Learners are the essential customer of Smash. It all begins with providing talented people the opportunity to find their technical passion, engage learning with a hands-on approach, as well as being rewarded and recognized for their hard work with real-life career opportunities at prominent employers.
The Smash Index measures learners' job readiness, including technical, leadership, and soft skills desired by employers. It recognizes hard work and removes the frustration of job searching. Learners earn achievement points for activities like surveys, case studies, and online events, demonstrating their skills through interviews and presentations. The goal is to help learners develop professional skills and succeed in the industry.
Projects are either in the format of case study (effectively completed independently like a hands-on homework assignment) or ‘live’ on a team engaging a real company with multiple stakeholders (like a traditional internship). Independent case study projects are open to any active learner. Some case study projects can be completed in as little as a couple of weeks, depending upon the focus, as time commitment by a particular learner.
Case studies have 4 levels that become progressively more challenging. Completing tasks and assignments in each level is necessary to progress to the next. It takes weeks to finish a single case study. After completing tasks, learners take a quiz and can engage with a mentor. Learning is demonstrated with a quiz score of 75% or higher. Building a solid base of knowledge is more beneficial than rushing through the material. These are career-enhancing skills that take time to acquire.
Learners get noticed by potential employers through internships; the culmination of engaging Smash is to land a full time job with one of our partners! The typical path for most learners is to complete one or two case studies (through Level 4) followed by 1-2 internships. Internships are structured to be 3 months long and require roughly 10 hours a week although the specifics of each internship will vary.
