
  • Equip influential workforce boards with vetted tools to support the wave of displaced workers in six months.
  • Achieve broader systemic change to help prepare 12 million Americans from underinvested communities for workforce success by 2025.

The Grand Challenge puts equity at the core, seeking ideas from diverse entrepreneurs and advancing solutions that serve the most under-invested workers.

No matter how you look at it, the future of work is now. In launching this Grand Challenge, we have a rare opportunity to accelerate solutions which are built by diverse teams and work for the communities most impacted by centuries of unfair policies and practices.

— Dr. Angela Jackson, Managing Partner, Future of Work

The Grand Challenge

Elevating the Voice of Workers

Discover how the Grand Challenge elevates the voice of workers in future of work innovation through the XPERT Worker Advisory Board.

Support for the XPERT Worker Advisory Board and this video provided by Accenture.

 

15 Ideas for a More Equitable Economy

Operating Partners
XPRIZE Rapid
Reskilling

XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling is a competition to quickly reskill under-resourced workers for the digital revolution. XPRIZE imagines a future in which all workers can rapidly attain new and more relevant job skills. Solutions developed in the competition will uplift the labor market in the U.S. and close the widening skills gap.

Visit Prize
MIT Solve: Reimagining Pathways to Employment

Reimagining Pathways to Employment Challenge, powered by MIT Solve, seeks solutions that help workers attain the knowledge and skills needed to access sustainable livelihoods. The Challenge seeks solutions that help individuals to access affordable learning opportunities, make informed decisions about career pathways, while also linking employer needs with the workforce.

Visit Challenge
JFF

JFF is a national nonprofit that drives transformation in the American workforce and education systems to achieve economic advancement for all. For the Grand Challenge, JFF leads engagement with the American workforce system by focusing on creating pilots for winning solutions with workers, evaluated for effectiveness, and scaled through partnerships with future-focused workforce boards.

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Accenture

Accenture is a global professional services company with leading digital, cloud, and security capabilities. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across 40+ industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services. Serving clients in over 120 countries, our people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity.

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Brandeis University

The Center for Youth and Communities at the Heller School for Social Policy & Management engages learning and evaluation partners to improve the quality of education, workforce development, and community systems to ensure the success of young people in college, work, and life. The Center catalyzes organizational growth and continuous improvement with a social justice lens.

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Jobcase

As the social platform for work that serves 20+ million members each month, Jobcase provides the tools, community and capabilities to reach and empower workers across the US. The Jobcase platform will be leveraged for group communication and coordination, general promotion, and analytic support to help Grand Challenge organizers, Workforce boards, and participating companies implement transformative workforce initiatives.

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Funders
Walmart.org

Walmart.org represents the philanthropic efforts of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation. By focusing where the business has unique strengths, Walmart.org works to tackle key social and environmental issues and collaborate with others to spark long-lasting systemic change. To learn more, visit our website or find us on Twitter @walmartorg

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Strada Education Network

Strada Education Network is a new kind of social impact organization, working to help lifelong learners chart more effective pathways to social and economic mobility. Learn more about our efforts to build a learner-centered ecosystem so more workers can thrive.

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Workforce Development Board Pilot Sites
Advisors
Recent News
Future of Work Grand Challenge_New Profit
New Profit Unveils Top 15 Ideas For an Equitable Economy as its Future of Work Grand Challenge Enters Implementation Phase

The Grand Challenge, powered by XPRIZE, MIT Solve, and JFF, gives solution teams access to $6 million in funding to implement solutions that will train and place millions of workers.

Meet the solutions teams
Ali Velshi and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro help unveil workforce solutions

On March 16 we unveiled #15BoldIdeas for the Future of Work and hosted a panel that included leading industry voices.

Watch the Event
A new global ideas competition seeks to radically speed up the reskilling of displaced workers

Learn more about the challenge bridging the gap between education and employment

Read the Quartz Feature
Workforce Boards in Six States Selected for National Partnerships to Help Get Americans Back to Work

$6 million Grand Challenge competition reimagines employment services through the application of advanced technologies, data analytics

Read More
Events
March 2022
SXSW EDU
Pathways to Impact: New Approaches for Funders
03/09/2022
5:00 PM (CT)
Learn More
SXSW EDU
The Grand Challenge of Reskilling America
03/07/2022
11:00 AM (CT)
Learn More
November 2021
CAEL
2021 CAEL Annual Conference
11/17/2021
TBD
Learn More
October 2021
The Economist
Innovation@Work US
10/18/2021
TBD
Learn More
PBS and AARP
Shaping the Future of Work: Living, Learning and Earning Longer
10/26/2021
12:00PM EST
View Recording
September 2021
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Nonprofit Management Institute
09/21/2021
TBD
Learn More
Worth
Women & Worth 2021 Summit
09/29/2021
2:00pm ET
Learn More
August 2021
ASU GSV
Future of Work Grand Challenge
08/10/2021
4:15PM - 4:55PM PT
Learn More
July 2021
Raise for Good
Capacity Building for the Future
07/29/2021
2:00pm - 3:00pm ET
Learn More
Global Skills Day 2021
An XPRIZE for Rapid Reskilling
07/20/2021
4:00PM ET
Learn More
Ideagen Global
Ideagens Acceleration Summit
07/28/2021
TBD
View Recording
June 2021
JFF
JFF Horizons
06/16/2021
2:30-3:15pm ET
Learn More
March 2021
New Profit
The Evolution of the Future of Work Grand Challenge
03/16/2021
| 11:00 AM ET
View Recording
XPRIZE
Qualifying Teams Announced
03/08/2021
February 2021
MIT SOLVE, IBM
Winners Announced
02/10/2021
| 10:00 - 11:00 AM ET
January 2021
MIT SOLVE
Finalist Interviews
01/25/2021
CLOSE IT, NEW PROFIT
The Future of Workers, the Future of Us: A Coffee Chat with Michelle Weise, author of "Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs that Don't Even Exist Yet"
01/22/2021
| 11:00 AM ET
December 2020
MIT SOLVE
Pitch Tips Webinar for Finalists
12/23/2020
MIT Solve
Finalists Announced
12/17/2020
View Finalists
Close It, New Profit, JFF
Work Reimagined: Transforming the way the U.S. workforce systems prepare workers for the future of work
12/11/2020
| 12:00 PM ET
October 2020
Accenture, Goodwill Industries International
How to Design Worker-Centered Solutions with XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling and MIT Solve
10/27/2020
| 12:30-1, 4 - 5 PM ET
XPRIZE
Matchmaking to Build Your Team
10/22/2020
| 12:30 - 1:15 PM ET
XPRIZE, AnitaB.org
Ideathon Workshop for Women with AnitaB.org
10/17/2020
| 12:30-2pm ET
MIT Solve, New Profit
Refinement Solveathon Workshop for Existing Teams
10/15/2020
| 7-8:30 PM ET
MIT Solve
Solveathon Workshop (Western US)
10/08/2020
| 1-4:00pm ET
September 2020
MIT Solve
Solveathon Workshop (Rural/Midwestern US)
09/17/2020
| 1-4 PM ET
XPRIZE, New Profit
Workforce Board 101 co-hosted with Jobs for the Future
09/15/2020
| 1 PM ET
Voices of the Workforce: Conversations with Americans Navigating Career Change in the Pandemic
09/09/2020
New Profit
StartEd Nonprofit in EdTech
09/07/2020
| 2-3 PM ET
MIT Solve
Solveathon Workshop (Southern/Southeastern US)
09/03/2020
| 1-4:30 PM ET
August 2020
XPRIZE
XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling Webinar #2 -
How to Navigate POP
08/27/2020
| 3pm ET