Soft skills and middle-skills gaming app company skillsgapp has hired Jennie Montgomery as its People Engagement & Experience Manager. The new position acts as a liaison to help youth (middle- to high-school aged) explore potential post-secondary career pathways and industries, helps ensure that skillsgapp’s Skillionaire Games meet the needs of youth, especially the underserved, and encourages engagement with the company’s skills development apps. The position also connects with school counselors, parents, teachers, and other youth leaders and mentors, as well as works with local businesses and other organizations to create online and offline incentives that include promo items, events, and experiences that players can win as they achieve new game levels and grow their career awareness and skills.
Prior to her arrival at skillsgapp Montgomery served as marketing and experience coordinator, lifestyle & experience manager, and brand ambassador at Valeo Groupe Americas, a developer and manager of student housing properties. Montgomery also worked with Winthrop University’s Office of the First-Year Experience as a program coordinator. She graduated with a BA in English from Winthrop and minors in educational and leadership studies.
“I was most attracted to the ‘people piece’ of working with skillsgapp,” said Montgomery. “My background and family heritage were in teaching — both of my parents were teachers and I had originally thought that I would teach. But the more I worked and learned, the more I appreciated the side of marketing that creates events and experiences for customers. It involves working to learn their needs and cultures, and building relationships and community with them so that you can better understand and serve them. Working with skillsgapp is an opportunity to get back to my roots and to work alongside educators and other youth leaders and mentors to build career awareness and pathway access, while helping industries build a sustainable workforce pipeline unique to their needs. Most exciting for me, it’s an opportunity for me to connect young people to meaningful careers, and help prepare them for those careers through our gaming apps.”
“The first requirement we mention in the description for this position is somebody who has ‘a passion for youth and providing life-changing opportunities to the underserved through play,'” said Tina Zwolinski, CEO of skillsgapp. “We believe that we’ve found that person in Jennie. She has worked in the youth market for years, and gained valuable experience in providing creative experiences for the student market. She loves the education environment and is happy to find and work with young people wherever they are, no matter the context. We are thrilled to have her on the team at skillsgapp.”
“Our passion is to provide every young person the most engaging, exciting games that will help them learn about career opportunities in various industries, access pathways, begin to develop the needed middle and soft skills, and become extremely attractive recruits for the country’s manufacturers and technical industries. With our country’s significant talent gap in middle skills employment and skillsgapp’s ability to customize gaming apps to develop career pathway awareness that states, economic development organizations, and industries desperately need we believe that skillsgapp has arrived at the right time and the right place.”
Skillsgapp fields mobile, engaging interactive apps that help middle and high school-aged youth achieve career awareness and pathway access, as well as develop the middle and soft skills necessary to pursue jobs in skills-based industries, including aerospace and automotive manufacturing, life science, cybersecurity, construction trades, and other technical industries. Skillsgapp gaming apps are ideal for States and broader regions, economic development organizations, industries, and public sector agencies dedicated to building a qualified workforce pipeline.
To find out more about skillsgapp’s gamified skills development through mobile apps and much more, visit http://www.skillsgapp.com or contact us at 864.469.9340. To connect with skillsgapp CEO, Tina Zwolinski, reach out at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinazwolinski.
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