The Georgia Department of Education and the Technical College System of Georgia have entered into a new partnership with YouScience, a one-of-a-kind career guidance platform that helps students better understand their natural abilities, broaden awareness of career opportunities, and make more informed decisions about their individual pathway from school to career.

The YouScience platform will be available to all Georgia public high school students in the 2017-2018 school year.

“Every day we work to recruit more companies to Georgia and advance our existing businesses by growing a workforce that is second to none,” said Lt. Governor Casey Cagle. “Our schools have to embrace the importance of skills, free enterprise and industry – instilling in each student the value, dignity and respect that is earned with honest work. I am excited about the opportunities YouScience will offer our students as they align their talents with the industries of our future.”

In 2016, Georgia completed a YouScience pilot program with more than 11,400 high school students. The pilot uncovered a significantly broader and more diverse talent pool than previously identified through interest-only career surveys.  To learn more about the 2016 pilot results, click here to view GOSA report.

“Georgia’s education system has greatly expanded the curriculum and skills development opportunities available to our students,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “By providing YouScience, we will help students make more informed career and education decisions earlier, allowing them to select an educational path that aligns with their natural abilities and interests.”

YouScience CEO Philip Hardin added, “The YouScience results in the Georgia pilot showed that, while there may be a skills gap for certain key industries, there is not a talent gap. The students of Georgia have the natural abilities to satisfy the economic demands of Georgia’s growing economy. In fact, the pilot found almost two times more students have the aptitude for careers in computer technology, and nine times more young women have the aptitude or natural ability for architecture and engineering careers than identified using traditional interest surveys. There is tremendous talent pool in Georgia, and YouScience helps uncover and leverage that talent.”

For too long, students have faced a lack of information on their real career options, resulting in poor education and career choices, limited postsecondary completion, and too much debt.

“We ask our students to pick a career pathway; however, we do that without providing the equivalent of a map or a compass,” explained State Senator Lindsey Tippins, who chairs the Senate Education and Youth Committee. “YouScience gives students a roadmap to make more informed decisions. From a public policy standpoint, I supported YouScience from the beginning, because it clearly empowers the students.”

Commissioner of Technical College System of Georgia Gretchen Corbin said, “Georgia’s 22 technical colleges are more integrated than ever with the state’s high schools through the dual enrollment program and look forward to engaging with high school students even more to help them achieve their desired path to success.”

Unlike traditional self-reported, interest-based career tools, YouScience is the only system that employs decades of rigorous scientific research to measure students’ aptitudes through a series of engaging “brain games.” The YouScience patent-pending technology combines cutting-edge matching algorithms with the most reliable and comprehensive career data, providing each student with a highly-personalized online profile that highlights the intersection of his or her unique talents, passions and opportunities.