“Multiverse at its core is building an outstanding alternative to college and corporate training. We see apprenticeships as the best way to achieve this mission. For us apprenticeships combine full-time employment with applied on-the job-training that really works backwards from the needs of employers,” says Sophie Ruddock, vice president and general manager for North America, Multiverse. “We’re operating in a space where we’re tackling huge skills challenges around software engineering, data analytics, digital marketing, which is really the number one issue on every single executive’s plate.”
“The other challenge that we’re looking to address is that of diversity. We do that by really democratizing access to the best careers by finding high potential individuals without a four-year college degree, matching them to employers, and then training them up on the job.”
Ruddock explains that Multiverse’s apprentices are placed in jobs after a rigorous vetting process. Additionally, their online learning is taught by instructors with industry experience.
She adds that what most excites her is the community that Multiverse builds for its apprentices. “This is how we build that really outstanding alternative to college and corporate training. That involves speakers from the Fortune 500, government officials, office hours at Harvard Business School so that our apprentices are not only developing their skills, but also developing as individuals, as leaders, and the social capital that it will take to truly progress to the boardroom.”
Ruddock says Multiverse is working hard to level the playing field, “What we see is about 55% of our apprentices are people of color. Over half are women and a third are from the most economically under-resourced communities. That is the same at the top of the funnel for those applying to those that get placed all the way through to those who then complete our apprenticeships and stay on.”
Click here to learn more about Multiverse.
WorkingNation—a collaborating partner of the ASU+GSV Summit—sat down with Ruddock in San Diego as part of our #WorkingNationOverheard social media series.
Hear from more innovators in education and tech in the public, private, and nonprofit spheres attending the ASU+GSV Summit 2021 here.
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
