Launched in June 2020, XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling incentivizes teams to develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of a quick training and reskilling solution for individuals most vulnerable to employment loss in the United States. The objective set for contesting participants was to develop solutions that would reduce training time by half for occupations with a living wage.  Once selected, these solutions would be provided at no cost to the individual.

Announcing this, XPRIZE CEO, Anousheh Ansari said, “As we saw unemployment reach new heights and some jobs completely eliminated as automation accelerated during the pandemic, the XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling competition became critical in providing pathways to gainful long-term employment.”

The top 10 qualified teams in the global competition were chosen following evaluation of 118 entries by a high-profile jury. The 10 teams from 4 countries will now move to the Qualified Teams round of the $5M XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling competition.

The 10 chosen Qualified Teams will be evenly splitting a milestone prize purse of $1,000,000.

HireMee, which made the grade, has a dynamic and diverse team of 23 global CEOs and technology leaders, jointly led by Mr. Tom Dretler and Mr. Shirish Pareek in the US, and Mr. Chocko Valliappa in India. The team has extensive experience in technology, education, advanced manufacturing and job placement in the US, India and the rest of the world.

According to Chocko Valliappa, Founder of HireMee, “Team HireMee sought to tap the best CEO and technology talent in the world in solving the critical challenge of Rapid Reskilling. We are pleased to say we’ve done that with the organization of this core team.”

“Team HireMee is excited to bring its strengths in execution of effective skill-building programs and unmatched scale using digital technology to enable the future of work, says Shirish Pareek, CEO of AMG Partners, a permanent capital investment fund focused on the advanced manufacturing sector.

“Through its proprietary technology and comprehensive approach, Team HireMee will empower displaced workers to be qualified for new-age jobs thereby, helping them advance in their careers and continue to take care of their families,” adds Tom Dretler, CEO of Shorelight, a global education technology company.

In Phase 1, Team HireMee has chosen the healthcare sector to demonstrate how medical assistants can be reskilled by deploying its two-decade long experience working in the healthcare industry. Medical assistants through training would gain administrative, clinical and non-technical skillsets, making them to be a versatile member of any organization they join, ensuring long-term employment.

HireMee’s digital platform has enabled talent assessment of a million young men and women from 800 towns spread across India, and connected them to startups through a verified assessment process that evaluates their knowledge, skills and personality and communication. Till date, HireMee has helped recruiters select candidates for over 1,20,000 job opportunities without any cost and no carbon footprint, since this is a cloud-based solution. Team HireMee will also draw upon the experience of its affiliate SonaYukti, a pan India player for skilling and re-skilling rural youth for a range of trades as part of India's ongoing mega skilling initiative.

As part of XPRIZE, training solutions will be offered to 3,500 displaced workers early in the competition by the ten finalists and then will be expanded to help at least 25,000 displaced workers in the last round. The best solutions, if adopted on a nation-wide scale, have the potential of transforming the way workers train for more than 12 million job

XPRIZE's initiative is aimed at rapidly training and placing workers into higher-wage, higher-skill jobs.

Qualified Teams will have approximately two months to develop solutions and prepare themselves for the first phase of testing.

A grand prize will be awarded to the most innovative and practical solution that offers an unprecedented pace of training, limits cost barriers on vulnerable populations, and helps individuals in this current economic crisis and beyond. In addition, two Runners-Up will be awarded.