By Patrick Mineer
Hello everyone! My name is Patrick Mineer, and I’m the CEO and Founder of Golden Path Solutions. As we head into a new year, I wanted to take a few moments and reflect with all of you on the last year of activity with Golden Path Solutions, celebrate some of our successes and extend gratitude to all of you for your support, but also share a bit on our priorities for 2023.
Reflections on 2022
First, 2022 was just an incredible year for Golden Path on so many levels. One of our biggest successes was the launch of our integration with RUReady.ND.gov, in partnership with the North Dakota Career & Technical Education department. The integration not only allowed our application Compass to be in the hands of every high school student in North Dakota, but it also introduced the employer login and the ability for employers to do their own Career Profiles, offer work-based learning opportunities and events, manage applications, and do evaluations. With this launch we can now provide employers one entry point to share their data with over 30,000 high school students and 175 schools, as well as schools using Compass in Minnesota. We’ve had just incredible partnership with XAP (the company that built RURead.ND.gov, used in schools for over 15 years) and NDCTE. Numerous meetings, design reviews, testing, etc. led to a great product that we were proud to deliver in the fall of 2022.
As a result of our launch, we now have over 200 companies using Compass, from small local employers like Meg-a-Latte in Watford City and Glass Doctor in Fargo to statewide organizations like Bobcat, Gooseneck Implement, Titan Machinery, and RDO Equipment. Students can learn about local careers in every industry including healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and financial services. We have companies in Grand Forks, Minot, Williston, Bismarck, Fargo, Devils Lake, and Wahpeton, just to name a few. And we see this as continuing to grow as we gain traction and drive awareness.
We also participated in multiple events in 2022. Presentations included North Dakota annual SHRM conference, the Broadband Association of North Dakota’s annual meeting, the ND CTE Professional Development Conference and ND Council of Education Leaders annual meeting, meetings with the ND Workforce Development council, local events in Watford City, Grand Forks, and over 10 workshops with school professionals, just to name a few. We also started reaching out beyond North Dakota borders, attending two Minnesota events (CTE Works! and the Minnesota Association of School Administrator’s annual conference) and had our first expo in Las Vegas at the ACTE CareerTech Vision conference. Great stuff!
Looking Forward to 2023
So – enough about 2022! What’s to come in 2023?
2023 is going to be about two things – adoption and growth. From an adoption perspective, we want to make sure that everyone that currently has access to this system is getting the most out of it. That means students are finding opportunities that fit them and are able to get experiences and insight that will help them in the future. We want to make sure school professionals have a nice influx of work-based learning opportunities that they can offer to their students, and that we help them use the system in the most efficient way possible as we know their time is incredibly valuable and limited. We also want employers to be taking advantage of the services that will help them be successful, whether it’s just connecting with schools, offering work-based learning, or offering career profiles and sponsorships to develop future workforce. Second, we want to grow the ecosystem both in terms of onboarding new employers, adding more regional schools outside of North Dakota, or even offering new features that will help improve how Compass supports our current audiences (i.e. the 4-year plan, additional integrations) or new audiences (vocational rehab, higher-ed, or middle schoolers).
We still have our crazy vision – that every employer is engaged in some way in this ecosystem. Every employer that plans on being open 2-3 years from now needs to connect with students who will be our future workforce, and we want to help with that!
Thank you to the Golden Path team – you all are rockstars, and the passion for our mission and the experience you bring to the table is amazing. Thank you to North Dakota Career & Technical Education and XAP for being amazing partners. And finally, thank you to all of you who work with us. Whether you are a school professional, a student ambassador, an employer, a local, county, or state official, you all are amazing for what you do. We often talk at Golden Path that we get to work with the best of everyone, and as a result we have the best job ever. You all are amazing, and as we continue to grow as a company, we are so appreciative and thankful for each of you. Here’s to a great 2023!