These days many adults are finding they need to supplement their education to find that “dream” job. Unfortunately, most adults don’t have the guidance of career counselors that were freely available back in high school and college. As the composition of the American economy changes, many are wishing that they could get some help.
At Fatminds, just launched recently, they strive to help you find the education you need. Tejash Unadkat, who founded Fatminds along with Aaron Lee, addressed this problem in an interview with Tech.li, “Fatminds enables adults anywhere to find the right education to get that job or career they want”.
The site has been compared to an educational version of Kayak. The search focuses on the subject, location and educational format (i.e. online, in class, etc.). A profile can be created and linked through internet stalwarts like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and other sites as well. Creating a profile is not necessary, but beneficial to becoming part of the Fatminds education community . The courses can still be searched without it, but the prices are unlocked when a profile is created.
Post-secondary degrees or certificates are not the only type of education programs offered. As Unadkat noted, only a minority of adults try for an advanced degree. “Most adult students are busy and usually have limited time only for short-form education-like courses. Fatminds is ultimately career focused,” Unadkat said. Because of this, Fatminds also shows listings for less time-intensive options, like webinars, seminars and certificate courses offered by private educational institutions as well as public.
The startup currently has over 10,000 classroom and online education programs across the country. Most of the institutions are currently in California and Massachusetts, but they are adding more all the time. The process of adding schools was initially one of the greatest difficulties for the team at Fatminds to overcome. “It’s not easy building up a service like Fatminds.com,” said Unadkat. “Every school showcases their education in different formats and has a different organizational structure. Schools store the data in different ways.”
Fatminds is currently in the process of expanding their services. The first step of that is to continue to add institutions and courses to their listings. They are also working on becoming more than an educational guide for professional development.
Currently, feedback on Fatminds is exchanged through the “My Q&A” section. Any registered member of Fatminds can ask questions about specific courses and institutions. Other members, or the institution itself, interested in the same course can see the question and provide an answer. Members may also bookmark courses they are interested in; when a course listing is added that matches the qualities of the bookmarked course, the user is notified.
Fatminds is currently reaching out to the portion of the educational community composed of career counselors and alumni groups in order for them to create their own profiles from which to give their professional advice. Tejash Unadkat said this functionality is a few months away, but it is easy to see that Fatminds is positioning itself to be the premier choice for adult education. In the internet era, the ability to find quality education quickly and within one’s financial budget would be a very useful addition.
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