 I think you're muted. We can't hear you. Okay. Sorry. Hi everyone. My name is Amber. I am the admissions coordinator here at Climb Higher and I am also a cohort two alum. We are beginning to start our fifth cohort this September and I'm excited to let you guys know all about what we do at Climb Higher and how you can become a part of that. So give me a second to share my screen. Can you guys all hear me just fine? Yes. Okay. So at Climb Higher we train diverse and determined talent to break into new careers. We used to say into tech but we are finding that climbers are getting careers in all sorts of fields. I didn't skip that far. Sorry guys. All right. So about Climb Higher. Climb Higher is a non-profit organization founded by social entrepreneur Neaton Pellman in 2019. Neaton had worked for the Department of Education in New York and also went on to work for LinkedIn and it was at LinkedIn that Neaton discovered that nine and 10 jobs don't make it to be posted in the job market. They're filled by internal revenue. So I mean internal referrals. So this proves that it is who you know and what social capital that you have that lands you in the jobs that you are seeking. Our approach to success is to prepare working adults employed in minimal wage gig economy jobs into fulfilling financially stable careers. And we do this by having a curriculum that covers over 150 hours of network building, technical training and professional development instruction. So when separate Climb Higher from other accelerated training programs we consider ourselves a community and not a class. And what this looks like is in each cohort climbers establish a culture that builds community. And we do that in so many different ways. We start off trying to build as much homophily as we can figuring out what we have in common when we don't. We also set a list of agreements based off of the cohort. So in that cohort you all will have community agreements that you go by. They're not set each cohort at the same standard. It's based off of the climbers in that cohort. And that culture is also established through the way that you guys communicate and connect with each other. We understand the importance of building relationships and professional connections. So climbers are provided opportunities to network with professionals in the industry. And they do this in two different ways. One is a volunteer event where that professional is there to help you and volunteer their expertise or their experience for your professional development. And then another half of those events are social capital cocktail hours where it's literally just a casual meet and you get to ask all the questions, ask the way at how people got into their fields. And just an excuse to kind of like get a mentor or gain that professional network. We also have this pay-it-forward model. So the program costs nothing upfront. You literally don't pay anything until you have gotten a job making more than a livable wage. And that is when you will pay monthly payments back for the next climber. And paying it forward is kind of like no one comes in paying anything, but they make sure that they pay something so that the next person can also have that opportunity. So we offered two different career tracks. The first one, which was the one that the organization was founded on, is Salesforce Administrator. This is a 24-week program ideal for analytical detail-oriented problem solvers. General work experience is helpful, but nothing specific is required. These are for people who are into breaking into the text field and really, really curious, really tech curious. And I would say like bare minimum at tech savvy. I came in through the Salesforce admin program. I'm not the most tech savvy. I do have my nine-year-old son that teaches me little things all the time, but I knew a little bit enough to move through the program and become a Salesforce administrator. And then we also have the tech sales customer experience track in partnership with better.com. This is a 16-week program ideal for self-starters who solve problems through communication and providing delightful customer experiences. Customer experience is preferred because this is a customer-facing role. And I'm going to go a bit more deep into those different paths. So first, I'm going to start with our better.com partnership. So a little background on why we chose this partnership is in our second and third cohort. We got a lot of climbers who got hired by better.com. And they were so amazed by the talent that we gave them that it was their idea that since they needed to fill over 100 jobs that we kind of do this on its own track for better.com facing jobs. So about better.com, it's a home ownership startup founded in 2019. It digitizes the mortgage lending process through proprietary technology. Home ownership is made more efficient and accessible to all. This process illuminates commission's fees and necessary steps in time-wasting appointments. We are just starting this cohort this week, actually. It's kind of exciting. But anyone who applies after today will be considered for our second cohort, which is scheduled to start sometime in either October or November. So why we decided to partner with better, we have a goal at ClimbHire to provide opportunities for economic mobility. And this partnership helps us achieve this by supplementing the customer interaction skills that most working adults already have. The emphasis shift from having a job to growing a stable career in the financial technology sector is a huge goal of ours. By prioritizing learning, climbers are given opportunities to center themselves in fulfilling roles with the potential for growth. And we've already had quite a few climbers that have been on the job at better who are already looking to go further with the company. So this is kind of like a stepping stone position as well. Our customer experience cohort. So the time commitment, like I mentioned before, 16 weeks. There's two sessions each week on Monday and Wednesday nights. The class format for both tracks, I want to point out, is alternates between discussion in the webinar and then role playing and project-based learning in a live virtual Zoom classroom. The curriculum is balanced content featuring development and professional skills, client success skills, learning office tools and technology, and the introduction to mortgage lending. And as I mentioned, we have professional networking opportunities. So we do the volunteer and social capital events to build and strengthen professional networks with hundreds of tech professionals. Technical curriculum. So like I mentioned, you get that intro to learning mortgage lending content. You become more fluent in terminology, concepts and practices commonly used in the mortgage lending industry. The productivity skills are like the productivity and office tools and technology that improve efficiency in the workplace and daily tasks, like scheduling, emailing, internal communications. And then you develop client success skills. Now for me, this really looks like just sharpening those customer service skills that a lot of people come to the program with experience in. You understand the best practices about how to listen critically, summarize client concerns, de-escalate the problem, and problem solve creatively and communicate effectively. So what happens when the program end is like I mentioned, better is trying to fill a bunch of jobs. So once you successfully complete the program, you'll be prepared to interview for role with better and other similar companies. So I'm going to speak to the Bay Area right now as long as you are 50 to 75 miles from the Oakland office, you are guaranteed interviews with better. And the potential roles are customer experience associate, processing expert associate, home advisor, and customer care expert. And now I'm going to talk about the Salesforce administrator program. So a little bit about Salesforce, it's the world's number one customer relationship management platform. The Salesforce cloud computing optimizes I mean, Salesforce optimizes cloud computing. So organizations and companies can access their marketing, sales, commerce, service, and IT teams from anywhere on the cloud. Now, Salesforce is not just limited to those things I just named, those are just like the big uses for Salesforce. But we are noticing that nonprofits use Salesforce, real estate companies use Salesforce. The health and medical field is using Salesforce. So there's so many different needs for this software and this is exactly why we went with this as our first career track just because there are so many Salesforce jobs out there. So we do have a partnership with Salesforce. Our key at ClimbHires provide participants opportunities for economic mobility, the emphasis shifts from having a job to enjoying a stable career. Our partnership with Salesforce helps us achieve this by allowing climbers to learn the fundamentals of Salesforce in demand and growing administrative capabilities. We do this by prioritizing learning climbers are given opportunities to center themselves in fulfilling roles with the potential for growth. And later on, I'll talk about our partnerships because Salesforce actually hands us over their clients and then their clients is what we, our partnership with their clients is how we get climbers jobs. So our Salesforce administrative cohort has a time commitment of 24 weeks. Climbers meet for six hours of class, two days a week. And climbers typically spend a minimum of 10 hours outside of class on assignments, the class format, the same practice role play and project based work in a live virtual classroom. The curriculum consists of Salesforce technical skills, soft skills, and those soft skills include interviewing skills, elevator pitches, resume writing, utilizing LinkedIn effectively, communication skills, and the use of productivity tools. And we also offer those same professional networking opportunities to volunteer events and also the social capital cocktail hours. So for both tracks, the professional development that we, that we, the professional development that we use is enhancing people's resume skills through revision. Editing a resume that catches the eye of hiring managers by passing through ATS is a big deal. It is something that I didn't realize until I got into this program why my resume, why, why I didn't get anything, I didn't hear anything back from employers who I submitted a resume with. And this is because companies are using ATS. There is no longer a human that is looking over every application and resume, it's actually going through a system that is flagging it. So this is a big, big deal for people who are trying to, who may have all of the skills and all of the skills and all of the history or background, job history or background, but are finding it hard to actually land a call back. Understanding how to interview effectively. So we do this reflecting on your personal experiences and work history by delivering concise, effective star stories, which is situation tasks, action, result. This again was something that I didn't realize that I may have been bombing interviews because I never really sat down and reflected on some of these scenarios that they may ask me and having a reference of my work history and the situation tasks actually result that they needed to hear in order to feel like they can be confident with me in that role. We also practice together. So we compose stories and practice telling them out loud. The most common question that you'll hear when in an interview is, so tell me about yourself. And that story right there sets the first impression. So we spend time throughout both cohorts, perfecting our stories and how we carry our narrative. And then building our network. So we expand our network by building meaningful collections with connections with fellow climbers, climb higher staff, and better staff. Also, we have, we build our network through the social capital opportunities that are given in the program. And 80% of our first and second cohorts secure jobs that increase their income by two to three times. And this is all through being part of, this is all from the result of being part of a community where everyone is leaning on each other, building meaningful relationships, keeping in touch. Some climbers have gotten other climbers enrolled at their jobs. And it goes back to needs on, you know, learning that most jobs are acquired through social capital. So you kind of having those goals of getting into a certain career field or increasing your income also relies on having a network that can support those goals. So I want to talk about our fellows. Our climb higher fellows are our alum who service peer educators, mentors and coaches. If you look at this picture on the far right on the top, Jesse is our fellow in this pod in cohort you will be in pods. And so each pod is assigned a fellow. And Jesse from our, from our first cohort is the fellow in this, I mean, is a fellow in this pod. This is what it will look like once you are out of the discussion piece, the webinar portion of the program, and your fellow will be responsible for helping you understand the information, kind of going over things, mentoring you through the course of the program, and coaching you when you're ready to start interviewing. Our alumni also act as a community of support and belonging. So what this looks like is well after cohort, the alumni still keep in touch, we have monthly events. We also are on a Slack channel within the organization where we post leads, we start discussions, you know, one of the things that helped me get through this position and just taking on my first professional role was that I had this network of support of people who were also beginning their first job or maybe this wasn't their first job but they haven't been in a professional setting in so long. And we kind of, you know, you rely on each other to get through certain adjustments. So paying it forward, what does it mean to pay it forward? So after climbers secure a job making within a livable wage, that is when they'll be required to pay it forward to the next cohort. You'll do this in installments of $150 a month for 36 months to cover the total persistent costs. I believe that this slide is reflecting for better.com. So the participant costs for better.com is $5,400. And then the participant costs for Salesforce is $7,200. Now there are ways to reduce your total participant cost. The first is serving as a fellow for the next cohort. Each track has their own amount for the credit that you can apply to your pay it forward balance. And it's usually almost half of what the participant cost is. And then another way is to opt out of the weekly $75 stipend. During the cohort climbers receive a $75 stipend to use for anything of their choice. And so that's about $300 a month. You can just opt out of receiving that stipend and add it to your participant cost to make your participant cost go down. And then you can also reduce the balance by referring people to the program. So we do do referral incentives for people who pass the information on and get people that they know to join the program. And I can ask any additional questions on paying it forward because I know that is one that people have so many questions on. So these are metrics. This is, you know, how successful we have been. So the average salary coming into the program is about $24K. And then the average salary in new jobs is 66K. That's a huge jump. 80% of climbers have secured jobs that increase their income by two to three times what they were making before within six months of the program ending. And 100% of these are done through interns and contract hires that are 100% of our climbers have been converted to full-time employees ahead of their schedule. So I know that I have a few people who were in my cohort. Their contract or internship was probably set for a year. And then they got offered nine months down, six months down, a full-time position. In this slide, you'll see our alum. And underneath their name, you'll see their former position. And then below that, you'll see their current position. And as you can see, there are a variety of roles that our alumni have landed in, not just a Salesforce admin. Because I just was so sure when I got into this program, I was going to be a Salesforce admin. And then I was like, hmm, but I don't know if I want to be an admin, but I can use the knowledge that I have from obtaining my cert. And so Andrew, he was a nursing assistant. Now he's a Salesforce consultant with poll source. He's doing very well there, I might add. Corinne was a family assistant. Now she's a marketing associate at Better Up. Cassiana was a groundskeeper. Now he's a Salesforce admin at Bitwise. Lonnie was a dancer. And I believe she also taught dance to children. And now she's a software engineering apprentice at Blue Wolf, which is the IBM company. Kevin was a food service worker at the LinkedIn building. And now he's a finance intern at Better Up. Kevin and Lucy, they're now at TPG, which is like one of the largest global investment funds. And Lucy is an analyst there before she was a personal care assistant in the medical field. And Kevin was a legal office loader, and now he's a service operations intern. Chris was a customer service associate, and now he's a processing expert associate at Better.com. Earl was a health specialist, and now he is a processing expert associate at Better.com. So the variety of different roles is just phenomenal. Susanda is a program assistant with a nonprofit called Co-Created. Before she was an au pair, she came to this country for that purpose. And then you have Megan who was a Marisa. Now she's an operations manager with the Resolve Group, which is a real estate company. 80% of our climbers are now employed by these partners. You'll see here we have a lot more partnerships than that's listed. Actually, I want to add. And then below that you'll see who our funders are. And now I'm going to open the floor to questions. If you need me to, I can go back to a slide so that you can get more insight on something that you seen. I don't see any question in the chat yet. But Amber, I do have a question for you. What is your, what is the biggest challenge for you getting through the program? So a little background about me. I am a single mom. And at the time that I started ClimbHire, I was working for the U.S. Postal Service full-time career employee. So I had a nine of five, very demanding nine of five during the pandemic. And also I had a child who we all know distance learning was a lot on the children. And so I had to balance the time, the amount of time that was required to get through the assignments. So the assignments are broken off into two types. You have the soft skill assignments. And then you have the actual technical homework that has to do with the academic track. And so for me, it was like Salesforce sometimes can take some hours to get through. That's why I said there's a minimum of 10 hours that you will spend outside of class on the assignments. And that's more so for Salesforce than it is the soft skills assignments. So some weeks it was hard when you have something like a super badge to do in Trailhead, which has no instructions because once you get to the point where you're doing a super badge, you are implementing the best standard practices based off of previous modules and work that you've done. So managing your time is very important, like prioritizing your time and staying on top of assignments because it is an accelerated program after all. And you can't fall too behind, like you can't miss too many classes, you can't miss too many assignments. Do you mind telling us what how many times it would take for most people to take the Salesforce admin exam in order to pass one try or more than one. So, so actually, I would say on the average, two tries, we do have people who pass on the first try. Those people are extraordinary. Okay, but most people fail on the first attempt. You have people who work for Salesforce who will tell you like, Oh, I felt two times, I felt three times. I felt the first one, I was super bummed. I fell by two questions. And instead of like sitting in that sadness for too long, I decided, okay, I'm going to take this exam again another five days. And I pass on the second attempt with a really great score. But at the same time, the way that my madness was not normal to pass. But I would say like, on the average, people will people would pass within the second or third attempt. I wouldn't discourage anyone because they didn't pass on the first attempt to just throw it all away. Just because it is a really hard exam. And then also multiple choice is already complicated in itself, not everyone has the ability to test multiple to test well in multiple choice. So the format of the exam is they're giving you questions based off of scenarios. And then they give you multiple choice options to for the solution or the information to the scenario. And you have to choose what applies. And so you kind of have to know the best standard practices and know the ins and outs of each topic. So it's really like the steady plan, the steady plan and the strategy that you have will be will will come in handy. Thank you. Oh, I see one question in chat. The question is, I already am a Salesforce admin certified, but need help to get a job. Is it possible with climb higher? So yes, we are starting to take on applicants who are already certified with the understanding that they will do some of the things that they may have not done. So like, say you're already certified, but you have no super badges, we will have you do those super badges and also participate in the capstone project. And then you would also like do the soft skill assignments because that's the part that you need the most help with is actually landing a job. And so here at climb higher, we are becoming more flexible about helping people who are already certified because we're seeing that it's so easy to go and get the cert by yourself, but it's not easy landing the job without demonstrated experience already. So can this participant contact you if they want to join? Oh, yes. He asked another question. How does he, how can they apply then? Since he already, oh, okay, you type in the website address. That's great. Okay. Don't see another question in the chat. Yeah. If anyone has questions for Ember, you can put it in the chat or you can raise your hand and I can unmute you. Ember, I know that the Salesforce admin program is 24 weeks. Say for example, I didn't pass the exam and I, you know, I'm taking it the second time. Will I continue to be able to get support from climb higher? Very great question. So during the cohort, we do have base camp and base camp is for those who may feel like they need additional support. We do the weekend sessions where people actually go over the focus and force exam prep and going over the questions and then say cohort is ended and you failed on the exam. You will still have support in base camp or boot camp to help you for either part, either part, either the soft skills or the technical skills. So if you're bombing at passing the exam, you can go to base camp for the exam. And then if you need help because you're going on interviews and you don't feel like you're doing well, then you can get additional help for that as well. And we also have climbers now take the ERS and put together a job search portfolio because this demonstrates where you're at as far as like being ready for going on an interview, being ready to be considered for either interviews with our partnerships or your jobs, your independent job search outside of us helping you live for roles. Thank you, Amber. A question about pay it forward. Say, after I finished the program, I found a job, a good paying job, but say I have a family to race, I cannot afford, you know, paying $150 a month. What can I do? So for the pay it forward. That is, that is something that some of the ins and outs of that are still changing, especially as cost of living changes. So currently right now, making a livable wage based off of your region, we're still hashing out family size because for example, for me, although the livable wage where I currently live is about let's say 60 K or so or maybe around 60 K. If you add in family size that increases, but unfortunately, jobs are in hiring you based off of livable weight, then they're not offering you salaries based off of livable wage. So it's kind of a case by case thing for us here at ClimbHire. That's something that the CEO and the director will have to kind of like bring to the board. If you, like I said, like if you make below livable wage, we're not even asking you to pay. But once you make over 60 K, you are expected. Now, if your question is if someone has like a family of four, and they're the only income for that family of four, that will be something that they take up with the CEO and the board if they honestly cannot pay. But we don't, sorry, we don't generally have people paying unless they're in a position to pay. I'm sorry if I couldn't answer your question completely. This is really a hypothetical question because I know that, oh, even if we're making 60,000 a year in Bay Area, it's not actually livable. It's really tough. Yeah. No, I know that. Especially if you're family here. Or family, you know, and we haven't had, and see that that's all the reason why I also can't answer that question fully is because we actually haven't had that many single, single parent families. So we haven't ran into that dynamic where a climber has just this one income and they're not in the position to give $150 a month. We haven't fell into that because most people who have children are in two parent homes. That's true. They have a second income. Yeah. Yeah, like a second income makes a total difference. So it's one of those case by case standards. We have started to work on an initiative for single parents. But like I said, we haven't had too many people come in who are single parents who couldn't pay. Let's see. I don't see another question in the chat. Anyone, if you have a question, please put it in the chat or you can raise your hand. I can unmute you and you can. Oh, I see another question. Is there age limit to apply? I see 23 to 33 years. We have expanded that age limit. If you see it on the website, thank you for letting me know so I can have that changed. Currently right now, we are doing 22 to 38. I would encourage you to still apply because I'm the one who approved applications anyway. So just apply. And then I'll reach out to you and also reach out to my management as well. Thank you, Amber. I don't see a question in the chat. But Amber, if participants have question after today's presentation, will you welcome them to email you directly? Yes, I'm placing that in the chat. Okay, thank you. We also offer information sessions. It'll be somewhat like this presentation that I gave you, but for a certain track, it'll be more detailed information. So you can also go to the website and schedule the information session based off of those tracks. In addition to our salesforceandbetter.com, we are also launching two new tracks in the new year. So in the new year, we will then be offering Google Project Management and also a partnership with Fidelity. Thank you, Amber. We really appreciate you taking the time to share with us about ClimbHire and your experience as a climber. And thank you everybody for joining the program. I hope you find the presentation informative and helpful to you. We'll send out an evaluation survey together with the link to Amber's presentation and today's recording. Please give us your feedback so we can continue to improve. Again, thank you everybody and have a wonderful rest of your day. Bye-bye now. Bye.