skillionaire blog | workforce development

How Skillionaire Turns Career Discovery Into A Game Kids Actually Want To Play

skillsgapp — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 15:56:26 GMT

By Afdhel Aziz, Contributor. Chief Storytelling Officer, Conspiracy of Love

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 behindSkillionaire Games.

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.

Skillsgapp Wins 2026 EdTech Breakthrough Award for Overall Career Prep Solution of the Year

skillsgapp — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 14:56:32 GMT

Eighth Annual Program Honors the Top EdTech Innovators Shaping the Future of Learning

View the 2026 winners here.

LOS ANGELES, June 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --EdTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies and solutions in the global educational technology market, today announced the results of the eighth annual EdTech Breakthrough Awards program, showcasing the world’s most innovative companies driving transformation for K-12, higher education, corporate training and lifelong learning environments.

The Talent Pipeline Imperative: How Strategic Industry/School Partnerships Deliver a Job-Ready Workforce

skillsgapp — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:35:34 GMT

By Stephanie Summerlin, Executive Director of Educational Partnerships, Skillionaire Games

Unlocking Career Engagement: Designing Career Exploration for Meaningful Engagement

skillsgapp — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:30:00 GMT

By Taneshia Williams
VP of Product and Game Development, Skillionaire Games

How HP’s Future Of Work Accelerator Is Driving Impact And Innovation Around The World

skillsgapp — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 19:24:51 GMT

Forbes: By Afdhel Aziz

The future of work is often described as if everyone is already on the same path. But that is not how it looks in real life. More than 2.5 billion people around the world are still offline, and many more are connected without the skills, support or networks that can turn technology into something meaningful.

Making Work Games Work:

skillsgapp — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 21:00:00 GMT

By Dustin Hendrickson
VP of Engineering, Skillionaire Games

Leveling Up the Workforce Pipeline: The Power of Three

skillsgapp — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 13:59:39 GMT

By Tina Zwolinski
CEO and Founder, skillsgapp and Skillionaire Games

Skillsgapp CEO and Founder Recognized as SC500

skillsgapp — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 14:00:00 GMT

500 exceptional professionals.
Multiple diverse categories.
One incredible state.

The South Carolina 500 is a premier recognition program celebrating the most influential and accomplished professionals throughout the Palmetto State. SCBiz carefully selects 500 outstanding individuals who are driving innovation, creating jobs, building communities, and making South Carolina a better place to live and work.

Harnessing Technology To Prepare Students For Future Success

skillsgapp — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Forbes: By Jean Eddy, Contributor.

American Student Assistance Announces New Career Readiness Partners for Its Award-Winning, Free EvolveMe Career Experimentation and Skill-Building Platform for Teens

skillsgapp — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 19:00:00 GMT

BOSTON, Oct. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- American Student Assistance^® (ASA), a national nonprofit changing the way kids learn about careers and prepare for their futures, today announced the expansion of its award-winning, free EvolveMe^® partner ecosystem, which now includes Urban Institute and Hope Street Group. In addition, new success stories and case studies featuring GoEducate, Get Schooled, Emotional Theater, STEAM the Streets, and Skillsgapp, demonstrate how young people are engaging with career readiness tasks that position them for future success. Launched in 2023, EvolveMe is a skill-building and career experimentation platform that incentivizes young people to take actions that advance their career interests. The digital experience gives more than two million teens access to robust career experimentation activities powered by innovative partner organizations.