Create a Community Talent Marketplace

Connect the job seekers and (l)earners in your community with the career and upskilling opportunities they need to thrive.


Aspire Ability is a Community Talent Marketplace Solution for Competency-based Job-Seekers and Employers.

OUR MISSION: Increase the incomes of 1 million people by 30% or more through jobs with thriving, family-sustaining wages.

We do this by helping companies move toward more objective, skills-based hiring and promotion. This, in turn, allows individual job seekers to quickly evaluate which jobs they are good candidates for, competency gaps they might have, and how to fill them.


Today's Job Marketplace is Broken

Educators Provide Outdated Competencies
Employers Don't Trust Learner Transcripts
Declining EDU Enrollment & Learner Confidence

“96% of Chief Academic Officers” believe their institutions are “somewhat effective” to “very effective” at preparing students for the world of work.” – (Jaschik Pressure on the Provosts: 2014 survey of chief academic officers: Inside higher ed), while only “33% of business leaders agreed that higher ed is graduating students with the skills and competencies they need.” – (The 2013 lumina study of the American public’s … – Lumina Foundation: p 25)

While educators may believe their programs are providing graduates with the competencies they need to succeed in today’s job market, employers feel that their new hires are coming up short.

Despite employer advisory boards, employers are hesitant to put all of their trust into higher-ed credentials. With or without a degree, employers still feel a need to assess candidates on their competencies to feel confident with a hiring decision.

What’s more, “Burning Glass Institute predicts that in 2022, 1.4 million jobs will no longer require a college degree due to employers’ preference of showing proof of skills and competencies rather than having an education certificate or diploma on file at all times.” –  (Pipalia, The burning glass institute predicts that in 2022, 1.4 million jobs)

College enrollment rates have reportedly dropped 40% over the last decade, with learning institutions reporting a 8-10% drop in just the last 4 years. If learning institutions can’t find a way to make their programs more relevant to learners (who want to develop relevant competencies for the current job market) these institutions may find themselves becoming increasingly obsolete as time goes on.

Introducing a Community Talent Marketplace Where Everyone Thrives

Aspire Ability uses a combination of competency mapping and proprietary technology to bring the right Employers and Job Seekers together in your community.
Expert-approved job market data that aligns education curriculum with in-demand job requirements.

• Job Mapping

• Job Family Mapping

• Competency Rating

• Learning Alignment

Creating trustable connections between Job Seekers with Employers.

• Competency-based Job Profiles

• (L)earner Competency Profiles

• Competency Matching

• Upskilling Plans

We take the guesswork out of aligning educational programs with job-market demands AND finding and developing new talent.

How it Works: 

First, we map out the most in-demand jobs from the biggest employers within your community to create accessible and trustworthy Job Profiles.

Employers can use our Job Profiles to create Job Posts that are more specific, accurate, and up-to-date, ensuring that they are attracting the best talent on the market.  

Simultaneously, Job Seekers can use our Job Profiles as a guide to create their own personalized Job Seeker Profiles, enabling them to show employers exactly what they’re capable of.  

After that, we match Job Posts from Employers with the most qualified Job Seeker Profiles from Job Seekers on our platform, thereby connecting Employers to the best Job Seekers available.

There's More!

Our Job Profiles help more than just Employers and Job Seekers connect. We also deliver our key job marketplace data to Educators working with and in your community to ensure that their programs are giving (L)earners the competencies they need to get the best employment opportunities available.

Everyone wins! Job Seekers find jobs which are the best fit for their competencies, Employers find the best Job Seekers for their job openings, and Educators build a reputation for programs that guarantee employment and success for their (L)earners.

Frequently Asked Questions

Unlike other tools, Connect allows Job Seekers and Employers to directly compare competency-based requirements and assertions to find the best possible, unbiased matches. No guessing, no keyword searches; 1:1 matches.

Employers start with our prebuilt, Core 80 job profile templates. Each competency in the template can be fine tuned to match the right proficiency levels for the job needing to be filled, ensuring the best possible match between Employers and Job Seekers.

Many proficiency statements require the Job Seeker to upload evidence (e.g., certifications, links to work products, etc). to substantiate their proficiency assertions.

Additional information, such as the salary range, work type, and location type are plugged into the template. This new job listing is then saved to the employer’s account and ready to be listed in the job marketplace.

No. Aspire Ability is not in the business of telling you what hiring decisions to make. We simply provide you with competency matching data about your jobs and job seekers to help you make the most informed hiring decisions.

Job Seekers make rubric-based assertions when building their profile. For each competency in our system, we ask Job Seekers to select the proficiency statement that most accurately represents what they can do. 

Job Seekers are also incentivized to be honest in their assertions. They are matched with jobs based on how closely their asserted proficiency levels align with the required proficiency levels for a job, not by claiming to have the top proficiency for every competency. Higher proficiencies do not guarantee jobs.

(L)earner is a relatively new term used for those who are actively learning and earning credentials, competencies, and verifiable skills in order to seek employment. They could also be called Job Seekers and Students. 

Each Job Seeker Profile shows the competencies and proficiency levels a Job Seeker claims to have, as well as any attached evidence supporting their claims. Additionally, when compared to a job, a gap analysis is presented to identify if the Job Seeker’s current proficiency claims are above, below, or on target with the requirements of that job.

(L)earners go through a rubric-based, self-rating process based on the Core 80 for a job. For each competency in a Job Profile, (L)earners are presented with multiple descriptive statements, each relating to a level of proficiency for that competency. (L)earners select the statement that most accurately describes what they can do. They are also encouraged to attach any applicable evidence they may have as proof of their assertions.

Kibo (thicker outline)
Kibo the Purple Unicorn

Meet Kibo the Purple Unicorn!

Many organizations are searching for purple unicorns, but they can’t find them. That’s because purple unicorns don’t exist in the wild, they must be created.  Kibo represents our vision of giving people the ABILITY to ASPIRE to more than they are today.

Kibo is Japanese for “hope” and represents the belief that anyone can learn anything, given the right opportunities, time, and resources.

Our Promise

Rigor

We know that many are trying their best, but have lost their ability to aspire. We are consistent and rigorous in our approach in order to create insights and environments where possibilities of achievement become attainable. 

Transparency

We believe that transparency breeds trust. We are simple and clear in everything we do so everyone is on the same page and can progress together

Equity

Everyone deserves a seat at the table and to be treated like a human being. We treat our customers and each other with respect in order to nurture an environment of inclusion and innovation in the workplace.