Hello everybody, and welcome to the SAP Learning Insights
podcast. I'm your host, David Chaviano.
Today we're going to discuss a different approach to engaging
with the SAP ecosystem. Normally, we're talking about
sort of like the individual learner newcomer who's just
approaching SAP for the first time.
But we want to talk with somebody who founded an
organization dedicated to training individuals while
simultaneously being a beginner herself.
It was very impressive to see the speed at which she learned
everything and then turned around and started training
others. So I wanted to bring Rejoice
Jones on the podcast today to tell her story.
She found an organization called Evour VOWER.
Welcome, Rejoice. It's great to have you on the
podcast. Thank you.
It's so great to be here. Thank you, David.
All right. So our collaboration goes back a
few years, starting with our Digital Skills initiative.
It was a program I was involved with to upskill individuals
considered to be underrepresented in the tech
industry, introduce them to SAP, hopefully get them certified,
and hopefully find them jobs at the end of that.
You played a crucial part in that entire program.
So I wanted just to Share your story to the world, the SAP
ecosystem. And we always like to start on
this podcast with our Heroes origin story, OK, to learn a
little bit about you, where you came from, how you found SAP and
where you are today. Yeah, thank you so much and
thank you for having me. So our journey, my name is
Rejoice. As you mentioned earlier, I run
this amazing skills first tech company called Valor where we
are upskilling people and getting them directly into jobs
and we focus on entry level workers, but we'll get into that
shortly. But so my introduction to SAP
was actually from the pro bono side.
They had a program maybe like in 2020 post sort of a lot of civil
unrest and, and they wanted to, and it was during COVID and the
pandemic and so many things or what's happening in the world
host George Floyd post sort of a lot of things.
And so SAP came out with a program with Pyrexa.
It's a pro bono program where basically some the volunteers
within the SAP community would work with tech startups that
they believed had some good things going on.
And we were a part of that inaugural class in Atlanta.
And so we got three very highly skilled professionals in SAP to
join our team and in eight weeks literally took us from sort of
scrappy startup to now a global training and hiring partner in
this workforce, workforce development, future workspace.
And so, and that kind of blew my mind and just how well teams
work on an enterprise level. And I think as a startup founder
and someone who was just getting my footing, it was like, wow,
like there are very much levels to not only learning, but also
doing business and doing business well.
And so I think that was the first start of my curiosity of,
you know, sort of head being down and and focusing on
building this company for entry level workers to now saying,
wow, we can not only do this for folks in Atlanta, but possibly
we can do this globally. And we just needed the right
tools, right, the right help and resources.
And so from that relationship, we actually had someone within
the SAP kind of service like a mentor for me.
And it sort of helped guide me along the way of thinking about
how to build deeper community around learning how to build
deeper community about working professionals that want to
continue to upskill themselves. And so when we found out about
the Digital Skills Initiative, it was literally aligned
perfectly. We were already over 5000 users
of high school to post college using us to find internships and
early entry jobs. And we were already patent
pending for what we believed would be how can you accelerate
this learning into jobs? You should be able to look at
job descriptions and say, oh, I don't have that skill and then
immediately go into that upskilling phase, right?
And so that was our vision for the future in this partnership
with SAP really just helped us to on ramp that from vision to
actual practicality. So the digital skills
initiative, as you mentioned, and this, these numbers aren't
as sort of unknown to those in the tech community, but there
were less than 3% of non traditional underrepresented
folks in tech at that time. And I think SAP wanted to answer
that question. Well, why is that?
I think since SAP is such a global program and you have
teams from all over the world doing great and innovating great
ways, like why? Who's going to sort of lead that
charge to invite everyone in, those who are capable, those who
have a willingness and a desire to create and beyond these
innovative teams creating cool things.
And so to watch SAP sort of take that and sort of own that was
very inspiring for us. And so actually, I didn't know
that there was such an appetite when we first started.
We probably literally put the application out and put a few
videos on TikTok and it kind of just went viral and hundreds of
people were registering. And then, you know, our first
inaugural class, shout out to you and, and Jim and a lot of
people in Audrey who sort of helped to curate this.
But we worked with a professor, Professor Bob from Georgia
Southern, who at the time was the former SAP North American
learning Chair. And so we got someone very
highly skilled and training individuals and how to
understand ERP and how do you wrap your mind around this?
And you know, our first sort of cohort and teaching them.
And I think the certification was the SAP Esperhana at the
time, it was implementation like the implementation
certification. Now what this story is this sort
of the Esperhana Public House edition.
And so that group of 10, we did 8 weeks with Professor Bob and
it was like sometimes every day from like 8:00 AM to 2.
And so we're sort of back in school, I, I actually took the
course as well. And so to kind of just see what
could be described as maybe a few years of college packed into
this accelerated very intense learning journey of how do you
think about business from an enterprise level?
How do you implement solutions and operations for different
modules, financial accounting, warehouse management, supply
chain? And so we're we're all sort of
just like minds are blown of like, man, this is how the world
works. And from there, most of that,
maybe nine of those 10 people are now working as full time SAP
consultants with folks like Accenture and my going different
SAP customers. So to just watch the learning,
first of all, the morality of people wanting to know more
about SAP, this German company that sort of sits on the side
and kind of head down to like, 'cause you know, we hear about
other companies, 'cause they're from from America and German is
this, I mean, SAP is this German company that, you know, is just
busy doing work. And so to introduce that to sort
of the public and our audience to then go to training and then
go and to see folks get into jobs within a year.
And we're not talking about jobs that sort of sort of tap the
pockets. We're talking about jobs that
were life changing and generational changing for our
learners. Going from $46,000 to like
$86,000 is a generational change thing.
It helps you to reach parity. And to see that work so
seamlessly with just a few resources was mind blowing to
me. And so then we were hooked.
And so now, you know, this is what we're doing full time,
helping as many people as we can gain skills that we know the
market needs and and wants and accelerate them into jobs.
So that's sort of the back story of how we're here.
That's awesome. And it was really cool to see
that all happen end to end. But just for my own personal
curiosity, just to rewind all the way back to the beginning.
So how big was the time gap between you founding Bauer and
finding SAP? Was it rather relatively small?
Yeah, very small. I started Bauer when I was still
a full time teacher in 2019, so April 2019, and then we started
this partnership. I started my pro bono journey
with SAP in 2021 and then we started the Digital Skills
Initiative in 2022. So what, what kind of blessing
is that for me to go from starting a company to them
partnering with the largest enterprise resource in the
world? So yes, thank you for saying
that out loud there because I needed to hear and feel that
that things aren't so bad in the world.
You know things are working out. Yeah, that's really impressive.
The stars aligned, everything works out.
Yes, very cool. So you've got on to actually
begin taking your experiences with Bob, and everybody now is
channeling their inner Bob and sharing the wealth of
information and the skills to your own candidates who are now
joining the SAP ecosystem. So have you been able to get
some people on board? You've run your own events,
gotten to your own folks, certified.
We've gone on to fly on your own.
David, it's taken a world of its own when we talk and think about
network effects, this is really what it has done.
So we've gone from 10 cohort members to now registering over
1500 learners globally, over 27 countries.
We've hired and supported over 20 people getting full time jobs
going from an average, I would say an average salary jump of 25
K, which really puts a dent in when we say reaching parity or
having economic mobility. So it really puts a dent in
that. I don't know if you heard that
part. So and then now we have several
different access points in which we're helping.
Again, non traditional folks find us on Twitter, folks find
us on TikTok, folks find us from every walk of life.
And I think one of the Silver Linings of the post COVID was
now we have a great reshuffle where a lot of people are now
saying, not only do I want to restart something else, but
maybe I need to think about a different industry.
And I think it's the perfect time for skills first hiring
companies to start to sort of show themselves to the world on
a global level and to move fast to try to capture very capable
smart people who've maybe been lost in in sort of in Gray areas
in between college or not really sure about college.
And so I think companies, smart people, investors are finding
new channels and in which to aren't grant people and we're
one of them. And so, yeah, we are running
several different initiatives into the SAP community from
still teaching from the flagship sort of boot camp that we've
sort of honed and done really well with, with training folks
on the Esperhana Public Cloud Edition certification.
To now the new certification intro into business in which we
are actually initiating a sort of a all call out with all of
our partners in high schools to say, hey, bring us your top high
school students. We want to introduce them early.
We want to get folks into tech careers.
The brightest minds are brightest students.
And so we'll talk a little bit more about that.
But those are the things we're excited about getting folks in
earlier and helping them with the tools through the new SAP
system to help them to find jobs and the skill sets that we know
the market is demanding. OK.
Very cool. And you have people finding you
just, I guess, through search engine, social media, that sort.
Of thing in referrals. OK.
And what about the other side? So the the employment
opportunities, so it's, it sounds like you're not only
training people, upscaling them, but actually getting them jobs
within our ecosystem, within the partner ecosystem.
How does that work? How are you finding those
partners and starting those conversations?
Yes, I think that this before we started with SAP, that was what
we did well. We focused on startups,
entrepreneurs, non employers, those who are looking for
interns, entry level workers is sort of our sweet spot because
it's easier to accelerate and get into jobs.
And so it's sort of what we were already best at.
But this is like a new level. I will say it's been an uphill
beautiful learning opportunity for us to now engage partners
who have larger teams and need the skill sets to be not just
baseline but mid level to high expert skills.
And so first partners that we've hired into is the center.
There's a few consulting companies and now we're having
conversations. Was not only bigger companies
that have workforces where we locally train here in Atlanta,
think Home Depot, Coca-Cola, a lot of these companies that use
SAP as a software system, a lot of health care systems that also
do that as well. So we're starting to have this
conversation. When we first started, we were
just training partners, which is its own thing.
And now we believe strongly that the incentive for a lot of folks
we're trying to discover makes sense of the future work now
with all of the fears and advancement of technology that
the best route is a direct route from skills, from basically
educate to employ. And that is what we're focused
on now is to make sure that there is some ROI on the end of
that SAP certification. OK, very cool.
And what what sort of advice would you have for folks who
maybe want to approach power as a candidate?
What skills do they need to have already under their belts?
Where should they be coming from from the starting point?
Yeah, I definitely would say have insane learning curve, a
curiosity to learn, a curiosity to be in new environments.
I think more than anything we can teach the technical skills
and I think those who have an aptitude to learn that part,
they can just different ways of formulating learning that we
have in our access to help folks.
But I think the deeper thing is that emotional intelligence
maybe going from backgrounds that have never been in in some
of these environments. So I think it's more so about
that have an insane learning curve and being curious means
you're flexible. It means that you're a right
candidate for the cloud. It means that companies from all
over the world can, when they get you, they're not just
getting someone who's excited to learn, but has the energy and
can kind of move in, in and out of room.
So I think the most important thing are those emotional
intelligence, social skills, being able to tell a story,
being able to soak things in. I think the technical skills are
a lot easier. And it's more about the social
skills and being able to be flexible and be on different
teams and learn a lot at a fast pace.
So I think those are the skills. Be flexible, have an insane
learning curve and be confident and know that the future work
like belongs to you as well. If you if you're, if you're
willing to take on, take on the job.
Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of misconceptions
when people hear of SAP or tech company, they often think like
this is only something for folks who have a computer science
degree and that they're going to be programming all day.
When in fact, if you're going to be in the consulting role, for
example, you need to have like rapid comprehension of complex
ideas, concepts, you need to hit the ground running.
So are you able to help folks a little bit in that respect
throughout their training experience in Bauer?
Yeah, absolutely. And I will say one of our
graduates shout out to Chelsea. Chelsea was actually coming from
the fitness industry and she, you know, Chelsea's just such a
boss. She has such a great personality
and had a sales acumen even though it wasn't on her resume
as that. And now she's one of the top
sales consultant at her company. She sold over 350 K within her
first eight months. And So what I'm saying also into
that we're attracting untapped gyms.
We're we're attracting people who could sell you anything if
you were on a train or a subway in the local city, right?
And they just needed that, that credential to say, great, now I
can go out into the world and use the skill set.
What we do at Bauer is very interesting because we have
weekly study courses, which I think just helps to continue to
build that muscle of learning and to learn these new things in
a way that individualized learners may understand
differently. But we also offer social, I
would say social counseling, therapy counseling sessions.
Shout out to Desmond who leads those sessions.
And these are just everything from doing breath work to
talking about some of our fears, to working on interview prep to
working on career readiness. We have a course for that sort
of a weekly class for that. But specifically in these
classes, we work on those soft skills, right?
Talking through, telling your story, talking through, talking
about your resume in your work experience.
And so we really focus on equipping that because we
realized even when we were getting folks interviews, some
of the interviews wouldn't go right.
And when we would sort of survey and figure out why, and it was
because folks had just never had a technical interview or folks
had just never talked to someone, interview someone in
the UK and then interview someone in California.
It was just a new experience for them.
And so I think as builders of this space, we can't assume
anything. We have to just say what are the
resources that learners and job seekers need right now?
And that continues to iterate as you get new job seekers from new
places. And so just being open to that,
I think we've done a really good job with it.
It certainly sounds like a holistic approach to getting
people up skilled and ready for the SAP ecosystem, so not just
the technical stuff. Yes, exactly.
Awesome. So I think for the listeners
that have made it this far in the podcast, they're probably
gonna have a lot of questions as to how they can reach out to
you, how they can reach out your organization, how they can get
started training with Vour, What are their options?
Yeah. So you guys can reach out to us.
I work on every platform you can think of.
I would say if you go to our Tiktok and it's because we're
trying to build our Tiktok up, I'll start there.
I think that these are the types of things we want to go viral,
right? Yeah.
So you can find us on Tiktok at the Valer Inc, that's
THEVOWERINC. And you can find me on Tiktok
where I talk about all of these things and sort of give you The
Dirty on which certifications you should look for and what
skill sets and jobs are on the other end of that.
You can find me at Jay Beds Jones.
That's at JABEZJONES and that's also on TikTok, on Instagram.
You can find us on The Vower Inc, THEVOWERINC and Vower Inc
on LinkedIn. Also, you can go to our website
at www.vower.org. OK, very cool.
All right, we're going to pull that, put all that in the show
notes. But I just wanted to get it out
there, get it out there verbally as well and kudos.
You getting the word out on TikTok?
I'm I'm pretty sure you have the SAP market on TikTok cornered.
SAP itself is notably absent on that platform.
But this is going to give this is going to give them.
We're winning entire mayoral races from people Democratic.
I think we, I don't know if you want to keep this in the notes,
but like the New York Democratic mayoral candidate literally just
did TikTok reels very well. So I think we have to shift and
I'm, you know, talking to my friends at SAP, the marketing,
Hey, it's time, you know, we got to get on with the New Times and
move on with where the people are and the Gen.
Z and the millennials. They need to find out about
these opportunities and you we got to meet them where they are
so. Well, we we appreciate you
holding down the Fort in TikTok while while SAP yes, figures out
what they have to do to get off of that platform.
Yes, But back to Bauer and how you see things going in the
future. So you've done a lot in a very
small amount of time. That's really impressive.
Thank you. I'm pretty sure you're not done
here. No.
What is your future, your future vision?
Where you going? I want you to imagine a world,
David, where you are on the tube in London, or if you're in
Atlanta, you're on the the Marta.
And just as you can pick up your phone and swipe left and right
on finding a date, you should be able to swipe left and right to
learn skills and to find jobs. We're building and envisioning a
world that as seamless as gaming and gamified we are, it should
be the way for the way we learn and find jobs.
We have to move faster. We have to move faster and sort
of close a lot of gaps that we've left behind in K through
12 in order for us to be innovative and keep up with the
advancements of technology. So our North star at Bower is
ensuring that you should be able to swipe left, see a job up
skill for that job, earn points, use those to buy Jordans,
concert tickets, buy some. I don't know if you're into
crypto, put some cryptocurrency in your bank.
And we're building habits around learning.
We're building people's resumes in real time and we're on
ramping them to LinkedIn. We're making them more
marketable. Look at what Palantir University
is doing. You know, they're saying skip
college, come directly here and we'll train you for and to be
innovative and to support our GDP and to build things and to
create. And so we're just, I'm just
geeking out and excited about the future work because I know
this is an opportunity for us to really lightspeed and build the
fastest, most impactful skills, first hiring company that we've
ever seen. And so that's what I'm working
on all day is the future. It's the future.
That's awesome. Rejoice.
All right, so we got your socials, we got your your
contact info. We see the vision where you're
going, and now we always want to close on some final words of
wisdom for those learners out there who are considering
getting started with their SAP journey, and maybe even somebody
who's interested in taking your route and not only getting
started with SAP, but becoming a partner of some sorts and
training others. What would you tell those folks
out there with such aspirations? I would say start right now.
You are well equipped. The time is right now we're just
waiting on you. The opportunities are ripe.
Don't listen to anything outside of yourself.
If you can believe it and have a healthy disregard for them
possible. It can be yours.
And it's not just for everyone else out here and meet literally
I'm I was a full time teacher teaching 5th grade and then, you
know, two years after that I'm supporting one of the largest
companies in the world to help people find skills and gain
jobs. And so I think we're just in a
world right now where we need believers who are going to
create great things and make amazing impact and we have to
push back towards anything else that's saying anything against
that. So that's what I would say,
start now, break things and keep going.
Just start now. Outstanding.
Thank you so much for your time. Rejoice and thanks for sharing
your story. Thank you, David.
Thank you all. Right.
Everybody go out there and get it.
Bye now.