Gary's Address

Gary's Appeal to Educaship prospects

Introduction -- 172 words; 11-12th grade

Hello, everyone. I'm Gary. For over a decade, I've been dedicated to developing what I call 'work-alike practice' -- a method of integrating real-world work experience and guidance into education. This concept has been at the heart of my work in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, where I've seen firsthand how hands-on experience can make a profound difference in career choice and, further, career readiness.

My speech will run about 29 minutes. It may sound long, but it has the potential to save you years. It can also make your life happier. This is why I support this mission through both donations and volunteer work.

I want to emphasize that I'm not here to pitch anything; my goal is simply to share my observations and the logic behind them. If you're looking for shorter, more enthusiastic pitches about work-alike practice, you can find plenty of those online.

I encourage you to use the chat feature for your comments and questions. Your insights and queries will help improve this presentation for future listeners.

Reflection 1: Education Meets Career -- 274 words; 11-12th grade

It's common for career paths to differ from what one studies in college. It's a journey many people take; that was my experience too.

In high school, I was passionate about physical science, inspired by a thought-provoking teacher and enthusiastic classmates. This led me to pursue mechanical engineering in college. However, after graduation and starting my first job, I realized it wasn't the right fit for me.

Driven by a desire to create, I eventually started a desktop publishing company in the early 1990s when the field was still emerging. We had to train our employees ourselves due to the industry's novelty. There was simply no formal computer training available at that time. As technology advanced, we continually innovated, even developing our own customer management and business operation systems.

I value my first college education. The skills I gained from my college experiences -- problem-solving, analytical thinking, and adaptability -- proved valuable in ways I couldn't have anticipated.

Nevertheless, I now recognize that my first degree didn't directly apply to my eventual career. If I had the chance to explore different fields before college, I might have chosen a different specialty.

I might have also sought another first job if I had discovered my true interests earlier. Initially, I took the job that my parents helped me land after my first degree, but finding my own way afterward led to unexpected and rewarding opportunities. My parents wanted the best for me, but they were not career experts.

I am sure there were innovative jobs available. However, neither I nor my parents looked for those jobs. We were also unaware of the importance of vocational discovery.

Reflection 2: Career as a Journey -- 252 words; college student

Career development is a lifelong journey. It involves exploring different jobs, learning new skills, earning qualifications, and finding work. Our careers aren't set in stone; they change and grow over time. Here's why:

1. Personal changes: As we grow, our interests, skills, and circumstances evolve. What we aspire to at 16 may differ greatly from our goals at 40. New experiences can lead us down new career paths.
2. Job changes: Take mechanical engineering as an example. In the 1980s, when I specialized in this field, engineers used paper and pencils. By the 2000s, they had switched to computer programs. Now, they use 3D printers. In the future, they'll rely on AI and robots. The tools and methods keep changing.
3. World changes: New technology, economic shifts, and cultural trends create new jobs and make others obsolete. For example, AI and robots are transforming many jobs. This means we need to keep learning new things throughout our careers.

If careers are adventures with unexpected turns, shouldn't college education adapt similarly? In high school, I thought five years of college would prepare me for life. My college back in the Soviet Union claimed to provide a knowledge foundation. But after 40 years in my career, I wonder: what foundation did I truly gain from acing "Scientific Communism"?

Even for practical subjects, things have changed. AI-powered chatbots now offer more information than any college curriculum, providing knowledge on-demand. Do we still need to memorize potentially outdated information?

Ongoing learning and adaptation are no longer optional -- they're essential in our changing world.

Reflection 3: Practice Aids Education -- 354 words; college student

In the late 1990s, I was consumed by the day-to-day operations of running my business. Ironically, a broken leg became a catalyst for my professional growth. Confined at home in an era before widespread internet access, I found myself yearning for mental stimulation.

Recognizing my predicament, my mother borrowed a book from the library - Philip Kotler's "Marketing Management." This text was nothing short of revelatory. It opened my eyes to a wealth of pre-existing knowledge, theories, and strategies that I had been struggling to discover on my own.

Inspired by this newfound perspective, I returned to school in the early 2000s to pursue a business degree. This decision proved to be a turning point in my career trajectory.

My prior work experience breathed life into the academic concepts I encountered. Abstract theories transformed into practical tools as I recognized their applications in real-world scenarios. This connection between classroom learning and professional experience ignited a passion for my studies, as I could clearly see their relevance and potential impact.

The synergy between my academic pursuits and practical experience propelled my career to new heights. Armed with both theoretical knowledge and hands-on skills, I successfully grew my publishing business to 120 employees before ultimately selling it.

This journey highlighted two crucial ways in which education and real-world experience complement each other:

• In school, we usually start with big ideas and theories, then learn how to use them in specific situations. It's like learning the rules of a game before playing it. But we also learn from examples and experiments in school, which is more like learning by doing.
• In the real world, we mostly learn by doing things hands-on and trying different approaches. But we also use what we've learned in school to help us solve new problems we encounter.

Both ways of learning help us become well-rounded and skilled. What we learn in school becomes more meaningful when we use it in real life, and our real-life experiences make more sense because of what we've learned in school. This balance between theory and practice helps us grow and become more effective in our future careers.

Reflection 4: Career Checks Guidance -- 355 words; 9-10th grade

In the mid-2000s, I moved from Belarus to the United States, determined to find my ideal career path in this new country. At first, I faced challenges because my English wasn't good enough for meaningful jobs and I had no work experience in America. But I knew I had to keep trying.

I started taking English classes at different colleges. Even though I worked hard, I wasn't sure what career I wanted. By the 2010s, I was close to finishing my Bachelor's degree in the US, but I still hadn't found a job that felt right for me.

Looking for help, I talked to career counselors and people from government agencies, private companies, and non-profits. They gave me advice, but I still struggled to figure out my career path.

I tried using tools like personality tests and career theories. These tools gave me some ideas, but they made things seem too simple and didn't really help me find a job.

Later, when I became a recruiter and helped others with their careers, I learned a lot more. I remember working with someone who didn't like their job as an administrative assistant. A career counselor told them to try becoming a technical writer. They spent a whole year trying to get that kind of job but couldn't, and had to go back to being an administrative assistant.

After all this, I realized there were three big problems with the usual career advice:

1. It makes things too simple: The tests try to match your personality and skills to specific jobs, but they don't consider how complicated jobs and workplaces can be.
2. It doesn't know enough about different jobs: Career counselors often focus on what you want, not what jobs are actually available. They don't always know the latest information about different industries.
3. It treats everyone the same: The tests don't consider that people's interests and skills change over time, or that everyone has different experiences.

Looking back, my search for a career in a new country taught me a lot. I used what I learned to create better ways to help people find careers through WiseNxt products.

Reflection 5: Inside of Career Prep -- 254 words; college student

When I moved to the United States, I made my living while working basic jobs. To boost my resume, I registered a non-profit organization. This experience allowed me to teach business classes at a community college first and move to other colleges and universities later.

Since the late 2000s, I got to teach part-time across the U.S., Belarus, China, and Russia. Interestingly enough, I taught almost every course I was taking while pursuing my business degree.

I also organized academic exchanges, as well as programs for students to study in different countries. Those taught me a lot about how education works around the world.

These experiences helped me understand how colleges prepare students for their future jobs. The competencies needed for a job can be divided into three main groups. We call them "KSA" for short:

• Knowledge (K): This is the information learned about a subject. It's the easiest and cheapest to teach because it mainly requires an instructor and some basic materials like books.
• Skills (S): This involves using knowledge to do practical things. It costs more to teach because it requires special equipment for hands-on learning.
• Abilities (A): This relates to being capable of performing specific tasks required for a job. It's the most expensive to teach because it needs real-world settings, individual assignments, and feedback from experts.

Because colleges have limited budgets, they usually focus more on teaching knowledge. They offer fewer opportunities to build skills and often struggle to give students real professional experiences. As a result, students might graduate knowing a lot about their subject but lacking the practical skills and abilities they need to succeed in their jobs.

Reflection 6: Mentors Make Differences -- 315 words; 11-12th grade

Back in the early 2010s, I got a surprising job with the US Marine Corps. I didn't seem like the typical candidate, but my active lifestyle might've helped me stand out. They put me in charge of the Russian part of a cultural program. It was a role that would show me how much of a difference mentors can make.

The job was awesome because I had the freedom to try new ideas. We had great resources and not many rules, so we could use cool tech and different ways of teaching. I got to connect with top experts in the field. I'd reach out to people who wrote textbooks, created language apps, and other big names in language learning.

At first, we taught Russian using regular textbooks and conversation practice. But when our first group of students took their big language test, we realized we needed to change things up. The test was all about real-life situations, not just the stuff you find in textbooks.

This challenge led me to an amazing mentor. I teamed up with Professor Soboleva from the Defense Language Institute, a special language school in California. She agreed to try something different and became my mentor. She'd visit my classroom to see how things were going and guide our new teaching approach.

Mentors really do make a difference. With Professor Soboleva's help, we quickly came up with a new way of teaching Russian. As a result, our students matched the listening scores of students from top language schools. In a big part, this success was because of the guidance and support from my mentor.

The project only lasted a year because of money issues. Later, I did receive a promising offer from Professor Soboleva to teach at her institute in California. However, the low salary combined with the high cost of living in the area made it less attractive.

Nevertheless, even though the project was short, it had a big impact. It boosted my confidence for future projects and showed me how important mentors are for growing in our careers and coming up with new ideas.

Reflection 7: Tough, But Vital Networks -- 326 words; 9-10th grade

Before joining the Marines full-time, a colleague at my community college in New York suggested I think about teaching. He used to run a school district.

I looked into two school districts: one where I lived and another where the college was. Their websites showed I could teach math or science. When I asked my friend which job to go for, he said science, explaining, "There are more math jobs, but it's harder to find science teachers."

I then asked about how to get hired. My colleague knew things the websites didn't say. In my home district, the HR department was key. But in the college's district, school principals made the choices, not really working with HR.

This inside info wasn't on the official websites, showing how important it is to know people who understand how things really work.

After my time in the Marines, I had to choose: keep teaching languages or switch to IT? I already moved to Virginia, and teaching didn't pay well there. To help decide, I asked people working in both fields.

For language teaching, I consulted a hiring manager at a major company. Their candid response was revealing: "There aren't many jobs, but a lot of people want them. Most of these applicants have better degrees and more experience than you do. Even if you did well in your first job, it's hard for me to hire you. As a bureaucrat, I don't want to be blamed if anything goes wrong."

Getting meaningful info about IT jobs was harder. Many people only knew about small parts of the field. I saw that IT jobs were changing fast and had more options than language teaching. I also noticed that people who find IT workers for companies seemed to get tired of their jobs faster than in other fields.

Still, I got a lot of useless advice. Many people were happy to listen and give basic suggestions without really understanding my situation.

Reflection 8: Practice as a Career Tool -- 303 words; college student

By the mid-2010s, I had built up a lot of experience in hands-on training. I wanted to grow my skills even more, so I decided to focus on IT training.

I started a meetup group called 'Hands-On Training,' where we set up free IT workshops on different topics. To find volunteers to run these workshops, I teamed up with a non-profit group called 'CNM.' Later, we changed our name to 'CNMCyber.'

People often say that working together on real projects shows who works well as a team. This idea came to life when two hiring managers asked me to run hands-on training for SharePoint administrators. They needed more qualified admins and were willing to train people on the job, but wanted to find out who they'd work well with.

This experience, plus my background in developing apprenticeships in Belarus, really helped when I started recruiting and training people for a group that invests in startups. Startups need team members who can do many things. Interviews can help narrow down candidates, but seeing how they actually perform is what really matters.

My recruitment plan started with 1,000 candidates. Through a step-by-step process, this number went down to 100 who began training, 10 who moved on to work trials, and finally one person who got hired.

I realized something important: while I needed a specific type of candidate and had to reach out to many people, it wasn't just about finding "gold nuggets" among grains of sand. Each candidate had potential value, if not for my startup clients, then definitely for other opportunities.

Hands-on experience clarifies career preferences. However, I faced limitations in delivering comprehensive assessment results, and candidates weren't actively seeking my career assessments. This revealed a gap between the wealth of talent discovered and the ability to effectively channel it to fitting opportunities.

Reflection 9: Experience Rocks -- 315 words; 9-10th grade

For most of my life, I've been helping companies find the right people for jobs. Over the years, it's become clear that employers usually look at three main things when deciding who to hire:

• Can the person do the job well?
• Will they fit in with the company's culture and team?
• Are they satisfied with the salary and benefits offered?

When it comes to skills, having experience in the field is super important. It makes sense - if someone has already done well in a similar job, they're more likely to succeed in the new one. That's why many job listings say things like "Experience can replace education requirements." In the real world, hands-on experience often matters more than classroom learning. One could even argue that if education costs money, real-world experience should be worth even more!

This focus on experience is one reason why it can be tough for new graduates to get their first job. While school is important, there's something missing when a person only has classroom learning.

Here's a personal story to illustrate this point: When I first came to the U.S. for college, one of my professors really helped me understand American culture. But when I needed a job recommendation, they couldn't give me one because we hadn't actually worked together. They could only say I was a good student, which isn't very helpful when someone in their 40s is looking for a professional job.

Here's a challenge to consider: If anyone ever meets a job recruiter who says experience isn't that important, it might be interesting to ask about their own education. In my experience, it's rare to find a recruiter who actually graduated with a degree in recruiting. And if such a recruiter is found, it would be worth asking if their degree alone got them their job. If they say yes, they're probably hiring students for a college!

Reflection 10: Experience as a Craft -- 300 words; college student

Careers often take unexpected turns. Unusual experiences can open up surprising opportunities. I know someone with a performing arts degree who started a recruiting business. While the business didn't succeed, that experience helped them get a job in corporate recruiting. My own career has also benefited from trying different types of work.

Project work, apprenticeships, internships, starting a business, and freelancing often give more freedom than regular jobs. These options can work well alongside traditional employment.

These unconventional jobs can help develop useful skills and expand professional networks. They might not offer all the perks of full-time jobs, but are often easier to get into. A realistic path from no experience to a paid job might look like this: volunteering, building credentials, moving to part-time or apprentice work, and eventually getting full-time employment.

However, reaching that "final" stage of full-time employment is rarely the end goal. These unconventional experiences can prepare people for future opportunities they might not even know about yet.

With regards to credential building, volunteering is usually the most flexible option. For career growth, volunteering can focus on building connections, getting credentials, or learning new skills - not just helping out.

I learned this the hard way. I volunteered at my community college's tutoring center, hoping to get job recommendations later. But when I needed those recommendations, I found out the college didn't allow staff to give them. The experience was still valuable, but if I'd known about this rule, I would've volunteered for 6 months instead of 18.

On the flip side, my volunteer work with 'CNM' fits my life goals perfectly. Over more than ten years, I've seen two good approaches to non-traditional work:

1. Full-time volunteering to quickly meet a specific need, using savings or financial help from others.
2. Part-time arrangements to slowly build credentials while keeping other activities such as a full-time job elsewhere.

Consider this hypothetical scenario: What if I had worked part-time as an engineering assistant or volunteered for a society of mechanical engineers while attending my first university? In that case, I would have graduated with a professional network, a better understanding of the industry, and a couple of years of experience.

Reflection 11: Career as an Enterprise -- 334 words; college student

A career is like a journey with ups and downs, and unexpected turns. It's more than just finding a job when needed; it's about actively managing and growing one's professional path like a personal enterprise.

Managing a career involves planning ahead, continuous learning, and adaptability, much like running a successful business. One's ability to land various jobs makes up their career portfolio. This involves building strong skills, learning new ones, maintaining reliable abilities, and possibly letting go of less productive activities.

As businesses offer two or more products for sale, having two or more jobs is a feasible option. Consider the concept of "bread" jobs and "butter" jobs. "Bread" jobs provide financial stability, while "butter" jobs are driven by passion and bring satisfaction. Ideally, one wants to find ways to combine both elements in their career.

Let's take my situation as an example. With strong skills in training, securing a job in that field is doable for me. However, specializing requires focus. As AI becomes increasingly important, I could gain experience by volunteering on an AI project or starting a small AI training business. This approach would combine my existing skills (the "bread") with a growing field that interests me (the "butter").

As another example, my interest in vocational discovery might lead me to work at a public school and offer an after-school program like WiseNxt once in the system. In that case, my "bread" job would also be a key to my "butter" job.

A career requires various skills: planning, building credentials, analyzing the job market, self-promotion, providing good service, and managing finances. Determining a career path and managing it alone can be challenging. It's like trying to be an expert in job markets, a career advisor, and a networking professional all at once.

This is why seeking advice and support from others is crucial for making informed career choices and progressing. Just as successful entrepreneurs often have mentors and advisors, managing one's career enterprise can benefit greatly from external perspectives and expertise.

Reflection 12: The Scarcest Resource -- 265 words; 9-10th grade

In my experience, many people aren't happy with their jobs. I've met coworkers who were counting down the days until retirement, even though it was years away.

A lot of people follow a path that looks like this: Go to school, get a job, learn how to do that job, start paying bills, and then stay in that job because it's stable and pays the bills. This doesn't leave much room to try other things.

Our practice-to-job projects have shown good results for different age groups, including teenagers and adults changing careers.

These career projects usually take a few months and need both time and money. One big difference was that I paid for this degree myself, unlike my first one which was paid for by the government. When we invest our own money in something, we often take it more seriously and appreciate it more.

That was why we at CNMCyber asked for some input from the participants beyond simple services. Interestingly, I've found that getting money is often easier than finding free time. Sponsors or the government can help with money, but they can't give anyone extra hours in a day.

When I was hiring for a startup, we only hired one person out of 1,000 who applied. The biggest challenge wasn't finding people with skills, but finding people who could spend time on our practice-based training.

Most adults have families to take care of and need a steady paycheck. This makes it risky for them to work with startups or spend time exploring new careers and learning new skills.

Our practice-based training is quick, only taking a few months instead of years like college degrees. But many adults can't go without a paycheck even for a short time, which means they can't participate.

These observations have led us to focus more on younger people for career exploration, as they often have more freedom to try different career options.

Educaship behind the Scenes -- 333 words; college graduate

The key takeaway? Education, industry mentorship, and real-world professional experience should be integrated from the start, rather than occurring years apart.

• Formal education without experience is like learning how to ride a bike without ever getting on one or studying a foreign language without practicing it.
• Experience without structured training takes longer to yield results.
• Career counseling should be ongoing and based on real-world experience.

Of these three, only work-alike experience can serve as a backbone. The sooner one tries something, the quicker they can determine if it's right for them. Projects in different roles, gap years, part-time jobs, or volunteer work can provide valuable work-alike experience.

Both college education and effective career management are time-intensive. This creates additional challenges for individuals with family obligations, who may struggle to afford the time investment required for both.

Time is a crucial, limited resource in professional development. While younger individuals typically have more available time, the current system often delays their opportunities for hands-on practice. This postponement can hinder the efficient integration of education and real-world application.

There's a fundamental mismatch in higher education. On the supply side, colleges focus on imparting knowledge. Due to high costs, those in the process of career preparation are often denied professional experience until they secure a job independently. On the demand side, employers prioritize experience.

Those realizations made me want to create the career products I wish I had when I was starting my professional journey.

I began working on a way to combine personalized education, practical experience, and mentor support with a project called WorldOpp. We wanted to help entrepreneurs in areas with fewer opportunities by teaching them through hands-on learning and giving them money for their businesses. But when our main financial supporter changed their plans, we had to think of a new approach.

That's when I came up with Educaship. It mixes education, career guidance, and real-world experience. Our goal is to collaborate with colleges to enhance their curriculum by incorporating simulations, internships, and apprenticeships.

From Educaship to WiseNxt

While we believe there's a significant need for the Educaship approach, we anticipate a 2-5 year implementation period. The primary challenges we foresee are recruiting qualified mentors and establishing partnerships with schools. Educational institutions are not known as change agents, and integrating our hands-on methodology into existing academic programs will require careful planning and execution.

While we're working on Educaship, we realized we could start with something simpler right away. That's where WiseNxt comes in. It's part of Educaship, but it focuses on helping students figure out what they're good at before they choose a career. Imagine it like a big playground where you can try out different jobs. You might analyze products, build websites, plan events, manage computer systems, or lead projects in all sorts of fields.

We first thought about starting WiseNxt in Ukraine, but plans change. Now we're getting ready to introduce it in Kenya in the next few weeks as part of something called the "KenyaX" program. Basically, "KenyaX" is going to serve as a platform for work-alike practice.

Entering professional fields as early as possible has a significant advantage that is often overlooked. It grants an industry insider status and allows for earlier professional network building. Professional networks, in turn, are crucial for landing employment.

WiseNxt for Vocational Discovery

Timing is a huge factor. It’s never too early to start exploring options and discovering what truly excites a person, but it can be too late.

Practical experiences can help individuals understand what type of work aligns with their abilities and passions or, at the very least, facilitate career exploration. However, vocational discovery—the process of exploring and identifying one's interests, skills, strengths, and potential career paths—is largely ignored by existing systems of workforce preparation.

The cost of higher education or vocational training tends to dramatically exceed, let's say, the cost of an automobile. This cost includes not just tuition but also the time and support needed from parents or others while in college or training school. Despite this, vocational discovery often receives fewer resources than a car purchase. People don't buy cars just because they saw them in a movie or a salesperson recommended them as the best buy. So why do we agree to invest in expensive career preparation without any form of a test drive?

Even if someone wants to undergo vocational discovery, career counselors are likely the first place they would go. However, vocational counselors can be likened to medical doctors without measurement tools. Vocational aptitudes are no simpler than medical conditions, yet vocational counselors are expected to make a diagnosis without the equivalent of blood tests, x-rays, sonograms, or CAT scans -- relying solely on the individual's words.

Join the Career Revolution

Our approach is revolutionary because it goes beyond simply delivering standardized curriculum or even replicating job situations. We're creating a comprehensive ecosystem where:

• Learners explore diverse roles to discover their vocations and strengths.
• When asked, "What do you want to do when you grow up?", our graduates have a clearer understanding of their options.
• We collaborate with educational institutions to secure internships or apprenticeships in students' chosen specialties.
• Graduates enter the job market with formal training, practical work experience, and a range of career opportunities.

This vision began as a personal mission, initially developed with my children's futures in mind. Though they've grown, the journey has proven invaluable. I'm deeply committed to making this dream a reality and would gladly dedicate my life to its success.

We invite you to be part of this transformation – as a participant, parent, supporter, or advocate. Will you join us in revolutionizing education and career development?

Once again, I'm not here to promote Educaship and WiseNxt, but explain the logic behind them. I have just shared my personal story to showcase the problems work-alike practice can solve and illustrate how the concept of using it as a learning backbone developed and evolved over time.

If you have better ideas for how to advance work-like practice or to revolutionize career preparation in other ways, I'd be happy to support your initiatives. Thank you and look forward to seeing you on our side.