Data Dive
An increasing share of restaurant worker income comes from tips (Square Payroll Index, 2024): The restaurant industry is about 10% of the total U.S. workforce, and the majority of its 12.4M workers rely on tips for significant income. These tips are becoming a larger share of restaurant worker income, but they are also more volatile due to changing consumer behavior and economic downturns.
This week’s featured startup
Ratio Labs (Tasneem Nabi, Founder): We are an AI software agency that helps companies build AI products and AI automations to spend less time on manual repetitive work and spend more time on work that matters to your company.
Investment
Hyderabad-based Bhanzu raises USD 16.5M to expand India’s premier math platform globally (Online News 9): Bhanzu courses make math interactive and relatable by connecting it to real-life situations, helping students see math as a useful skill for both academics and everyday problem-solving.
AI-powered learning platform Learntube secures seed funding from global investors (Startup Story Media): Part of the inaugural cohort of the ‘Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First’ program, LearnTube transforms online content, particularly from YouTube, into structured, bite-sized courses.
Amboss acquires Novaheal to strengthen its position in the German nursing market (Tech.eu): Novaheal offers hands-on learning materials, detailed training modules, and personalized learning paths, helping trainees become well-qualified healthcare professionals.
Stepful raises $31.5M to address healthcare staffing shortage with AI-powered training (TechCrunch): It began with a vision: amidst a significant shortage of medical assistants (a recession-proofm career with provided attractive pay and benefits), the founder wondered if he could help cleaners become medical assistants.
Conduction Secures Funding to Expand Music Education (EdTech Innovation Hub): Millions of students lack access to music and arts education, with many schools suffering from limited budgets and outdated curricula. Conduction addresses this need by enabling students to produce digital songs, and coordinate with local musicians to perform and record them.
JobGet Acquires Snagajob (FinSMEs): With brand partners such as Starbucks, Lowe’s, Amazon and Lyft, Snagajob provides a platform focused on hourly employment, connecting 45M job seekers with tens of thousands of employers.
Resources
America at Work: A National Mosaic and Roadmap for Tomorrow (National Association of Counties): This ambitious project studies the economic and labor contexts of counties and identifies eight county archetypes, to support county leaders as they prepare their communities for evolving technologies and the rise of automation.
YouScience Releases New Workforce Report to Address Talent Pipeline Crisis (PR Newswire): Emerging insights about employers’ training investments, demand for school partnerships, skill gaps and more.
Opportunities
Ontario investing over $74 million through next round of Skills Development Fund Capital Stream (Government of Ontario): Since launching the Skills Development Fund in 2021, Ontario is building training facilities and providing training programs projected to support over 1M workers across the province.
In the news
A Trend Colleges Might Not Want Applicants to Notice: It’s Becoming Easier to Get In (Hechinger Report): After a period of increasing competition to get into college since the turn of the millennium, median acceptance rates at universities and colleges was 7.6 percentage points higher in 2022 than in 2012.
USC announces cohort seven of its Edtech Accelerator (USC Rossier): The EdTech Accelerator is fully virtual, does not charge tuition or take equity in participating companies, or require that entrepreneurs relocate — making it accessible to all entrepreneurs irrespective of the ability to pay.
Entry-level Workers Less Prepared for Work Than Five Years Ago According to General Assembly Study (Business Wire): Most notably, 49% of executives cite a lack of soft skills as the top reason entry-level workers seem unprepared for the workforce, and 40% of Gen Z respondents agreed.
Trump abolishing Education Department may hurt students with disabilities (Chalkbeat): Students with disabilities could get less attention without an education secretary calling attention to their needs. Eliminating the department could also jeopardize data collection and research about students with disabilities.
The Myth of Meritocracy in College Admissions (The Atlantic): David Brooks: “If we can orient our meritocracy around a definition of human ability that takes more account of traits like motivation, generosity, sensitivity, and passion, then our schools, families, and workplaces will readjust in fundamental ways.”
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