#243 - Tina Zwolinski, CEO Skillsgapp - on game-changing workforce development

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to help manufacturing and cybersecurity businesses to attract and grow a sustainable workforce pipeline. My guest is Tina Zwolinski, CEO of Skillsgapp.Tina is a true tech entrepreneur on a mission. Her work as CEO and founder of ZWO, a national branding firm, provided her with decades of experience providing strategic counsel, marketing direction, and brand development to organizations that aspired to grow their businesses, reach emerging markets, and launch innovative projects and initiatives. Her passion: developing the youth for middle-skills and STEM jobs, helping states meet their industry recruitment and economic development workforce needs, and helping manufacturers and other industries fill their talent gaps with skilled recruits. She's focused her volunteer service efforts on young people -- helping them get the best start in life and grow into mature, valued young adults. And this work sparked the big idea behind Skillsgapp. Skillsgapp is on a mission to connect youth to life-changing careers through game-changing play. The platform is designed to attract and grow a sustainable workforce pipeline with the geo-specificity to meet a region’s and industry’s specific needs while providing the next workforce generation access to meaningful careers and pathways – even in underserved areas. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Tina to my podcast. We explore what's broken in the way we fill our workforce pipeline. Tina shares how, through technology, we can solve this problem at a global scale - in a way that's fun and ultra-precise. She shares her big lessons learned in creating a flywheel for growth by removing industry barriers. And last but not least, she shares her advice on creating a software business that people keep talking about. Here's a quote from her:In cyber, currently, there are 700,000 unfilled jobs. And in manufacturing, by 2025, there will be 3.4 million manufacturing jobs worldwide, and 2 million of those are going unfilled. But in Gen Z, there are 2 billion globally. So if you start to run the numbers, it's not a people problem. There is an awareness and access problem.During this interview, you will learn four things:How to find transformative innovation opportunities by zooming out to the global pictureHow to create a flywheel for growth when there's no real owner of the problemHow you can solve a global challenge by approaching it locallyThe power that unlocks when purpose and technology blendFor more information about the guest from this week:Tina Zwolinski Website Skillsgapp