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Tag: employability skills

  • Rubin Engages with Students, Teachers at Johnston County (NC) Career Day

    Rubin Engages with Students, Teachers at Johnston County (NC) Career Day

    A room full of employers waiting to meet with students at tables in a community college atrium.

    That was the scene on Wednesday, February 18 in Johnston County, North Carolina for the annual JOCO WORKS PRO. The event allows students to practice interview skills through the help of dozens of local business professionals.

    The Rubin team was on hand to provide networking advice to students and show support for Johnston County Public Schools, which incorporates Rubin products into CTE classes at the middle and high school levels.

    Thank you for having us, JCPS! Below are highlights from the day.

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    Rubin Founder Danny Rubin stands with Irma Bode from Johnston County Public Schools and Danielle Kroeger from Johnston County Community College, the event host.
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    Rubin Founder Danny Rubin shares networking advice with JCPS students before they sit for mock interviews.

    Prepping for mock interviews.

  • Rubin Team Kicks Off 2026 with 80-Person Live Training in Northern Virginia

    Rubin Team Kicks Off 2026 with 80-Person Live Training in Northern Virginia

    Right as schools returned from winter break, the Rubin team jumped into a live training with 80 CTE teachers from across Frederick County (Virginia) Public Schools.

    On Monday, January 5, Rubin Founder Danny Rubin and IT Support Specialist Noah Sandler guided dozens of Frederick County CTE teachers to connect our Emerge employability skills curriculum and Aspire career exploration videos with Google Classroom.

    The teachers can now use our lessons for email/phone etiquette, interview/resume prep, exploration videos across 100+ careers and much more within Google Classroom and no one (teachers or students) needs to use a password to access the content.

    Thank you to CTE Director George Bishop for making the day run smoothly!

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    Frederick County CTE teachers review Rubin lessons from inside their Google Classroom accounts.
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    Frederick County CTE teachers participate in a face-to-face conversation activity that teaches students how to do “small talk.”

    Spreading Rubin district wide.

  • 4th Annual America’s Next Great Intern Contest Open for Registration

    4th Annual America’s Next Great Intern Contest Open for Registration

    The nation will soon discover its “Next Great Intern” through a free contest sponsored by Rubin, the leader in online instruction for employability and work readiness skills. This time, Rubin upped the stakes with a $1,000 scholarship as the top prize.

    The fourth-annual America’s Next Great Intern contest highlights students who participate in career and technical education (CTE) or project-based (hands-on) classes and programs. All middle school, high school and post-secondary CTE students are eligible to participate.

    The submission period for the America’s Next Great Intern contest runs from February 2 to March 6, 2026. Educators can register their class or school here. A panel of judges (Rubin team members, industry professionals and staff from the Association for Career and Technical Education) will assess the students across three areas.

    Students will submit examples of their work in the following categories:

    • Email Etiquette: Demonstrate a professional-grade email based on fictional, work-related scenario.
    • Research and Critical Thinking: Learn to develop sharp questions ahead of a fictitious internship interview.
    • Ethical Dilemma: Provide a response to a tricky ethical situation you might face as an intern.

    The instructions are drawn from Rubin’s Emerge curriculum, a broad library of online exercises for employability skills like email/phone etiquette, job interview prep, LinkedIn communication and more. Rubin provides Emerge to CTE programs nationwide.

    Every student who participates in the contest will receive a certificate and e-portfolio of their submitted work.

    “Employers often lament that students today don’t possess the ‘soft skills’ necessary to engage in an office setting or on the job site,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “We hope the contest shows that, yes, there are professional-grade young people coast to coast who will add value to any business or organization.”

    About Rubin

    Rubin is the leader in online instruction for employability and work readiness skills. The company provides Emerge, a digital curriculum that teaches effective writing and speaking skills, to thousands of students in middle school, high school and higher education. Rubin also has a real-time email etiquette tool for Gmail called Propel.

    Founded in 2017 by Danny Rubin, a former CBS television news reporter and consultant to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rubin teaches students nationwide critical lessons for email/phone etiquette, networking, team communication, leadership communication and more. Our motto: “Write well, open doors!”

    $1,000 on the line!

  • Rubin Expands to Correctional Facilities, Adds 20 School Division Partners to Conclude 2025

    Rubin Expands to Correctional Facilities, Adds 20 School Division Partners to Conclude 2025

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    Rubin Founder Danny Rubin stands with the leadership team from Business Professionals of America (BPA) student group during the CareerTech VISION national conference in Nashville, TN in December 2025. Partnerships like the one withBPA helped Rubin grow in 2025.

    In a flurry of activity prior to the holiday break, Rubin has two exciting announcements that hope to set the new year on a proper course.

    We are pleased to announce a formal partnership with MaxxContent, a leading provider of educational and self-improvement digital courses for students of all ages involved in the justice system, including jails, prisons, probation and re-entry. 

    While K-12 is our core audience today, we believe Rubin lessons for email/phone etiquette, resume writing, job interview prep and more can benefit people in spaces like corrections and adult education. MaxxContent already works with correctional institutions nationwide and can offer Rubin products to educators in those facilities.

    MaxxContent delivers a secure learning management system (LMS) into correctional facilities, and Rubin lessons will be placed inside of that LMS. That’s a departure from our normal method of delivery with K-12 in which teachers and students log into the Rubin platform directly.

    We hope to have Rubin lessons ready in the MaxxContent platform in the first quarter of 2026.

    Back on the K-12 front, we have had a busy November and December. The Rubin team developed national partnerships with several student organizations, including Business Professionals of America, HOSA — Future Health Professionals, National Beta and the National Technical Honor Society.

    We offer advisors free access to Rubin products and special pilot pricing to create accounts for student members. The pilot offer has led to new paid engagements at 20 school divisions over the past six weeks — a mix of public schools (Biloxi Public School District in Mississippi), private schools (Bethany Christian School in Louisiana), charter schools (Ridgeline Academy in Phoenix) and homeschools (Young Scholars Junior Beta Club in Georgia).

    For comparison, Rubin typically adds 40 new school customers in a year.

    The goal in 2025 was to develop and solidify national partnerships to drive greater visibility for Rubin products. We made strides in that direction and will keep pushing in 2026.

    Word of the Year: Partnerships

  • VA Middle School Students Use Rubin for Cursive Signatures, Ask for Lesson Extensions

    VA Middle School Students Use Rubin for Cursive Signatures, Ask for Lesson Extensions

    What happens when a group of middle school students enjoy a lesson so much that they ask the teacher for additional activities on the same topic?

    First, you check everyone’s temperature and make sure the class is feeling OK 🙂

    Then, you are grateful for a moment of educational bliss.

    That was the situation in October 2025 within the walls of Oscar Smith Middle School in Chesapeake, Virginia. CTE teachers at the school incorporate activities from Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum on a weekly basis.

    The teachers weren’t sure how it would go with an activity called, “How to Sign Your Name in Cursive.” Would the students understand why it’s important to know how to write a first and last name by hand?

    The answer: an emphatic yes. The students loved the activity and took pride in the newfound ability to put their own name on paper. What’s more, the students asked for lesson extensions to complete ADDITIONAL cursive writing.

    Some days, you take the win and you don’t look back.

    “We’re giving students a lesson that is important to them,” said Dr. Anna Helmer, CTE program administrator for Chesapeake Public Schools. “As well, we connected the lesson with state standards for workplace readiness. A true win-win.”

    What happens when a group of middle school students enjoy a lesson so much that they ask the teacher for additional activities on the same topic? First, you check everyone’s temperature and make sure the class is feeling OK 🙂 Then, you are grateful for a moment of educational bliss. That was the situation in…

  • VA Dept. of Rehabilitation Services Relies on Rubin for Virtual Workshops

    VA Dept. of Rehabilitation Services Relies on Rubin for Virtual Workshops

    The Virginia Department of Rehabilitation Services (DARS) has a goal to provide virtual career workshops to students with learning disabilities across the Commonwealth.

    To fulfill the mission, DARS needs high-quality instruction to make every online session engaging and impactful.

    Enter Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum and Aspire career exploration video platform.

    We are proud to be an integral part of a new initiative called Virtual PERT 2.0. PERT stands for Postsecondary Education Rehabilitation Transition. The program allows the DARS team, like PERT Career Lab Instructor Allison Kennedy, to visit high school classrooms. Each time, she relies on Emerge for lessons on networking, social skills, basic financial math, LinkedIn and even how to use proper tone of voice. Kennedy also shares Aspire videos that showcase careers in STEM, manufacturing, the trades and more.

    “It’s really nice to have a big content library to pick through and connect to our objectives,” said Kennedy.

    The DARS team piloted Virtual PERT 2.0 in the city of Gloucester in fall 2025. The ultimate plan is to reach students in all corners of the state and particularly in economically-challenged communities like Southwest Virginia and the Northern Neck.

    Wherever Kennedy and her team go next, Rubin will be right there too.

    Listen to more of our conversation with Allison Kennedy.

    Every student deserves career skills.

  • Alexandria (VA) CTE Students Watch 1,000+ Aspire Videos, Spend 43 Minutes Per Session

    Alexandria (VA) CTE Students Watch 1,000+ Aspire Videos, Spend 43 Minutes Per Session

    Middle and high school students in Alexandria City Public Schools (Northern Virginia) love Rubin Aspire career exploration videos.

    How do we know?

    In just two months, the students have watched 1,000+ Aspire career exploration video clips for jobs that include athletic trainer, surgical assistant, lab technician and many more.

    What’s more, the average time per session is 43 minutes. That’s right — students in the year 2025 stuck with an online educational product for the better part of an hour.

    “For our teachers and students, Aspire fills a gap,” said Sarah Black, CTE and work-based learning specialist in Alexandria. “Students want to see what jobs are out there in the world, and Aspire gives them the opportunity.”

    At Rubin, we believe in the power of partnership. We are thrilled that Aspire videos, delivered in Alexandria through the Canvas LMS, allow its CTE program to achieve twin goals of high-quality instruction and career readiness.

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    Rubin Aspire usage statistics in Alexandria (Virginia) only two months into the 25-26 academic year.
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    Rubin Founder Danny Rubin stands with Sarah Black and Dr. Tricia Jacobs, Alexandria CTE director, at a state gathering of CTE administrators in October 2025..

    Career exploration all day long.

  • Rubin Kicks Off Partnership with National Beta Student Club

    Rubin Kicks Off Partnership with National Beta Student Club

    We are thrilled to begin a partnership with National Beta, a student club that equips the next generation with tools and skills for leadership in school as well as life.

    In addition to the national partnership, we are also the official sponsor of Beta’s National Convention Speech Competition. The sponsorship brings together two organizations dedicated to cultivating leadership and communication with today’s students.

    “Rubin is a natural fit for National Beta,” said Roxanne Johnson, Event Marketing and Sponsorship Manager. “Their resources directly align with our mission to develop a community of leaders and will help Betas elevate their competition preparation for both State Conventions and Leadership Summits.”

    Through this sponsorship, National Beta sponsors can gain free access to Rubin’s EMERGE product simply by signing up and scheduling a 10-minute welcome call. Schools and sponsors who wish to extend access to students can do so for just $10 per student, gaining full access to Rubin’s tools, badges, and certificates.

    Topics and learning modules include:

    • Phone and video etiquette
    • Life and employability skills
    • Social media etiquette
    • Email professionalism
    • Free Webinar Series from Industry Professionals

    This sponsorship supports a goal of empowering students with practical, lifelong skills that extend beyond the classroom, helping them become not only better competitors but stronger leaders in their communities.

    We are excited to get started!

    Reaching students in public, private and more.

  • MN Business Teacher Relies on Rubin Unit for Entrepreneurship

    MN Business Teacher Relies on Rubin Unit for Entrepreneurship

    Chelsea Gasser, a business teacher at West Central Area School District in Barrett, MN, had her lesson plan all figured out.

    Her students would learn to create a business plan.

    There was only one issue: The students didn’t have a business for the business plan.

    That’s where Emerge stepped in. Our signature employability skills curriculum features a unit called “Find Your Big Idea.” Within the unit, students walk through five key steps to developing a workable business idea.

    • Activity: Step 1 — Match passion with purpose
    • Activity: Step 2 — Understand income and expenses
    • Activity: Step 3 — Do a competitive analysis
    • Activity: Step 4 — Identify ideal customers
    • Activity: Step 5 — Decide on a marketing plan

    The five steps take a students through a process in which they identify a hobby or skill they enjoy and then hone the hobby into a product or service that has potential in the market.

    Listen to Chelsea discuss how Emerge provided the necessary “pre-work” so her students could build legitimate business plans.

    Then book a demo and see Emerge for yourself!

    The pre-work before the business plan.

  • Rubin Leads Resume Workshop, Kicks Off Engagement with Frederick Co. Schools

    Rubin Leads Resume Workshop, Kicks Off Engagement with Frederick Co. Schools

    There’s nothing more meaningful than meeting face to face.

    That held true on two levels during the Senior Expo Experience on Friday, October 3 for Frederick County Public Schools in Winchester (Northern Virginia).

    First, we led a resume workshop for 300+ seniors across the district. Rubin Founder Danny Rubin conducted a 15-minute crash course nine separate times as students in small groups shuffled in and out of the session. The workshop focused on how to use numbers to stand out on paper.

    For example, it’s more powerful on a resume to include, as a store associate at Target, that you “check out 100 customers per day and 500 per week” rather than only write “store associate.”

    The Senior Expo Experience also allowed our team to talk directly with district leadership, including Superintendent Dr. George Hummer, CTE Director George Bishop and School Board Chair Scott Sturdivant. The County now provides our products (ex: Emerge employability skills curriculum) to teachers and students within Google Classroom, and it’s important that school officials top down understand what goes on in the classroom.

    At Rubin, we don’t “sell curriculum.” We develop partnerships with school districts so they trust that we are the premier resource for employability skills training. It helps a great deal to shake hands with local leadership so they know who we are.

    Our thanks and appreciation to Frederick County Public Schools for having us at the Expo!

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    Rubin Founder Danny Rubin stands with Frederick County Public Schools CTE Director George Bishop at the Senior Expo Experience, held inside the gymnasium at Shenandoah University.
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    Nothing beats face-to-face interaction.