WholeStory

WholeStory prepares job seekers to develop their personal story to communicate and highlight their strengths and skills.

What This Includes

Skills addressed: Communication, Organization, Critical Thinking, Leadership, Empathy, Perseverance, Adaptability

Job seeker resources

Self-paced, multi-part video course called Soft Skills Communicator Course, which takes about three hours to complete
Professional online profile to showcase skills
Soft Skills Communicator credential and badge to display online
Video guides include “The purpose of the job interview: Who are you, really?”
Job match with employers using tools that aim to eliminate inequity

Workforce developer resources

Soft Skills Communicator Course and optional accompanying credential
Instructor-led training course version for programs with an instructor-led model

Key Takeaways

The Soft Skills Communicator Course focuses on how to share life experiences to describe and highlight workplace success skills in job interviews.
Workforce development organizations can integrate this platform and the self-paced course into existing job training programs.
The Soft Skills Communicator Course is currently free for all job training programs in the U.S., because of Whole Story’s affiliation with the XPRIZE Communities Competition.
Whole Story is designed to help those who have been out of the workforce—for reasons including parenting, a conviction history, or a disability—describe how their life experiences have helped them grow and develop personal and workplace success skills.

Background

Whole Story was founded in 2015 by a tech executive who realized that he had developed skills and strengths through his own experience of overcoming adversity, something that is not typically discussed in job interviews. Along with two partners, he developed the WholeStory technology platform to help job seekers tell their personal stories in such a way as to highlight their workplace success skills. Whole Story prioritizes partnerships with workforce development programs that serve underrepresented job seekers. It currently counts organizations such as Year Up, Worksource Columbia Basin, and Virginia CareerWorks among its partners. WholeStory is part of the Dignified Work team, one of five finalists in the 2022 XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling competition, designed to incentivize teams to close the skills gap by developing rapid reskilling solutions for individuals most vulnerable to employment loss.

Tags: Adaptability & Flexibility, Communication, Critical & Creative Thinking, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership & Initiative, Respecting Differences, Self-Management, Teamwork & Collaboration, Advising & Coaching Tool, Credentialing & Badging, Online, Free (Registration Required), Paid Subscription, Adult Education, English Language Learners, Higher Education, Older Youth, Workforce Development