Guest blog by Joanna Beaufoy and Tom Dixon
The winner of the CareerTech Challenge, securing £120,000 for producing their job coaching tech called Bob, was announced this week.
We spoke to Joanna Beaufoy, Product Manager from Bayes Impact and Tom Dixon, Research and Project Lead, from ACH to learn more about how Bob came to be and what they have learnt along the way during the challenge prize process.
What is Bob?
Bob is an open-source job coaching technology developed by non-profit Bayes Impact, with the idea to use open data on the labour market to empower job seekers to do something about their job search. What’s different about Bob is that it doesn’t rely on matching tech, nor finding a pre-made “solution” for anyone. Instead it empowers it’s users to understand where they are in the job market and what they could actively do in their own situation, instead of simply matching them to opportunities.
To help adapt Bob to the UK and understand the needs of local job-seekers, Bayes Impact, joined up with ACH in the UK, who deliver impactful support and integration services for refugees, BAME & migrant individuals. The UK version of Bob is already showing potential, despite it only being it’s first version.
Why is Bob so important?
Bob has been used to help maximise potential for refugees and migrants, removing unconscious bias from processes, which is important for Tom Dixon, at ACH. He says: