The creative industry is a conduit for economic advancement and development, with profound impact on the social and cultural aspects of our communities. Most recently, our response to the COVID-19 crisis demonstrated the importance of creativity and culture in sustaining community resilience and protecting livelihoods when formal health, social, and economic systems are under pressure. To offer learners options and supports for exploring and engaging with creative-sector opportunities, Dion Walcott founded Martk’d, a platform and creative agency that provides access to education for creative communities. Martk’d uses art as an engagement tool to connect and empower, and provides opportunities for students to demonstrate their work.

In an economy increasingly driven by digital skills and career paths, the racial talent gap in the tech industry continues to grow, and has strong potential to widen the racial wealth gap. Shaon Berry founded Metro ESports & Entertainment Group, an e-sports and production platform that partners with schools and community organizations on coding, designing, and e-sports workshops that emphasize game development. Metro includes a 7,000 square foot gaming and content studio, professional team, gaming league, and nationally accredited tech education and certification program.

Access to the skill-building opportunities and paths to career advancement in health occupations provide opportunities for workers as well as improved health care. The demand for certified nursing assistants (CNA) is expected to grow by 8 percent by 2029, necessitating fewer barriers to access, plus training that’s effective and safe. Charlene A. Brown founded CNA Simulations to build the first-ever virtual CNA simulation training platform. Based on realistic scenarios and exclusively for nursing assistant training programs, CNA Simulations unblocks the CNA pipeline through clinical simulation tools to accelerate and expand training to date.

About 2.1 million students transferred from two-year to four-year institutions in the 2020-21 academic year, many seeking financial advice and course-selection support to create a frictionless transfer process. Manny Smith founded Edvisorly, a next-generation student recruiting platform, empowering community college students to connect with universities to uplift transfer enrollment success. Students explore universities, plan transfer degree requirements, and track their progress enroute to successful admission to their target universities. EdVisorly is expanding across California Community Colleges and Universities across the United States.

Demand for diversity-related skills in job postings across industries increased by close to 85 percent from May to July 2020. Short-format programs like Unpacking, a learning platform for diversity, equity, and inclusion founded by Kristina Williams, offer just-in-time education for human resources professionals. Unpacking provides certifications, content, and community to maximize employee belonging, product innovation, and revenue growth through a member-based platform. Unpacking aims to develop credible ways to manage DEI results through interactive experiences and analytics that power content, credentials, and community.

Personalized, student-centered learning is a key component of effective career navigation, but the pandemic-prompted rise in remote learning meant parents were often responsible for providing that direction and engagement. Afua Branoah founded AnetaEd to solve for both needs: her new tool enables parents to take a pre-planned, hands-off approach to providing specific links and digital resources, and gives students the option to self-direct within a series of approved constraints, making learning accessible, tailored, immediate, and powerful.

Formerly incarcerated learners and workers face career navigation from a unique vantage point; despite the challenges they often face, they can have a profound impact and potential in the labor market. Terrell Blount is the director of the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network, a nonprofit organization that promotes equity, fairness, and inclusion in postsecondary education and professional employment opportunities for people directly impacted by the carceral system. A leader in the higher education and justice space, Blount participates on various steering committees and advisory boards and has experience in policy change and advocacy, program administration, philanthropy, and college reentry programs.