SCBIO and skillsgapp in Greenville, S.C., are developing a free game app, Rad Lab, for middle-school students that helps them build math and science skills and lets them explore careers in STEM. Nephron Pharmaceuticals, the SC Power Team and the S.C. Hospital Association are supporting development of the app, and students are testing it before it launches, says Erin Ford, SCBIO’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. See the full story here on WYFF.

In this episode of Manufacturing Talk Radio, Tina Zwolinski, CEO and Founding Partner of skillsgapp, discusses how manufacturers can get the next workforce generation engaged with manufacturing career and pathway awareness and skills development through mobile gaming designed to meet manufacturer’s workforce needs.

After another year of challenges for manufacturers, from new variants to supply shortages issues, skillsgapp founder and CEO Tina Zwolinski shares three opportunities for solving perhaps industry’s most pressing issue: Workforce Development. From increased broadband to mobile gaming, relief is in sight. 

By Adam Bruns The digitizing of the economy is pervasive, whether you’re performing quality control in an automated manufacturing plant; undergoing a medical procedure; operating a container crane at a backed-up West Coast port; launching fabrication of a 3D-printed prototype; or putting the finishing touches on a breakthrough architectural design.

Could using our own digits, senses and synapses in the pervasive playing of video games deliver a competitive advantage to a world hungry for IT skills, systems thinking and interdisciplinary creativity? Video game development and competitive esports programs at colleges and universities around the world are counting on it. Read More.

Video game developer Skillsgapp transforms skills and behavioral development into free-to-play mobile gaming technology designed to engage, educate, and entertain middle and high schoolers.

The Tobacco Prevention Toolkit was developed by Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Stanford REACH Lab at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Using free content from the Tobacco Prevention Toolkit, the game was developed to teach students in grades 6-12 basic refusal skills, share important tobacco prevention messaging and encourage activities in their schools and communities that can foster local policy change. This approach would work to address health disparities among vulnerable populations and reduce tobacco and vape use.

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Exploring Alternative to College

We don’t need to belabor the point that this generation of teens is tired, depressed, and burnt out. You already know that. If you’re a teenager, you may be experiencing it yourself. And if you’re a parent, you’ve probably watched your teen struggle, adjust, then perhaps struggle some more as they’ve grappled with the turmoil of the past 18 months.

In addition to the usual stress of high school and a highly competitive academic landscape, teens have endured the uncertainty and inconsistency of COVID and its aftermath. In a recent Pew Research Survey of thirteen to seventeen-year-olds across the country, seventy percent of those surveyed cited anxiety and depression as a major concern. In fact, that measure placed the highest, above any other concern, including bullying, drug abuse, and teen pregnancy.

Nevertheless, time trudges on and teens still are confronted with that nagging, intimidating question, “What are you doing after high school?” And if they don’t have a plan, or theirs doesn’t fit the norm? Well, it can be all the more daunting to transition into the next life stage.

Now more than ever it’s important for parents and teens’ to openly communicate about desires to pursue alternate routes to a traditional four-year college. As parents ourselves and educational consultants who have worked a combined thirty years with teens and tweens, we urge parents to be flexible and open-minded when it comes to the post-secondary school plans for their teens. Four-year college is not for everyone, and attending certainly does not have to follow high school directly.

We have outlined some of the most popular alternative choices below, but we encourage you to be open to whatever your teen presents to you and also to help navigate this new path alongside them (if that’s what they want.) Continue Reading at College Confidential.

Photo Credit: College Confidential

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Tina Zwolinski, CEO of soft skills and middle-skills gaming app company skillsgapp, has been appointed to the Academic Advisory Council of the Skilled Trades Alliance, a national non-profit of public and private organizations dedicated to addressing the skilled trade deficit in the US through providing customized approaches to sectors in the available talent pool including veterans, those pursuing second careers, and the youth audience. Board members of the STA include leaders from 84 Lumber, Clemson University, and the SC Department of Commerce. The Academic Advisory Council’s efforts are focused on connecting with the K-12 market, reaching out to students, school counselors, educators, and their influencers. The council includes leaders with the National Center for Construction Education & Research, Greenville Technical College, and Tallo, a company that offers an online profile tool that matches student talent with potential jobs, scholarships, and apprenticeships. Read More