July 2, 2025 • 26 mins
Imagine a world where job candidates arrive with an ironclad guarantee that they can apply the skills listed on their resumes. That's the vision shared by Dan Benveniste, Founder and CEO of SkillWaze, a company that’s redefining career readiness through AI-powered, skill-based learning.
Dan and his team just announced the acquisition of tilr.com, a leading learning management and credentialing platform. Together, they’re building what they call the first guaranteed career-readiness solution for both learners and employers.
The pandemic created a perfect storm for today's young job seekers. Cut off from crucial workplace socialization during formative years and now facing entry-level positions being automated away, Gen Z faces unprecedented barriers to meaningful employment. When 60% of recent college graduates get fired within 90-120 days due to skills mismatches, something fundamental needs to change.
Dan explains how SkillWaze's acquisition of learning platform Tiller creates what he calls "the first guaranteed career readiness solution." Their approach solves the critical difference between knowledge acquisition and skill application: "You can learn hockey, but that doesn't mean you can play it." By combining AI-powered learning pathways with virtual apprenticeships where skills are observed and validated in real contexts, SkillWaze creates verifiable talent profiles employers can trust.
What makes this especially compelling is the "Waze for careers" navigation system that lets users explore different paths, earn micro-rewards (including Bitcoin, which drives 2-3x engagement), and recalculate their journey as interests evolve. For employers, it builds custom talent "farm teams" based on specific skill requirements, making skills-first hiring practical rather than theoretical.
With the World Economic Forum identifying an $11 trillion global skills gap, solutions that bridge learning and earning couldn't be more urgent. As Benvenisti puts it: "If we don't have Gen Z meaningfully engaged in employment and highly productive mode in a couple of years, that's like having a fuel gap on an airplane." Connect with Dan on LinkedIn or email dan@skillwaze.com to learn more about this revolutionary approach to guaranteed career readiness.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's
most downloaded and sharedpodcasts designed for HR pros,
talent execs, tech enthusiastsand business leaders.
For hundreds more episodes andwhat's new in the world of work,
subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
hrgazettecom and visithrgazettecom.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
Hello listeners, this is yourhost today, Bill Bannam, and in
this episode we're going to diveinto one of the biggest
announcements at SHRM 2025 inSan Diego, a major move that
could reshape how Gen Zers enterthe workforce and how employers
access truly job-ready talent.
(00:50):
Joining me on the show today isDan Benvenisti, founder and CEO
over at Skillways, a companythat's redefining career
readiness for Gen Zers throughAI-powered skills-based learning
.
Dan and his team just announcedthe acquisition of Tiller.
You may remember Tillerlisteners.
We featured them on the show inthe past.
(01:11):
They're a leading learningmanagement and credentialing
platform.
Together, they're building whatthey call the first guaranteed
career readiness solution forboth learners and employers.
I hope you enjoy thisconversation that I had with Dan
.
Dan, it's my pleasure towelcome you to the HR Chat Show
(01:31):
today.
How are you doing Doing?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
well.
Thanks for having me, Bill.
I look forward to ourconversation.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
So, dan, let's start with the big news.
Why was acquiring Tiller andcongratulations, by the way, uh
the right move for skills ways,and why, particularly at this
time?
Why at this juncture in yourjourney?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
yeah, and great question I.
I received that question, uh,both from some of my current
investors as well as some of thenew perspective investors.
It's like wait a minute, but assoon as you tell the story it
makes a lot of sense.
So the company Skillways, forthe last four and a half five
years, has really operated as avirtual internship, virtual
(02:19):
apprenticeship, innovationchallenge platform where we
would skill and score the actualapplication of skills being
utilized in real work programsfor employers and for some
nonprofits over statewide typesof initiatives.
And what we found was that itwas a partial solution, that the
journey for the youth and forthe underrepresented or
(02:44):
supposedly unskilled was justnot complete right.
It was like you're giving themthat full work experience but
you're not tying it togetherwith the learning side of it.
So Tiller for us represented theability to bring together a
full learning management systemmarketplace, much like you see
in large enterprise systemstoday, where you can upskill a
(03:07):
workforce within your companyand keep them, as you know,
progressively learning throughtheir career.
But what about those who arenot skilled, that don't have a
career path or that need toreenter or second chance?
So we looked at it and said whycan't we apply really good
existing technology to thosepopulations that aren't in a
(03:31):
career, that need to be in acareer, and same, you know, put
it all together.
So we created the first AIpowered learn and earn platform,
allowing for all those you know, right now unemployed
populations, to tie it alltogether, where we guarantee
(03:53):
their outcome as a result of ourobservation engine.
And so Tiller really representssomething that is in place
today on its own with largecompanies, but just does not
exist for those that are notemployed.
And how do you bring them intoemployment?
So pretty excited about it.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat
Podcast.
If you enjoy the audio contentwe produce, you'll love our
articles on the HR Gazette.
Learn more at hrgazettecom.
And now back to the show.
Okay, thank you, dan.
I love it when we get a gueston and they make some bold
(04:35):
claims, because then I can tryand pull them apart.
In the interview and one youjust mentioned, there is that
the results are guaranteed.
So, for those who may not befamiliar with your platform,
what does guaranteed careerreadiness actually mean and how
does AI power that guarantee?
If you can go into a bit moredetail around that, Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I love the fastball pitch straight down the middle,
it's good.
Um.
So we look at it and sayanybody can go learn, pick up a
credential.
We pull together all the skillsfrom that learning process.
We verify and validate theskills learned through all the
various taxonomies and wenormalize that and then put it
(05:20):
together in a curated form foreach individual.
So it's personalized learningfor each individual in a
real-time basis.
But more importantly is we tieit together for a employer.
So an employer says, hey, here'sour job specs, we need these
skills that we extract out ofthat job spec and we say, great,
(05:43):
we can curate the skillsrequired through our marketplace
.
Bring the participants in,bring the kids in, give them the
credentials through our virtualinternships, our virtual
apprenticeships on Skillways andour innovation challenges,
(06:04):
where our AI observes the skillsthat have been applied.
So we do all that, we put ittogether and we guarantee the
resume of those participants.
Here's the skills they learned,here's the skills that have
been applied in a real workcontext.
We write the resume for themand back up the skills that are
(06:29):
present on that resume for theemployers as well as the youth.
So in essence, we're saying ifthey're here, they do the work
in our platform.
Here's the skills that we'veobserved.
We'll write the resume so thatthey don't have to.
Here's the skills that we'veobserved.
We'll write the resume so thatthey don't have to.
And also, more importantly, aself-authored resume.
You might as well have ChatGPTwrite it because it's
(06:53):
self-authored.
And we saw this quite a bitlast year, where college
graduates are coming out, theysee a job spec.
They say, hey, chatgpt, write aresume that matches this job
spec.
They go interview, get the job.
90 days later it's like wow,none of that was present.
So we want to be theintermediary and guarantee the
(07:16):
data that they've learned theseskills, that they can apply
these skills and they're ready.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Okay, just a quick follow-up on that then, in terms
of learning those skills andbeing able to apply those skills
, being able to demonstrate thatthey can apply those skills.
So we'll talk later about theidea of micro-internships.
I love this.
I love this term, by the way,it's something that's all over
your website, but before we getthere, I'm guessing, then, by
(07:45):
adding those two componentsbeing able to help folks uh,
identify and label what skillsthey have on their resumes, but
also within their cover letters,which are also that's important
for the passing technologiesand all the rest of it isn't it
to get through to, to, um, thestage where maybe you might get
interviewed?
Uh, in in their cover, they canactually also point to
real-world examples Is that oneof the unique powers of the
(08:10):
technology that you offer?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, so I mean in the cover letter piece of it.
I think that is one of theunique scenarios is we will
collate and offer to thoseparticipants.
You know one.
Here are the skills that youlearned on our platform.
Here are the skills that havebeen applied and to what
(08:48):
proficiency.
You have that ability learnedand have been applied Two
different things.
I have a lot of friends who likehockey, ice hockey and, like
your football fans, they areMonday morning quarterbacks, so
they know hockey.
You can learn hockey.
You can learn football, eitherAmerican football or real world
football.
You can learn it, but thatdoesn't mean you can play it.
(09:11):
That doesn't mean you can do itright.
So the difference of knowledgeacquisition and learning is one
thing, and that's important, butthe ability to apply the skill
required to play is different,and so what we really aim to do
is to put them together and tobe able to verify.
Easy to say I've got acredential.
(09:32):
I learned this, I took a test,I watched a video, I answered
questions, click, click, click.
Great Knowledge acquisition isone level of it.
The ability to play ice hockeyis very different, and so when
you think about it, for anemployer it's the same thing
right.
They're saying I want to hirethis person to put them on our
hockey team, but I don't know ifthey can play hockey.
(09:54):
They went through four years ofschool.
Ostensibly the brand of theschool says that they can start
and finish something of deeprigor academics, but when they
show up, can they actually useit and apply it?
And we're seeing less and lessof that capability.
So we really intend to bringthose two together the learning
and the earning in application,in a side-by-side parallel run
(10:18):
scenario.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Another follow-up question, if you don't mind, if
you'd indulge me.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
We're here for it yeah, the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
What did the pandemic do for young folks in terms of
putting away an opportunity forthem to get experience, and how
are they catching up in 2025?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
did a disservice to this Gen Z population in
particular and we'll see theimpact of Gen A and their
abilities too, in acareer-minded mindset coming up.
Unfortunately, I think, as weall know, the pandemic put a lot
more emphasis online and tookkids out of the real world
context and for that they are ata little bit of a disadvantage
and they just don't have thatreal world exposure to how to
(11:11):
deal with circumstances and howto deal with things.
They didn't get that growingpotential.
Most of them had a veryformidable time right around
puberty and you know that duringprocess of entering puberty and
coming through puberty is themost emotional learning
opportunity the human skills ofreading social, emotional cues
(11:32):
on facial expressions, words,how to dialogue, how to
understand what's expected ofyou, without the full rubric
that you get in an academicenvironment and understanding
what that means.
And so they're at a bigdisadvantage.
And we hear this from employersall over.
It's yeah, we hire them, theycome in, you know they just
don't know what to do.
(11:52):
And you're right, they don'tknow what to do because the
training mechanisms for many andmost employers were built for
Gen X.
And then the millennials comein and like, oh, we need to
tweak it for them and they did alittle tweak and it took a few
years for them to catch up andkind of blend their way in.
But Gen Z is woefully differentthan the millennials and how
(12:15):
they operate.
The same fundamentals apply.
They will work for money.
You have to respect them andpay them and that is key and you
have to lead them intounderstanding what their role is
, what's expected of them, andthey expect a lot more feedback
than Gen X or the millennials inany context of day-to-day
feedback and information flowand the ability to have a voice
(12:38):
and most of thoseinfrastructures are semi-present
in most work contexts.
So fortunately, I think we'llhave the opportunity with.
What we can do at scale withhundreds of thousands and
millions in a concurrentscenario, is to bridge that
opportunity for both employersas well as the next generation,
(13:00):
to help them understand thelearning and the earning
combination left foot, footright, foot right of how to put
it all together very good.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Just to add another sport in there.
Uh, we're recording thisepisode.
On canada day, I took off my uh, my blue jays baseball cap
before I hit record today, justfor dan.
Um, okay, you, you mentioned amoment ago hundreds of thousands
.
You also mentioned millionshere.
Here are some other numbers foryou.
Let's talk about trillions.
You mentioned at SHRM that thisacquisition helps close the $11
(13:32):
trillion skills gap.
That's a big number, dan.
How did you get there?
Can you break that number downfor us and explain what it means
?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Oh, that wasn't my number.
World Economic Forum andAccenture did some research
before and during COVID and thewidening of this skills gap is
even larger than that.
I think by many in theeconomics view the next
generation to participatemeaningfully in an engaged,
(14:04):
productive economy workforce istragic, right?
We're at a point now with whatyou just mentioned earlier with
the pandemic, and now whatyou're seeing with AI taking out
some of those entry-level jobs,and you saw what we saw last
year was many something like 60%or more college graduates that
were hired were fired in 90 daysto 120 days last year.
(14:28):
For that mismatch, mishiremisfired combination.
When you think about it from aGDP perspective, if we don't
have Gen Z meaningfully engagedin employment and on a
productivity you know, in ahighly productive mode, in a
couple of years, that's likehaving a, you know, a fuel gap
(14:52):
on an airplane.
We start to decline broadly, westart to, you know our GDP
starts to drop, you know youfast forward five, seven, 10
years and if it's a slow rise tobring them into the economy,
okay, ai is going to bring someproductivity into some of those
you know early roles, but wereally need Gen Z to participate
(15:16):
and to take over flying theplane of our.
You know our journey as anation and Western society
overall.
Right, it's not just the US,it's Canada, it's Europe, you
know, it's many economies allthe way around.
So from my perspective, it is acritical imperative of and it's
(15:39):
sort of you know, we hear thisall the way along from prior
administrations, currentadministrations alike.
Manufacturing is key, absolutely, and so is healthcare, right,
you think of those two keyindustry sectors.
We have to get our storytogether and we have to
meaningfully engage Gen Z intovarious aspects of manufacturing
(16:02):
, not pulling cranks.
But in the new 21st era model,we can't talk about the word
manufacturing because that'slike trying to sell a Oldsmobile
to an 18-year-old.
It's not going to work for them.
You have to use the languagethat is meaningful to them and
it's about the subcategories,the solutions.
If you're a shipbuilder, you gotto talk about the drones and
(16:22):
undersea activity and you knowlots of different things you're
doing.
If you're an airplane builderin space technology, you can't
come in and say, yeah, you'regoing to layer wire inside of an
aluminum hole and manufactureplanes.
You got to talk about thedelivery and the value of what
that plane's going to do.
You know and that's one of ourchallenges as a nation is how we
(16:42):
bring the next generation in tosolve the problems.
So I'm excited to start dealingwith some of those bigger
issues as we put the wholesystem together now.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So, as you do put the system together, how does
Tiller's learning managementmarketplace and the
credentialing system enhance thelearner journey on Skillsways?
Can you explain the additionalbenefits for folks who are
looking at Skillways as anoption for them, say, in the
next three to six months, whenall of these new components are
(17:12):
being added and they've beenrolled out?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Yeah, we intend to deliver the brand promise of the
Waze navigation app, but foryour career, right.
So for the youth, it's aconcept that says I want to come
in and I want to explore allthese different careers and we
will curate a personalizedjourney and map it out in a
Waze-like graphical interface.
(17:36):
You're interested in healthcare?
Here's your degree ornon-degree, or here's your
interest, here's the courses andthe credentials and here's the
job spec and here's theinternships and apprenticeships,
all built into the platform.
So you start that journey andyou start going.
Here's the sponsorship,scholarship dollars from some of
(17:56):
the big nonprofits and thefoundations that will support
your journey, and here's theearned income and or Bitcoin you
can earn through theseinternships and apprenticeships,
and I'll tell you, bitcoin is ahigh motivator, more than the
US dollar for youth.
So when we offer Bitcoin up aspart of your journey, we see a
(18:17):
two to three X engagement levelfor that participation.
It doesn't have to be a lot.
It's micro, micro dollars,micro pieces, but it's part of
their journey.
It's gamified all the waythrough.
So in a true ways, likenavigation experience, and if
they decide, you know they'retwo months into a you know
couple of credentials and they,you know, they've done one or
two of those pieces and they'relike you know I'm not into.
(18:39):
You know data mining forhealthcare stuff, but I do like
graphical interface forhealthcare things.
Or I want to be an x-raytechnician.
Go down that path.
Great, we've already got thoseskills we've identified.
Now apply over to this side aswell.
So we just reroute you, justlike you're mapping your car
route, recalculating in realtime.
(19:01):
And so now you know, here's allthese other 10 jobs and 10
career paths you can go to.
For the employer side, samething.
All we say is look, we're goingto curate for you a program to
build that talent pool so youcan bring your Toronto Blue Jays
hat back out.
We want to create a farm teamfor those employers.
(19:21):
So really, what we're saying isyou need the double A's, you
need the triple A's, you needthe college teams.
We'll build that entire teamfor you.
So your recruiting isn'ttransactional.
You're building a relationshipand the skills required for your
next generation and they arethere for you to pull up in real
time.
So we do it through theemployer brand, through those
(19:43):
virtual innovation challenges,the virtual internships, the
micro internships and thevirtual apprenticeships, and
that allows for the combinationof the employer to participate.
They just give us the job specs.
We'll extract the skillsrequired.
We'll send those back and sayyou approve, these are the
skills you're looking for.
(20:04):
We curate the programs for themand we go bring the kids in and
deliver them through theprogram, and then the employers
now have a farm team that theycan pull from all right, very
good.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Uh, I've got so many more questions for you.
However, I'm conscious thatyou've got a lot on today
because this is day three ofSHERP, so I'm just going to
throw two more questions at you,if I may, before we wrap up for
today.
The next one, my penultimatequestion, then, is skills-based
hiring is, of course, gainingmomentum.
We talk about skills-basedhiring all the time on this pod.
(20:36):
I'm a big.
I'm a big proponent of it,because I believe that changing
that mindset reduces traditionalbarriers around what
expectations were in terms ofwhat a candidate needed from the
credential side of things.
Anyway, sorry, this is aninterview with you.
My question is what advice doyou have for HR leaders who want
(20:57):
to embrace this shift, but theyjust don't know where to start?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, we're trying to bring the solution together for
talent acquisition leaders toactually apply and utilize and
execute a skills-first hiringapproach.
That's what we're trying todeliver.
There's been a lot of talkabout skills-first for 15 years
and in the last couple of yearsmuch more predominant.
(21:23):
There's frameworks everywherethere's.
You know CTE has some reallygreat frameworks.
We're utilizing a lot of thatfor our model to normalize the.
You know taxonomies all the waythrough in different sectors
Each state has done you knowtheir academic models of you
know credentialing and you knowskills-based learning principles
(21:45):
.
What we're trying to offer is apoint-click solution for the
delivery of a skills hiringapproach and that's where almost
similar to an outsourced modelis.
We run the programs, we curatethe skills populations for the
employers that they need.
So it's business as usual forthem.
Create the hiring spec, the jobspec.
(22:07):
We'll curate the skillsrequired for that spec and we'll
build and run the farm team foryou so that you can hire the
skills.
And if you're okay with thevariation of not being from top
10 pedigree school, we'll buildthe credential programs for them
.
We'll build the experientialprograms and we'll guarantee
those skills are present.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Okay, and just finally for today, as we always
like to do on this show, I'dlike to give you an opportunity
just to let folks know how theycan connect with you.
So, whether that's LinkedIn,your email address, I bet you're
one of these super cool guyswho's all over TikTok, andok and
instagram and all those placesand, of course, look, looking,
looking ahead.
What's next for skillways?
(22:50):
How do you see the platformevolving over the next 12 to 24
months and how can folks keep aneye and monitor all of the
latest developments there?
Speaker 3 (23:01):
yeah, I'll take the last question first.
You know 12, you know six, 12months.
We're working now and inconversations with many trade
associations, on how to puttogether industry sector
comprehensive learn and earnprograms in order to bring
forward the populations onbehalf of their member employers
In the manufacturing sector isa national need for that.
(23:24):
We're also in earlyconversations with the
Department of Education andDepartment of Labor on how to
get their participation intothis as well so that at a mass
level we have unification on howto deliver, not just talk about
these types of programs.
So the next six to nine monthswill be about pulling those
(23:45):
partnerships and the coalitiontogether so that we can turn on
our system and machine anddeliver on the populations that
are needed, and to me that'sabsolutely critical.
So from a technologicalperspective, tiller and
Skillway's teams have beenworking together before the
close of the acquisition inconcert to really pull this
(24:07):
together.
So couldn't be happier aboutthe technological opportunities
that are really there for us andto deliver.
It's going to be reallyinteresting, so pretty excited
about that.
There's a lot we're going to doin our own proprietary AI
development.
We probably will partner with acouple of the already existing
agentic large language modelprograms to integrate as well.
(24:30):
Not necessary, but we do wantto offer those capabilities.
But we're really mostimportantly that we're saying,
hey, you can fly your careerbased on our data and an
employer hey, you can make ahiring decision and we're can
fly your career based on ourdata and an employer hey, you
can make a hiring decision andwe're going to guarantee it
based on our data.
So our data much like an equitytransaction or stockbroker
(24:54):
scenario it's got to be perfect.
You have to be able to rely onit and that's what we've been
deep diving on is to make surethat that data is accurate.
It's reflective, it's true, andour endorsement stamp and our
financial guarantees and ourcontracts with the big employers
are there to back it up.
So you know, that's the mostimportant is that you know we
(25:16):
have accurate data for them andfor us in that context.
So we're going to continue towork on that.
Now, how to get a hold of usLinkedIn is perfect.
You can see Daniel Benvenisti Ithink there's maybe only one or
two of us with that name onLinkedIn At Skillways.
So danatskillwayscom is anemail.
You can get to me on that oneas well, and we're happy to set
(25:39):
up calls, share what we're doingand see how we can partner for
both the credentialing LMSproviders in addition to
employers and or tradeassociations.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Excellent.
I will be sending you aLinkedIn connection pretty
shortly after this, I wouldimagine, and then I better get
on with the editing, becausethis episode is going to go out
pretty soon.
Everybody, but for today, dan,that just leaves me to say thank
you very much for being myguest.
Thank you, and we'd love tomeet up with you in Vegas.
(26:11):
Okay, you're going to hear morefrom me on that one, and
listeners, as always.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
until next time, happy working thanks for
listening to the HR chat show.
If you this episode, why notsubscribe and listen to some of
the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
remember for what's new in theworld of work.
Subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
(26:36):
hrgazettecom.
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's
most downloaded and sharedpodcasts designed for HR pros,
talent execs, tech enthusiastsand business leaders.
For hundreds more episodes andwhat's new in the world of work,
subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
hrgazettecom and visithrgazettecom.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
Hello listeners, this is yourhost today, Bill Bannam, and in
this episode we're going to diveinto one of the biggest
announcements at SHRM 2025 inSan Diego, a major move that
could reshape how Gen Zers enterthe workforce and how employers
access truly job-ready talent.
(00:50):
Joining me on the show today isDan Benvenisti, founder and CEO
over at Skillways, a companythat's redefining career
readiness for Gen Zers throughAI-powered skills-based learning
.
Dan and his team just announcedthe acquisition of Tiller.
You may remember Tillerlisteners.
We featured them on the show inthe past.
(01:11):
They're a leading learningmanagement and credentialing
platform.
Together, they're building whatthey call the first guaranteed
career readiness solution forboth learners and employers.
I hope you enjoy thisconversation that I had with Dan
.
Dan, it's my pleasure towelcome you to the HR Chat Show
(01:31):
today.
How are you doing Doing?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
well.
Thanks for having me, Bill.
I look forward to ourconversation.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
So, dan, let's start with the big news.
Why was acquiring Tiller andcongratulations, by the way, uh
the right move for skills ways,and why, particularly at this
time?
Why at this juncture in yourjourney?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
yeah, and great question I.
I received that question, uh,both from some of my current
investors as well as some of thenew perspective investors.
It's like wait a minute, but assoon as you tell the story it
makes a lot of sense.
So the company Skillways, forthe last four and a half five
years, has really operated as avirtual internship, virtual
(02:19):
apprenticeship, innovationchallenge platform where we
would skill and score the actualapplication of skills being
utilized in real work programsfor employers and for some
nonprofits over statewide typesof initiatives.
And what we found was that itwas a partial solution, that the
journey for the youth and forthe underrepresented or
(02:44):
supposedly unskilled was justnot complete right.
It was like you're giving themthat full work experience but
you're not tying it togetherwith the learning side of it.
So Tiller for us represented theability to bring together a
full learning management systemmarketplace, much like you see
in large enterprise systemstoday, where you can upskill a
(03:07):
workforce within your companyand keep them, as you know,
progressively learning throughtheir career.
But what about those who arenot skilled, that don't have a
career path or that need toreenter or second chance?
So we looked at it and said whycan't we apply really good
existing technology to thosepopulations that aren't in a
(03:31):
career, that need to be in acareer, and same, you know, put
it all together.
So we created the first AIpowered learn and earn platform,
allowing for all those you know, right now unemployed
populations, to tie it alltogether, where we guarantee
(03:53):
their outcome as a result of ourobservation engine.
And so Tiller really representssomething that is in place
today on its own with largecompanies, but just does not
exist for those that are notemployed.
And how do you bring them intoemployment?
So pretty excited about it.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat
Podcast.
If you enjoy the audio contentwe produce, you'll love our
articles on the HR Gazette.
Learn more at hrgazettecom.
And now back to the show.
Okay, thank you, dan.
I love it when we get a gueston and they make some bold
(04:35):
claims, because then I can tryand pull them apart.
In the interview and one youjust mentioned, there is that
the results are guaranteed.
So, for those who may not befamiliar with your platform,
what does guaranteed careerreadiness actually mean and how
does AI power that guarantee?
If you can go into a bit moredetail around that, Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I love the fastball pitch straight down the middle,
it's good.
Um.
So we look at it and sayanybody can go learn, pick up a
credential.
We pull together all the skillsfrom that learning process.
We verify and validate theskills learned through all the
various taxonomies and wenormalize that and then put it
(05:20):
together in a curated form foreach individual.
So it's personalized learningfor each individual in a
real-time basis.
But more importantly is we tieit together for a employer.
So an employer says, hey, here'sour job specs, we need these
skills that we extract out ofthat job spec and we say, great,
(05:43):
we can curate the skillsrequired through our marketplace
.
Bring the participants in,bring the kids in, give them the
credentials through our virtualinternships, our virtual
apprenticeships on Skillways andour innovation challenges,
(06:04):
where our AI observes the skillsthat have been applied.
So we do all that, we put ittogether and we guarantee the
resume of those participants.
Here's the skills they learned,here's the skills that have
been applied in a real workcontext.
We write the resume for themand back up the skills that are
(06:29):
present on that resume for theemployers as well as the youth.
So in essence, we're saying ifthey're here, they do the work
in our platform.
Here's the skills that we'veobserved.
We'll write the resume so thatthey don't have to.
Here's the skills that we'veobserved.
We'll write the resume so thatthey don't have to.
And also, more importantly, aself-authored resume.
You might as well have ChatGPTwrite it because it's
(06:53):
self-authored.
And we saw this quite a bitlast year, where college
graduates are coming out, theysee a job spec.
They say, hey, chatgpt, write aresume that matches this job
spec.
They go interview, get the job.
90 days later it's like wow,none of that was present.
So we want to be theintermediary and guarantee the
(07:16):
data that they've learned theseskills, that they can apply
these skills and they're ready.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Okay, just a quick follow-up on that then, in terms
of learning those skills andbeing able to apply those skills
, being able to demonstrate thatthey can apply those skills.
So we'll talk later about theidea of micro-internships.
I love this.
I love this term, by the way,it's something that's all over
your website, but before we getthere, I'm guessing, then, by
(07:45):
adding those two componentsbeing able to help folks uh,
identify and label what skillsthey have on their resumes, but
also within their cover letters,which are also that's important
for the passing technologiesand all the rest of it isn't it
to get through to, to, um, thestage where maybe you might get
interviewed?
Uh, in in their cover, they canactually also point to
real-world examples Is that oneof the unique powers of the
(08:10):
technology that you offer?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, so I mean in the cover letter piece of it.
I think that is one of theunique scenarios is we will
collate and offer to thoseparticipants.
You know one.
Here are the skills that youlearned on our platform.
Here are the skills that havebeen applied and to what
(08:48):
proficiency.
You have that ability learnedand have been applied Two
different things.
I have a lot of friends who likehockey, ice hockey and, like
your football fans, they areMonday morning quarterbacks, so
they know hockey.
You can learn hockey.
You can learn football, eitherAmerican football or real world
football.
You can learn it, but thatdoesn't mean you can play it.
(09:11):
That doesn't mean you can do itright.
So the difference of knowledgeacquisition and learning is one
thing, and that's important, butthe ability to apply the skill
required to play is different,and so what we really aim to do
is to put them together and tobe able to verify.
Easy to say I've got acredential.
(09:32):
I learned this, I took a test,I watched a video, I answered
questions, click, click, click.
Great Knowledge acquisition isone level of it.
The ability to play ice hockeyis very different, and so when
you think about it, for anemployer it's the same thing
right.
They're saying I want to hirethis person to put them on our
hockey team, but I don't know ifthey can play hockey.
(09:54):
They went through four years ofschool.
Ostensibly the brand of theschool says that they can start
and finish something of deeprigor academics, but when they
show up, can they actually useit and apply it?
And we're seeing less and lessof that capability.
So we really intend to bringthose two together the learning
and the earning in application,in a side-by-side parallel run
(10:18):
scenario.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Another follow-up question, if you don't mind, if
you'd indulge me.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
We're here for it yeah, the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
What did the pandemic do for young folks in terms of
putting away an opportunity forthem to get experience, and how
are they catching up in 2025?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
did a disservice to this Gen Z population in
particular and we'll see theimpact of Gen A and their
abilities too, in acareer-minded mindset coming up.
Unfortunately, I think, as weall know, the pandemic put a lot
more emphasis online and tookkids out of the real world
context and for that they are ata little bit of a disadvantage
and they just don't have thatreal world exposure to how to
(11:11):
deal with circumstances and howto deal with things.
They didn't get that growingpotential.
Most of them had a veryformidable time right around
puberty and you know that duringprocess of entering puberty and
coming through puberty is themost emotional learning
opportunity the human skills ofreading social, emotional cues
(11:32):
on facial expressions, words,how to dialogue, how to
understand what's expected ofyou, without the full rubric
that you get in an academicenvironment and understanding
what that means.
And so they're at a bigdisadvantage.
And we hear this from employersall over.
It's yeah, we hire them, theycome in, you know they just
don't know what to do.
(11:52):
And you're right, they don'tknow what to do because the
training mechanisms for many andmost employers were built for
Gen X.
And then the millennials comein and like, oh, we need to
tweak it for them and they did alittle tweak and it took a few
years for them to catch up andkind of blend their way in.
But Gen Z is woefully differentthan the millennials and how
(12:15):
they operate.
The same fundamentals apply.
They will work for money.
You have to respect them andpay them and that is key and you
have to lead them intounderstanding what their role is
, what's expected of them, andthey expect a lot more feedback
than Gen X or the millennials inany context of day-to-day
feedback and information flowand the ability to have a voice
(12:38):
and most of thoseinfrastructures are semi-present
in most work contexts.
So fortunately, I think we'llhave the opportunity with.
What we can do at scale withhundreds of thousands and
millions in a concurrentscenario, is to bridge that
opportunity for both employersas well as the next generation,
(13:00):
to help them understand thelearning and the earning
combination left foot, footright, foot right of how to put
it all together very good.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Just to add another sport in there.
Uh, we're recording thisepisode.
On canada day, I took off my uh, my blue jays baseball cap
before I hit record today, justfor dan.
Um, okay, you, you mentioned amoment ago hundreds of thousands
.
You also mentioned millionshere.
Here are some other numbers foryou.
Let's talk about trillions.
You mentioned at SHRM that thisacquisition helps close the $11
(13:32):
trillion skills gap.
That's a big number, dan.
How did you get there?
Can you break that number downfor us and explain what it means
?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Oh, that wasn't my number.
World Economic Forum andAccenture did some research
before and during COVID and thewidening of this skills gap is
even larger than that.
I think by many in theeconomics view the next
generation to participatemeaningfully in an engaged,
(14:04):
productive economy workforce istragic, right?
We're at a point now with whatyou just mentioned earlier with
the pandemic, and now whatyou're seeing with AI taking out
some of those entry-level jobs,and you saw what we saw last
year was many something like 60%or more college graduates that
were hired were fired in 90 daysto 120 days last year.
(14:28):
For that mismatch, mishiremisfired combination.
When you think about it from aGDP perspective, if we don't
have Gen Z meaningfully engagedin employment and on a
productivity you know, in ahighly productive mode, in a
couple of years, that's likehaving a, you know, a fuel gap
(14:52):
on an airplane.
We start to decline broadly, westart to, you know our GDP
starts to drop, you know youfast forward five, seven, 10
years and if it's a slow rise tobring them into the economy,
okay, ai is going to bring someproductivity into some of those
you know early roles, but wereally need Gen Z to participate
(15:16):
and to take over flying theplane of our.
You know our journey as anation and Western society
overall.
Right, it's not just the US,it's Canada, it's Europe, you
know, it's many economies allthe way around.
So from my perspective, it is acritical imperative of and it's
(15:39):
sort of you know, we hear thisall the way along from prior
administrations, currentadministrations alike.
Manufacturing is key, absolutely, and so is healthcare, right,
you think of those two keyindustry sectors.
We have to get our storytogether and we have to
meaningfully engage Gen Z intovarious aspects of manufacturing
(16:02):
, not pulling cranks.
But in the new 21st era model,we can't talk about the word
manufacturing because that'slike trying to sell a Oldsmobile
to an 18-year-old.
It's not going to work for them.
You have to use the languagethat is meaningful to them and
it's about the subcategories,the solutions.
If you're a shipbuilder, you gotto talk about the drones and
(16:22):
undersea activity and you knowlots of different things you're
doing.
If you're an airplane builderin space technology, you can't
come in and say, yeah, you'regoing to layer wire inside of an
aluminum hole and manufactureplanes.
You got to talk about thedelivery and the value of what
that plane's going to do.
You know and that's one of ourchallenges as a nation is how we
(16:42):
bring the next generation in tosolve the problems.
So I'm excited to start dealingwith some of those bigger
issues as we put the wholesystem together now.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So, as you do put the system together, how does
Tiller's learning managementmarketplace and the
credentialing system enhance thelearner journey on Skillsways?
Can you explain the additionalbenefits for folks who are
looking at Skillways as anoption for them, say, in the
next three to six months, whenall of these new components are
(17:12):
being added and they've beenrolled out?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Yeah, we intend to deliver the brand promise of the
Waze navigation app, but foryour career, right.
So for the youth, it's aconcept that says I want to come
in and I want to explore allthese different careers and we
will curate a personalizedjourney and map it out in a
Waze-like graphical interface.
(17:36):
You're interested in healthcare?
Here's your degree ornon-degree, or here's your
interest, here's the courses andthe credentials and here's the
job spec and here's theinternships and apprenticeships,
all built into the platform.
So you start that journey andyou start going.
Here's the sponsorship,scholarship dollars from some of
(17:56):
the big nonprofits and thefoundations that will support
your journey, and here's theearned income and or Bitcoin you
can earn through theseinternships and apprenticeships,
and I'll tell you, bitcoin is ahigh motivator, more than the
US dollar for youth.
So when we offer Bitcoin up aspart of your journey, we see a
(18:17):
two to three X engagement levelfor that participation.
It doesn't have to be a lot.
It's micro, micro dollars,micro pieces, but it's part of
their journey.
It's gamified all the waythrough.
So in a true ways, likenavigation experience, and if
they decide, you know they'retwo months into a you know
couple of credentials and they,you know, they've done one or
two of those pieces and they'relike you know I'm not into.
(18:39):
You know data mining forhealthcare stuff, but I do like
graphical interface forhealthcare things.
Or I want to be an x-raytechnician.
Go down that path.
Great, we've already got thoseskills we've identified.
Now apply over to this side aswell.
So we just reroute you, justlike you're mapping your car
route, recalculating in realtime.
(19:01):
And so now you know, here's allthese other 10 jobs and 10
career paths you can go to.
For the employer side, samething.
All we say is look, we're goingto curate for you a program to
build that talent pool so youcan bring your Toronto Blue Jays
hat back out.
We want to create a farm teamfor those employers.
(19:21):
So really, what we're saying isyou need the double A's, you
need the triple A's, you needthe college teams.
We'll build that entire teamfor you.
So your recruiting isn'ttransactional.
You're building a relationshipand the skills required for your
next generation and they arethere for you to pull up in real
time.
So we do it through theemployer brand, through those
(19:43):
virtual innovation challenges,the virtual internships, the
micro internships and thevirtual apprenticeships, and
that allows for the combinationof the employer to participate.
They just give us the job specs.
We'll extract the skillsrequired.
We'll send those back and sayyou approve, these are the
skills you're looking for.
(20:04):
We curate the programs for themand we go bring the kids in and
deliver them through theprogram, and then the employers
now have a farm team that theycan pull from all right, very
good.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Uh, I've got so many more questions for you.
However, I'm conscious thatyou've got a lot on today
because this is day three ofSHERP, so I'm just going to
throw two more questions at you,if I may, before we wrap up for
today.
The next one, my penultimatequestion, then, is skills-based
hiring is, of course, gainingmomentum.
We talk about skills-basedhiring all the time on this pod.
(20:36):
I'm a big.
I'm a big proponent of it,because I believe that changing
that mindset reduces traditionalbarriers around what
expectations were in terms ofwhat a candidate needed from the
credential side of things.
Anyway, sorry, this is aninterview with you.
My question is what advice doyou have for HR leaders who want
(20:57):
to embrace this shift, but theyjust don't know where to start?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, we're trying to bring the solution together for
talent acquisition leaders toactually apply and utilize and
execute a skills-first hiringapproach.
That's what we're trying todeliver.
There's been a lot of talkabout skills-first for 15 years
and in the last couple of yearsmuch more predominant.
(21:23):
There's frameworks everywherethere's.
You know CTE has some reallygreat frameworks.
We're utilizing a lot of thatfor our model to normalize the.
You know taxonomies all the waythrough in different sectors
Each state has done you knowtheir academic models of you
know credentialing and you knowskills-based learning principles
(21:45):
.
What we're trying to offer is apoint-click solution for the
delivery of a skills hiringapproach and that's where almost
similar to an outsourced modelis.
We run the programs, we curatethe skills populations for the
employers that they need.
So it's business as usual forthem.
Create the hiring spec, the jobspec.
(22:07):
We'll curate the skillsrequired for that spec and we'll
build and run the farm team foryou so that you can hire the
skills.
And if you're okay with thevariation of not being from top
10 pedigree school, we'll buildthe credential programs for them
.
We'll build the experientialprograms and we'll guarantee
those skills are present.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Okay, and just finally for today, as we always
like to do on this show, I'dlike to give you an opportunity
just to let folks know how theycan connect with you.
So, whether that's LinkedIn,your email address, I bet you're
one of these super cool guyswho's all over TikTok, andok and
instagram and all those placesand, of course, look, looking,
looking ahead.
What's next for skillways?
(22:50):
How do you see the platformevolving over the next 12 to 24
months and how can folks keep aneye and monitor all of the
latest developments there?
Speaker 3 (23:01):
yeah, I'll take the last question first.
You know 12, you know six, 12months.
We're working now and inconversations with many trade
associations, on how to puttogether industry sector
comprehensive learn and earnprograms in order to bring
forward the populations onbehalf of their member employers
In the manufacturing sector isa national need for that.
(23:24):
We're also in earlyconversations with the
Department of Education andDepartment of Labor on how to
get their participation intothis as well so that at a mass
level we have unification on howto deliver, not just talk about
these types of programs.
So the next six to nine monthswill be about pulling those
(23:45):
partnerships and the coalitiontogether so that we can turn on
our system and machine anddeliver on the populations that
are needed, and to me that'sabsolutely critical.
So from a technologicalperspective, tiller and
Skillway's teams have beenworking together before the
close of the acquisition inconcert to really pull this
(24:07):
together.
So couldn't be happier aboutthe technological opportunities
that are really there for us andto deliver.
It's going to be reallyinteresting, so pretty excited
about that.
There's a lot we're going to doin our own proprietary AI
development.
We probably will partner with acouple of the already existing
agentic large language modelprograms to integrate as well.
(24:30):
Not necessary, but we do wantto offer those capabilities.
But we're really mostimportantly that we're saying,
hey, you can fly your careerbased on our data and an
employer hey, you can make ahiring decision and we're can
fly your career based on ourdata and an employer hey, you
can make a hiring decision andwe're going to guarantee it
based on our data.
So our data much like an equitytransaction or stockbroker
(24:54):
scenario it's got to be perfect.
You have to be able to rely onit and that's what we've been
deep diving on is to make surethat that data is accurate.
It's reflective, it's true, andour endorsement stamp and our
financial guarantees and ourcontracts with the big employers
are there to back it up.
So you know, that's the mostimportant is that you know we
(25:16):
have accurate data for them andfor us in that context.
So we're going to continue towork on that.
Now, how to get a hold of usLinkedIn is perfect.
You can see Daniel Benvenisti Ithink there's maybe only one or
two of us with that name onLinkedIn At Skillways.
So danatskillwayscom is anemail.
You can get to me on that oneas well, and we're happy to set
(25:39):
up calls, share what we're doingand see how we can partner for
both the credentialing LMSproviders in addition to
employers and or tradeassociations.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Excellent.
I will be sending you aLinkedIn connection pretty
shortly after this, I wouldimagine, and then I better get
on with the editing, becausethis episode is going to go out
pretty soon.
Everybody, but for today, dan,that just leaves me to say thank
you very much for being myguest.
Thank you, and we'd love tomeet up with you in Vegas.
(26:11):
Okay, you're going to hear morefrom me on that one, and
listeners, as always.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
until next time, happy working thanks for
listening to the HR chat show.
If you this episode, why notsubscribe and listen to some of
the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
remember for what's new in theworld of work.
Subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
(26:36):
hrgazettecom.
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