YouScience's new Brightpath tool is designed to strengthen the education-to-career connection.
Way back in January of last year, I published an interview with Edson Barton. Barton is founder and chief executive of YouScience, whose mission it is to help job seekers map the correct path for their career journey. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, the company tries to take a holistic approach to helping people by taking into account one’s strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. As Barton explained to me at the time, his impetus for launching YouScience was the fact the majority of college seniors, faced with surveying the job market upon graduation, are overwhelmed by thinking about their prospective steps into the real world. Hence, Barton and team takes a guided approach to making the transition appreciably less daunting and easier to navigate.
From a disability perspective, YouScience’s service could well be considered an assistive technology, insofar as the aforementioned hand-holding can truly be comforting to someone with various neurologic conditions by alleviating much of the cognitive load. Barton is empathetic towards the disability community, telling me everyone has “talents and aptitudes” that give them the ability to contribute towards the greater good of society. He cited schools in Minnesota and Tennessee as two places who use YouScience with their respective students with disabilities.
YouScience is pushing ahead. In mid-February, the company put out a press release wherein it announced Brightpath. In the announcement, YouScience describes Brightpath as a “comprehensive education-to-career platform [that] is designed to help students prepare for academic and career success” built atop decades of research and its proprietary artificial intelligence technology.
“With Brightpath, students take advantage of a personalized analysis to better understand their aptitudes, strengths, and interests so they can make informed and intentional decisions about their future pathways,” Barton said to me earlier this month in a new interview. “Designed to cut through social and exposure biases to empower all students, Brightpath breaks down barriers of access and opportunity for students from all backgrounds. At YouScience, we believe that every student has genius, so we strive to level the playing field by reducing social, economic and exposure biases, enabling every student to fulfill their potential.”
When asked about how Brightpath fits YouScience’s ethos, Barton responded by saying Brightpath is a “necessary tool” in the company’s quest to “empower intentional individual success for every student.” Notably, Barton emphasized strongly that “helping every student” isn’t a platitude or empty bromide for YouScience; it’s ingrained as a core value. All students, regardless of their abilities or background or socioeconomic status, deserve a path towards a bright future.
“Importantly, this [prioritizing career education] must be done for every student. It is not enough to have tools that just support one segment of the population. Today, nearly all guidance and connection programs for students only serve high academic achievement students focused on going to a major university,” he said of the imperative to serve all students. “That is not okay for students, and it is not okay for our communities. Our economy needs all students to achieve. YouScience is focused on creating an equitable learning environment that supports students regardless of their background or circumstances. With Brightpath, we do this by empowering students with the knowledge and resources they need to develop meaningful paths for themselves to succeed in a rapidly changing world."
If all this talk about career prep technology sounds familiar, it should. It goes beyond YouScience. Early last month, Barton’s brethren in myKlovr founder and chief executive Gustavo Dolfino spoke to me about how his own company is on a similar path to YouScience’s. For his part, Dolfino likened myKlovr’s differentiating characteristic as being a “virtual college and career counselor.”
Technology, Barton told me, is very much simpatico with the education industry. Like a lot of people, he’s bullish on the far-flung future for generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. The potential is already there, he said, as the technology acts as a de-facto tutor in helping students “receive feedback on their work, or ask questions about topics they don’t understand.” Barton believes ChatGPT (and its ilk) is creating more personal learning experiences for students.
“We are entering an era [with generative AI tools] where engineering, agriculture science, and manufacturing systems can be taught at every high school regardless of their rural, urban, or suburban location,” he said.
As for Brightpath, Barton told me the benefits are twofold. For one thing, it helps students gain clarity on who they are—namely, they gain insights into their aptitudes. He noted research has shown aptitudes solidify during the teenage years, at around 14 years old. This knowledge, Barton said, goes a long ways towards “empowering them to take control of their future [and] helping them truly understand how the decisions they make now will influence their future.” For another, Brightpath helps educators better engage with students. More engagement, Barton explained, makes it easier for teachers and counselors to “point students to the right career [and] college paths and plan accordingly.” He added this approach ultimately aids in facilitating “more efficient” dialogue about career paths, which in turn engenders “more respect and focus from students.”
Barton pointed to a testimonial from Margaret Rice, director of career and technical education for Washougal School District in Washougal, Washington.
“The need for YouScience’s solution [in Brightpath] is critical. It helps students explore their strengths and interests, so they can make informed decisions about courses and career paths,” she said of her district’s use of the software. “YouScience provides the tools and guidance needed to identify the right path, creating enthusiasm for future opportunities while supporting educators and district leaders in achieving student success. We are delighted to collaborate with YouScience to create a holistic approach that equips our students for their future.”
As to the future of Brightpath and YouScience as a whole, Barton is highly optimistic. He said the company is focused on finding new ways for education and career help and technology to converge meaningfully. A key part of fulfilling that is doing what he called “upleveling” the user experience to make it easier to use and even more powerful. The holy grail for Barton and YouScience is “every high school student in the United States [having] access” to their software.
“The great thing about Brightpath is that it works for everyone,” Barton said of Brightpath’s promise as it moves forward and is iterated on. “While currently focused on helping students, YouScience is building connections with employers to help their workforce achieve their employment goals as well. As our economy continues to shift and the skills gap continues to widen, the need to help every worker find their most efficient path forward is becoming more and more critical. Upskilling and career guidance is needed more and more now than ever and we look forward to helping employees and employers fill those growing needs.”
