SkillLab

Empowering people to turn their skills into careers!

SkillLab believes that no person should be excluded from opportunity simply because their skills are invisible. SkillLab aims to provide equal opportunities for all job seekers by uncovering pathways to social and economic participation through partnership-enabled education and employment. To do so, SkillLab developed an AI-powered software solution that links a job seeker’s past experiences to a taxonomy of skills and thus creates a skill profile. This skill profile helps career counselors and job seekers to better identify skills and allows for improved career path planning.

The combination of rapid technological evolution, socio-economic polarization and disillusionment of the workforce could lead to jobless growth, income inequality and social instability at a global scale. This challenge is further compounded by global trends of climate change, shifting demographics, migration pressures, increasing urbanization and political backlash against globalization. At Rubio, we believe in a future with inclusive workforces that are secure, motivated, skilled and prepared for any challenge that comes next. Where people’s lives are enriched by advancing technology. And where society can prosper from equal access to new opportunities.

SkillLab’s AI-enabled software solution links a job-seeker’s past experiences (jobs, education, informal experiences) to a taxonomy of skills to create a skill profile. The AI-powered software constructs a unique skill profile so job seekers clearly know and can more powerfully express what their skillsets are. In addition, this profile helps job seekers understand what education, occupations or sectors would be suitable for them. The skill profile is also provided to career counselors to acquire higher quality and more objective inputs and as such can better understand and serve the needs of job seekers, which leads to improved and accelerated job placement.

SkillLab was founded in 2018 by Ulrich Scharf, a serial impact entrepreneur who saw a huge disconnect in the labor market for marginalized job seekers.  In 2019, the company was selected as one of 20 companies worldwide to join the Google AI Impact Challenge Accelerator. SkillLab is based in Amsterdam but already operates across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America and their solution is available in 27 languages to date.

Improving people’s career paths

With Rubio funding, the company will continue to improve its product, expand the team, and scale-up internationally: and with its solutions and this investment, SkillLab intends to contribute to over 150,000 marginalized job-seekers finding new jobs over the next 3 years.

 “With Rubio, we found a local partner and champion in the impact investment space. Warner, Ava and the rest of the team are incredibly committed and have us impressed us throughout the process with their diligence, hard work and attention to detail. We are truly excited about the partnership to scale impact with a great business model.” – Ulrich Scharf, CEO and founder of SkillLab

To learn more about SkillLab click here