--- title: How Skillionaire Turns Career Discovery Into A Game Kids Actually Want To Play description: Discover how Skillionaire Games transforms career discovery into an engaging games for youth, bridging gaps in workforce awareness and education. image: https://skillionairehq.com/hubfs/Blog%202026/forbes_9_26.png --- [![web\_skillionaire\_logo](https://skillionairehq.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2026%20Homepage/web_skillionaire_logo.png?width=420&height=108&name=web_skillionaire_logo.png)](https://skillionairehq.com) - [Partner With Us](https://skillionairehq.com/partner) - [About](https://skillionairehq.com/about) - [Blog](https://skillionairehq.com/blog) - [Press](https://skillionairehq.com/blog/tag/news) - [Contact Us](https://skillionairehq.com/contact) - [Visit Skillionaire Games](https://www.skillionairegames.com/) News # How Skillionaire Turns Career Discovery Into A Game Kids Actually Want To Play Discover how Skillionaire Games transforms career discovery into an engaging games for youth, bridging gaps in workforce awareness and education. [skillsgapp](https://skillionairehq.com/blog/author/skillsgapp) Sep 18, 2026 [mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20https://skillionairehq.com/blog/how-skillionaire-turns-career-discovery-into-a-game-kids-actually-want-to-play&utm_medium=social&utm_source=email%20&body=Check%20out%20https://skillionairehq.com/blog/how-skillionaire-turns-career-discovery-into-a-game-kids-actually-want-to-play&utm_medium=social&utm_source=email](mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20https://skillionairehq.com/blog/how-skillionaire-turns-career-discovery-into-a-game-kids-actually-want-to-play&utm_medium=social&utm_source=email%20&body=Check%20out%20https://skillionairehq.com/blog/how-skillionaire-turns-career-discovery-into-a-game-kids-actually-want-to-play&utm_medium=social&utm_source=email) [News](https://skillionairehq.com/blog/tag/news) ![](https://skillionairehq.com/hubfs/Blog%202026/forbes_9_26.png) By [Afdhel Aziz](https://www.forbes.com/sites/afdhelaziz/), Contributor. Chief Storytelling Officer, Conspiracy of Love [Read Full Forbes Article.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/afdhelaziz/2026/09/17/how-skillionaire-turns-career-discovery-into-a-game-kids-actually-want-to-play/) Tina Zwolinski would drive into Allendale, South Carolina, in the summer heat, and pass a Mercedes-Benz plant and a Boeing supply line. Starting salaries near $50,000. Free technical college, no degree required. She noticed something didn’t add up: the town around those jobs was stuck in generational poverty. The opportunity was a few miles away. Nobody told the people who live there it exists. That contradiction became the founding insight behind[Skillionaire Games](https://www.skillionairegames.com/). Zwolinski spent 25 years running a branding agency focused on workforce development before she saw it up close. “It really was that work, over years of all these great jobs and opportunities that industry had to offer, but struggled with communicating that over to the next generation,” she said. The kids weren’t the problem. The pipeline was. Allendale was one wake-up call. The second was closer to home. Zwolinski’s son, adopted from Peru, hit high school and had to navigate career planning in a second language, through systems that confuse adults who speak English fluently. “If he’s struggling, so is everybody else, especially with language challenges or not having a guardian or parent to help,” she said. So she looked at where kids already were: inside a game. Eighty to ninety percent of Gen Z and Gen Alpha play video games. That’s not a stat to work around, Zwolinski decided. It’s the delivery system. The idea reached Dustin Hendrickson, an engineer and former Blizzard developer who grew up in a Kansas town one mile wide, a place he calls “the living embodiment” of no access and no awareness of what jobs even exist. Hearing what Zwolinski was building, he said it “brought a fire to me.” He signed on as VP of Engineering. What they built is Skillionaire Games: free, web-based games, one per industry, that let students play through a job instead of reading about one. Each is matched to wherever the player lives, surfacing the nearby technical college, the local employers hiring, and the apprenticeship or training program a student can walk into next. It’s not a career quiz. It’s a simulation you can act on. [Read Full Forbes Article.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/afdhelaziz/2026/09/17/how-skillionaire-turns-career-discovery-into-a-game-kids-actually-want-to-play/) #### Related Posts career gaming ### [From Disconnected to Dialed-In: How Students Unlocked Real Careers Through Play](https://skillionairehq.com/blog/from-disconnected-to-dialed-in-how-students-unlocked-real-careers-through-play) Discover how career video games are transforming career exploration for students through engaging, self-directed gameplay that introduces real-world... skillsgapp Apr 30, 2025 career gaming ### [Career Avatars: What Players' In-Game Choices Say About Their Career Path](https://skillionairehq.com/blog/career-avatars-what-players-in-game-choices-say-about-their-career-path) Discover how Gen Z's in-game avatar choices in career video games reveal their potential career paths and preferences, offering insights into their... skillsgapp May 30, 2025 career gaming ### [5 Reasons Why Mobile Career Games Are Transforming Workforce Development](https://skillionairehq.com/blog/career-games-transforming-workforce-development) Discover how mobile career games are revolutionizing workforce development by engaging youth, building awareness, and driving long-term retention for... skillsgapp Dec 6, 2024 ### Read our blogs before everybody else does. 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