Collaborate in Action: Practices that Strengthen Student Learning

With the updated “During Classroom” section of the “Employability Skills” program, Colabore now offers three types of activities—role-play, group case studies, and pair activities—designed based on information about your class’s aspirations, whether in the areas of work or positions in which students currently work or aspire to work in the future. This information is entered at the beginning of the class or can be edited in the “Colabore Activity Settings” tab on the homepage.

This new tool provides rich information on how students are interacting with the knowledge acquired in Colabore classes. This is because, upon completing the “activity considerations” (what we call “student reflection”) at the end of the activity led by the facilitator, the student receives feedback evaluating their response, receives a grade, and even has the opportunity to rework their reflection to achieve a grade of 3 or higher.

The next day, you, as the class facilitator, can view the completion status of the reflections and the percentage of students who received a grade of 3 or higher in their considerations. Furthermore, when accessing the module lessons, you can view each student’s activities, responses, and grades individually. This allows you to observe how they are responding, evaluate the content generated, and, from there, promote more in-depth discussions based on the class’s responses.

See how many possibilities for knowledge consolidation you have at your fingertips when using Colabore activities. In addition to streamlining your class, you save time developing complex plans or collecting data to verify how much your class is actually learning.

I’d like to conclude this article with a reflection from Antonio Damasio—Portuguese neuroscientist and author of the classic Descartes’ Error—on the relationship between emotion and learning: “We are not thinking machines that feel; we are feeling machines that think.”

The practical activities bring students’ emotions to the surface and help them better understand how they can transform their world by applying the knowledge learned in class.

To learn how to set up and use Colabore, visit this link and watch the tutorial that was prepared to help you.

Happy teaching!

Platform Updates

AI-Powered Personal Presentation Coach and Peer Connections Are This Quarter’s Highlights

Over the past few months, two major updates have been added to the Career section of the Wadhwani Foundation platform. See below how they work and what benefits they bring.

The Personal Presentation Coach is an AI-powered tool, similar in format to the well-established Interview Coach, and is designed to help students improve their opening pitch, record a video, and share it with potential recruiters. After all, it’s increasingly common for selection processes to begin with a short presentation video. There’s a great and easy-to-follow demo video on our Instagram page.

Available to all students, WF’s Personal Presentation Coach is a complete solution: it offers step-by-step guidance, includes sections to help students organize their self-presentation, and finally leads them straight to the recording screen. In this last step, the camera and mic are activated, but the student can still see their written notes on the screen, which helps reduce anxiety. Once the video is recorded, the AI generates personalized feedback, highlighting strengths and points for improvement. The video can be re-recorded as many times as needed, and once the student is satisfied, it can be shared via a link. Pretty cool, right? To access, just go to the Career tab.

The second update is the Career Peer Network — not AI-powered, but a real, human connection with young professionals who are just starting out in their careers. These are people who recently went through the same job-seeking challenges and are now ready to support other candidates.. 

When accessing the tool, students can view a list of peers and choose whom they’d like to talk to, scheduling a time for a quick chat. Matches are made based on area of interest and location, and the idea is to create an informal but useful conversation about job hunting, résumé tips, interview prep, and more.

The feature is currently available to students in the hybrid program (also in the Career tab) and can be unlocked for students in the modular program after completing at least two interview rounds using the Interview Coach.

Coffee with WF – Have You Received an Espresso, Double, or Cappuccino Invitation Yet?

Coffee with Wadhwani Foundation is a very special moment for us. It’s a space for active listening, where the teams behind the JobReady: Employability Skills program get to learn how the content and activities are actually being used in the real world.
 
Its goal is to create meaningful insights through informal and relaxed conversations — much like what you’d expect from a cozy café setting. These insights help us continuously improve our platform and the services we offer. It’s essential for us to understand if the care we put into designing this program translates into practical impact, and also to learn about both the challenges and strengths experienced during implementation. Plus, it’s a great way to keep the conversation open for feedback and new ideas.

At some point in your journey, you might get a personal invitation from someone on our team. And if you do, know that we’ll be honored and grateful to hear about your experience with our program. If you’d like to proactively reach out and schedule a sharing session, just click HERE and book your time with us.

Did You Know Wadhwani Foundation Is Rolling Out New Certificate Models and Policies?

Learn what’s new and how it affects our students.

Wadhwani Foundation has introduced a new certification policy for the JobReady: Employability Skills program. The update creates a distinction between students who complete the full program — that is, the platform lessons plus the reflection activities in the Colabore space — and those who complete only the platform content.

From now on, students who achieve a score of 70% or higher on assessments and complete at least 70% of the Colabore reflections will receive the Advanced Certificate of Completion. This version recognizes active engagement in both the platform and in-person activities, representing the full experience of the program.

Students who meet the assessment score but do not complete the required number of reflections will still receive a certificate — the Basic Certificate of Completion.

For partner institutions, nothing changes in terms of how the program is delivered. Students who meet the assessment criteria will continue to receive certificates automatically. The micro-certificates also remain the same. The only change applies to the final certificate model of the Employability Skills program.

Both certificates — Basic and Advanced — confirm that the participant has acquired essential knowledge related to employability.

 

Enhancing Collaborate Classes with the Wadhwani Foundation’s Learning Platform Tools

The main objective of Collaborate classes is to develop students’ social-emotional and employability skills. Incorporating digital tools that provide hands-on experiences can transform these classes into more dynamic, interactive, and effective environments. The Wadhwani Foundation’s learning platform offers resources that, when used pedagogically, can significantly complement and enrich teaching practices.

1. Personal Presentation Coach

The Personal Presentation Coach allows students to practice self-presentation for job interviews, receiving instant feedback from artificial intelligence on clarity, confidence, and preparedness.

How to use it in class:

• Propose activities in which students introduce themselves and their professional experiences and goals.
• Use the AI ​​feedback as a starting point for group discussions on verbal communication and body language.
• Encourage students to self-assess and track their progress over time, strengthening their reflection on their skills.

2. Interview Coach

Interview Coach offers simulated job interviews with response assessments, helping students improve their speaking, confidence, and preparation.

How to use in class:

• Organize role-playing sessions, where each student goes through a simulated interview.
• Analyze AI feedback in groups, discussing improvement strategies and examples of more assertive responses.
• Encourage students to identify strengths and areas for development, connecting theory and practice in a concrete way.

3. Career Buddy

Career Buddy connects students with alumni who have experienced similar selection processes, offering support and insights into the job market.

How to use in class:

• Stimulate discussions about professional paths and challenges faced, bringing the content closer to the market reality.
• Promote reflections on networking and building professional relationships and strengthening social skills

4. Employability Skills Community

The Community is a discussion forum where students can interact, share experiences, articles, and create their own topics.

How to use it in class:

• Encourage students to post reflections on activities carried out in Colabore classes.
• Stimulate discussions on relevant employability topics, allowing students to learn from each other.
• Use student-created topics as a basis for classroom discussions, connecting theory, practice, and collaboration.

Benefits for teaching

Integrating these tools into Colabore classes allows you to:

• Transform learning into a practical and meaningful experience.
• Provide instant and personalized feedback, expanding students’ reflection on their skills.
• Promote collaboration between students and alumni, strengthening social learning.
• Create a continuous learning cycle, connecting practice, feedback, and reflection, essential pillars for employability.

By adopting these tools, teachers not only monitor students’ progress but also transform the classroom into an active, connected environment, prepared for the challenges of the job market.

Have You Heard of TRAMPOlim?

An initiative by the São Paulo Government offering free courses and job listings — and WF is part of it!

The AI-powered tools and skill-building courses from Wadhwani Foundation are now also available on the Trampolim Platform, an initiative by the São Paulo State Department of Economic Development that connects knowledge and technology to thousands of real job opportunities.

The program was officially launched in July, during an exclusive ceremony with special guests — including Wadhwani Foundation representatives.

Our participation in Trampolim reinforces our commitment to preparing talent for the future of work, expanding our program’s reach and creating even more opportunities for young people and adults seeking employability.

On the free platform — within the “Vitrine de Qualificação”— users can already access our modular employability courses and practice with the AI Interview Coach, preparing in a hands-on way to secure job opportunities.

In addition to WF content, the Trampolim platform features thousands of job listings and free vocational courses across different fields and regions of the state. The platform serves everyone from first-job seekers to those looking for a professional reboot — always focused on bridging the gap between candidates and employers.

To explore all available courses and job offers, visit https://www.trampolim.sp.gov.br/.

Login is through the gov.br system.

Career Buddy: New resource for connecting young professionals and students

Who hasn’t wished for a friendly shoulder to lean on about the challenges of entering the job market? With this in mind, the Wadhwani Foundation launched the Career Buddy initiative in June to offer even more support to students in the Skills for Employability program.

Career Buddy are young professionals with up to five years of professional experience in various fields—from UX design to dance!—who will have one-on-one online conversations with students who complete more than 70% of the program or who complete at least two full sessions in the Interview Coach or Personal Presentation Coach. This voluntary work by Career Buddy reflects the importance of creating spaces for exchanging experiences in young people’s professional journeys, as they will discuss topics that can cause anxiety or insecurity, such as resume writing, job searches, preparing for job interviews, and the first days in the workplace.

The Career Buddy program aims to provide students with another source of personalized support throughout their professional development, allowing them to rely on a friendly shoulder to lean on for questions or inspiration. As they progress through the program, the resource will be unlocked and they can schedule individual conversation sessions lasting up to 40 minutes with the most compatible Colleagues. The platform itself will indicate which Colleagues have the greatest affinity with the student to ensure a positive experience.

Career Buddys have received training from our Community Specialist, Érica Azzellini, to ensure they always conduct sessions with students with active listening and a proactive approach. Colleagues are motivated by making a difference, and almost all reported that at some point in their journeys, they had someone who offered them advice that made all the difference, and therefore feel it’s time to give back.

Facilitator, be sure to mention this newest resource from the Wadhwani Foundation in class to support students on their professional journey.