Project SANDI at its core solves for workers, employers, students, and educational providers faced with:
• Need for lifetime learning
• Vulnerability of lower-skilled segment of workforce (not just from automation and increased skill requirements, but also from more limited career progression opportunities)
• Co-working with ever smarter machines
• Redefinition of traditional skill sets (e.g. data analytics and data interpretation, programming)
• Transformation of the educational sector to accommodate for the demand for continuous educational offerings and training
• Growth of shorter-term, stackable credentials offerings, which is also putting educational providers such as Community Colleges at the risk of increased competition
• Badges equating a targeted set of skills and competencies to meet very specific goals for upskilling or retraining
• Self-paced learning modules- online or in hybrid format combining online with project- and classroom or laboratory instruction
• Co-designed courses with employers
• Larger employers offering own credentials in-house, again putting educational providers such as Community Colleges at the risk of increased competition
Virtual reality and 3D interactive training enhancements are used to provide career on-ramps via short term industry credentials through distance learning, to reskill and upskill folks for in-demand jobs within Nevada’s resilient growing industries.
Project SANDI requires virtual reality and 3D digitally interactive Science Technology Engineering Math, STEM, education materials in these specific Nevada career pathways. The content is oriented to those who have a particular STEM interest, or their interest is waiting to be sparked. Digital tools are for broad use by multiple levels (high school, college, adult), include many topics or disciplines relative to middle and higher-level STEM and are accessible through Nevada’s public libraries in partnership with Nevada community colleges and partners within the workforce ecosystem.