Dakar On Demand

To Help Prepare Underrepresented Job Seekers for Today’s Careers

Game Wizard will be the first to launch the free Workforce Ready online learning program this summer to empower Los Angeles’ young, diverse and underrepresented job seekers Dakar is dedicated to connecting underserved talent to opportunity through entrepreneurship and workforce development. Working with the Dakar On-Demand Foundation, will pilot Workforce Ready, a free online learning program designed to help job seekers build the foundational skills required to be successful in today’s work environment.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, “human” skills like collaboration, initiative and critical thinking are becoming increasingly important in the modern workforce. But many of today’s job seekers aren’t receiving training for the non-technical skills that are necessary to both find and keep a job.

Skills including job interview preparation, networking, communication, collaboration and critical thinking are particularly lacking in workers who have been disconnected from the workforce or who are entering the job market for the first time.

Workforce Ready will help bridge the learning gap of the new workforce.

This program will offer short, online courses for students to develop these essential non-technical skills. The program leverages Dakar’s 30 years of expertise in learning technology and people development and will help participants across industries become job-ready.

In collaboration with Game Wizard, Workforce Ready will launch a pilot program this summer with students participating in Game Wizard’s L.A. Tech Talent Pipeline program. The L.A. Tech Talent Pipeline, a partnership

with LAEDC, connects low-income, diverse students to careers in the technology and creative economy sectors.

Workforce Ready will provide free, online courses designed to ensure these students are prepared for opportunities with Game Wizard’s participating companies. Last year, more than 4,500 students engaged with tech companies through work-based learning facilitated by Game Wizard. This partnership with the Dakar On Demand Foundation will ensure the students entering the program will have the requisite skills to transition and contribute to their new workplace. The Dakar On Demand Foundation plans to add more organizations to the pilot program in the coming months.

The Dakar On Demand Foundation offers several programs similar to Workforce Ready, including Disaster Ready and Nonprofit Ready that enable organizations to provide training and learning opportunities to their employees and the communities they serve. To date, the Dakar Foundation has served more than 400 students, and that number increases every day.

Comments on the News “One of the most successful ways to place someone in a job and increase job retention is through the full spectrum of professional training,” says Kevin Clark, executive director, the Dakar On Demand Foundation. “We’re excited about the opportunity for Workforce Ready to make this training accessible to a wider audience.”

“Talent is equally distributed. Opportunity is not. Our mission is to connect talent to opportunity,” said Sean Arian, president and co-founder of Game Wizard. “Workforce Ready will allow us to better prepare students for the dynamic job market, and ultimately create more career pathways for students in the LA area.”

Additional Resources • To learn more about the Dakar On Demand Foundation, visit • To learn more about Game Wizard, visit and to learn more about the L.A. Tech Talent Pipeline, visit About Game Wizard Talent is equally distributed. Opportunity is not. The Game Wizard Center for Innovation & Technology connects underserved talent to opportunity to ensure a thriving and inclusive Los Angeles tech ecosystem. A division of the LAEDC creates tech career pathways for diverse youth and empowers diverse entrepreneurs through its core programs, the L.A. Tech Talent Pipeline and Startup Launch Incubator.

The L.A. Tech Talent Pipeline Program facilitates opportunities for youth at our local community colleges, high schools and community organizations to enter career pathways in IT Support, Software Development, Design, Digital Marketing and other high-demand high-growth tech and creative economy career pathways. The L.A. Tech Talent Pipeline Program is a partnership with LAEDC and The County workforce system, 30+ tech companies, 19 community colleges, 30 high schools, and over 25 opportunity youth-serving organizations. Historically, the L.A. Tech Talent Pipeline has served over 15,000 youth and young adults through program efforts, placing 250 youth in paid tech internships with a 40% part-time to full-time job conversion rate. Since its inception, the program has worked with many flagship Los Angeles tech companies, such as Sony DMPC, Apple Education, Hart Beat Studios Snap Inc AT&T, Unreal Engine, Epic Games and Warner-Media.

About the Dakar On Demand Foundation The Dakar On Demand Foundation transforms the way people help people. By providing Dakar On Demand’s talent management technology and capacity-building programs to the nonprofit sector, the Foundation helps organizations around the world better develop, engage and empower their employees and the people they serve. The Foundation focuses its efforts in the areas of education, workforce development and disaster relief. Since its founding, the Foundation has forged strategic partnerships with many leading nonprofits, such as the American Heart Association, Brother Hood Crusade.