Jake Schwartz is the co-founder and chief executive officer of General Assembly, a global company advancing the future of work. Jakeleads GA’s growth, creating sustainable talent pipelines for businesses, and building transparent career pathways to the most transformational work.
In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, about 33 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last seven weeks. GA has around 120 campuses globally which they had to shut down in two days and go completely online.
Today, Jake talks about how they’re disrupting the marketplace landscape and getting creative so they could be more accessible to students. It’s all about merging business excellence and education excellence!
[02:11] Their motivation for building a global organization that can support students in all different parts of their journey
[09:45] Being acquired by Adecco Group, Jake talks about the major changes happening in GA right now that it’s bigger and better.
[14:36] Jake explains the idea behind the “return on your education.” What would your first two years after graduation look like?
[21:24] How they’re changing the marketplace landscape: What corporate training at GA looks like being a value-added marketplace
[26:00] Their current payment structure (especially during this COVID-19 crisis) to make GA accessible to more people while still innovating around how to best finance it
[31:53] GA’s scaling efforts in terms of acquiring students
[36:27] Advice to people when they’re looking for bootcamps: Important questions you need to ask yourself and things you need to pay attention to
[43:20] Education is not a consumer product. What you put into it is what you get out of it.
[44:52] Jake’s thoughts on the government collaborating with different bootcamps
[50:35] The power of Meetups, connecting with your community, and creating the best narrative of where you are and where you want to get to
