Saffron Interactive CareerTech Challenge

Saffron Interactive and TUC’s unionlearn tackle the UK’s skills gap with support from Nesta and the Department for Education

Having successfully built the Value My Skills personal assessment tool with unionlearn, Saffron has been selected to further this work in aid of the National Retraining Scheme.

Nesta is delivering the CareerTech Challenge in partnership with the Department for Education to support a cohort of 11 innovators with a package of grant funding alongside non-financial support. They have selected Saffron Interactive to develop a pioneering elearning solution to help those most at risk of redundancy.

Saffron previously developed (with the TUC) an innovative card-based assessment tool that incorporates a virtual assistant. This helped users to reflect on their transferable skills and apply them to a changing job market. It was widely implemented and has been translated into 11 languages.

Whilst the original project targeted perennial workers, Saffron is now using design-thinking principles to support the cadre of workers who are in insecure roles. This project will link in with and support the National Retraining Scheme currently being developed by the Department for Education and Nesta.

Supported by: Department for Education

Nesta research suggests that more than six million people in the UK are currently employed in occupations that are likely to radically change or entirely disappear by 2030 due to automation, population aging, urbanisation and the rise of the green economy. This will only be exacerbated by the Coronavirus crisis. The solutions being funded through the CareerTech Challenge are designed to support people who will be hit the hardest by an insecure job market over the coming years.

Noorie Sazen, CEO of Saffron Interactive, was emphatic about the project’s importance: “Only the most innovative, cutting edge solutions will be suitable for this growing issue. We’re looking forward to delivering our proposed solution and seeing the impact on people’s lives, and the industry as a whole”.

Saffron Interactive is supported by DfE and Nesta through the CareerTech Challenge

About Nesta:

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For Nesta, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. They use their expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society. Nesta has spent over 20 years working out the best ways to make change happen through research and experimenting and applied that to their work in innovation policy, health, education, government innovation and the creative economy and arts. Nesta is based in the UK and supported by a financial endowment. They work with partners around the globe to bring bold ideas to life to change the world for good.

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