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Tag: employability skills

  • 300+ BPA Advisors Request End-of-Year Activities from Rubin

    300+ BPA Advisors Request End-of-Year Activities from Rubin

    BPA logo

    As they say, timing is everything.

    In early May, Rubin offered a digital pack of 10 free employability activities to advisors of the national student group, Business Professionals of America (BPA).

    Business Professionals of America is the premier CTSO (Career and Technical Student Organization) for students pursuing careers in business management, information technology, finance, office administration, health administration and other related career fields.

    The free offer went out to the BPA advisors on May 6 and, within hours, 300+ advisors requested the resources. It’s often a challenge for teachers to fill class time at the end of the school year, and Rubin is right there to provide high-quality instruction.

    Topics from the end-of-year activity packet include:

    – How to understand the difference between a text message and an email

    – How to write work experience professionally on a resume

    – How to email your teacher politely for a reference letter

    We are always happy to be a just-in-time resource for teachers and advisors around the country. And we are grateful for our ongoing partnership with BPA.

    Timing is everything.

  • Rubin Attends NAWDP, Builds Connections with Workforce Development

    Rubin Attends NAWDP, Builds Connections with Workforce Development

    On Monday, May 5, Rubin Founder Danny Rubin attended the annual conference for the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP).

    Would you believe it…the national event happened right in our home base of Virginia Beach!

    We want to provide our employability skills resources to workforce development agencies in addition to school districts we already serve. The NAWDP conference is the ideal place to meet with vendors already support workforce boards at a national level. Our goal for 2025 and beyond is partnerships.

    In addition to workforce development, the NAWDP community reaches people in correctional institutions who want to gain job skills. These are important audiences where we believe our instruction can be helpful.

    We hope to share more news in the coming months from the world of workforce development. The NAWDP conference is the beginning.

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    Rubin Founder Danny Rubin poses by a lifeguard stand at the annual conference of the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP). The conference, hosted in our hometown of Virginia Beach, is the perfect way to develop relationships with vendors who already support workforce boards at a national level.

    Branching out to a new audience.

  • At Prince William Schools Workshop, Rubin is Glue between CTE, EL

    At Prince William Schools Workshop, Rubin is Glue between CTE, EL

    On April 24 in Prince William County (Northern Virginia), the Rubin team was part of a day-long workshop with CTE teacher leaders to determine ways Rubin employability content can bridge CTE and English Learners curricula.

    Prince William County Schools, the second-largest school district in Virginia, wants to make sure non-native English-speaking students can comprehend and excel at important communication skills for college and career.

    Rubin is privileged to be the resource that sits at the intersection of English Learners objectives and the needs of the CTE community.

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    Prince William County Schools CTE teachers develop a lesson plan that combines a Rubin Emerge activity (ex: How to Leave a Voicemail) with the scaffolding necessary to teach the lesson to a non-native English speaking student.

    Prince William CTE Supervisor Christine Good said it best from her post on LinkedIn:

    “Student achievement begins with adult behaviors.

    When the adults in the room share a compelling vision and actively engage in critical thinking, collaboration, innovation, digital citizenship, and demonstrating resilience through their work, the conversations are rich and the outcomes are powerful. This dynamic team of teacher leaders is committed to creating the conditions for student success within and beyond the classroom!

    The collaboration between the Career and Technical Education (CTE) and the English Learner (EL) Instruction teams is Learning and Achievement for All in action as we prepare all staff members to support and challenge all students.

    Imagine what our classrooms and schools might look like if we shift the conversation from “all students” to “each and every student.” Small shifts leveraging high impact instructional strategies have the power to transform the learning environment for each and every student, every day.

    Special thanks to Grant Bradfield, Katie Min, Danny Rubin, and Shawnell Carmichael for leading a packed and impactful day of learning, and a big shoutout to the entire hashtag#PWCSCTE team Sarah Martin, Ph.D., Tim Vaughan, Nasir Ayoub, Danielle Meyer, Benjamin Stodola, and Diana Collins for working tirelessly behind the scenes to make opportunities like this possible.

    Looking forward to the 2025-26 school year!”

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    Rubin Founder Danny Rubin (center) stands with Prince William County Schools (PWCS) Curriculum Supervisor Christine Good (left) and Supervisor of EL Instruction Kristine Lentz-Johnston. Rubin is collaborating with PWCS to connect workplace readiness skills with the needs of English learners.

    Every student deserve a chance at success.

  • Rubin Featured in “Mini Doc” by Regional Entrepreneurship Engine

    Rubin Featured in “Mini Doc” by Regional Entrepreneurship Engine

    This week, Rubin is the featured “mini-doc” by InnoVAte Hampton Roads, a resource network for startups in Southeastern Virginia.

    In the video, Rubin founder Danny Rubin and Director of Instruction Alexis Kruemcke discuss the work we do with educators and students across the country to strengthen employability skills. In the video, we also hear from elected officials in Virginia Beach, where Rubin is based, on the value of our company’s resources for the next generation.

    Give the video a watch here!

    Telling our story.

  • Virginia 9th Grader Wins America’s Next Great Intern

    Virginia 9th Grader Wins America’s Next Great Intern

    Fairfax County’s own Rakshana Damodaran is America’s Next Great Intern. The 9th grader at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology was one of 13 finalists selected to showcase top-tier communication skills essential to an internship.

    Second place: Shannon Jenkins, 12th grade at Boone High School in Boone, Iowa

    Third place: Jordan Blair, 12th grade at Blaine High School in Anoka, Minnesota

    Rakshana’s teacher, Jane Iyengar, receives a $250 cash prize to support her classroom.

    Rubin, the leader in online curriculum for employability and workplace readiness skills, hosted the competition.

    The submission period for the America’s Next Great Intern contest ran throughout February 2025, which is National Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month. All middle school, high school and post-secondary CTE students were eligible.

    The instructions were 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.

    A panel of judges from the Rubin team assessed the students across three areas:

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

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

    For more information or to set up an interview, please contact Danny Rubin at danny@rubineducation.com.

    About Rubin:

    Rubin is the leader in online instruction for employability and work readiness skills. The company, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, 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 soft-skill notification tool for email writing 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!”

    The best of the best,

  • Rubin Partners with Miami-Dade, Nation’s 3rd Largest School District

    Rubin Partners with Miami-Dade, Nation’s 3rd Largest School District

    Rubin Partners with Miami Dade, Nation’s 3rd Largest School District

    In the photo: Rubin founder Danny Rubin (left) stands with Miami-Dade students and their teacher Shnae Wallace. The students use Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum to help with email etiquette, job interview prep and more.

    Rubin, the leader in online curriculum for employability skills, has partnered with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to provide high school students with lessons that focus on college and career readiness.

    Miami-Dade, one of the largest school divisions in the country, has a robust internship program that sends thousands of high school students into the South Florida business community each spring.

    In the 23-24 academic year, Rubin products proved themselves as supplemental curriculum for the internship program. During the classroom portion of the internship program, 3,000 Miami-Dade students spent more than 250,000 minutes in Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum on topics like resume writing, email etiquette and job interview prep.

    In the 25-26 academic year, Rubin has expanded further into Miami-Dade through career-based pathways like health science, business and agriculture. Rubin will also now provide its Aspire career exploration video platform and Propel email etiquette teaching tool.

    All Rubin products integrate to Schoology, Miami-Dade’s learning management system, via LTI 1.3. That means students and teachers access Rubin content in Schoology seamlessly and without a traditional sign-in process.

    “We are honored to work with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, one of the nation’s leading school districts,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “Already we have made an impact on several thousand students, and we’re excited at the chance to make a deeper impression in the school years to come.”

    We reach South Florida.

  • Rubin Leads “PD” Workshops for Loudoun County

    Rubin Leads “PD” Workshops for Loudoun County

    On Monday, April 7, our founder Danny Rubin lead a series of professional development workshops for CTE teachers at Loudoun Valley High School in Loudoun County, Virginia. Loudoun is a fast-growing county just west of the nation’s capital.

    Danny showed the teachers how to locate and use Rubin Emerge employability content in Schoology via LTI 1.3.

    We also passed out our popular Rubin motivational posters for the teachers’ classrooms.

    Thanks for having us, Loudoun. And thanks for being a terrific partner!

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    Loudoun County teacher Ellen Milligan with a Rubin poster.
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    Rubin founder Danny Rubin leads a workshop on the Rubin Emerge curriculum with Loudoun County teachers on Monday, April 7, 2025.

    Training trainers in one of VA’s largest school districts.

  • Rubin Trains School Counselors in Las Vegas on Emerge, Aspire Products

    Rubin Trains School Counselors in Las Vegas on Emerge, Aspire Products

    Rubin is a leading provider of employability skills products for teachers, students andcounselors.

    During the week of March 24, 2025, the Rubin team led a series of virtual workshops with elementary school counselors in Clark County School District or CCSD (Las Vegas, NV) on our Emerge and Aspire products. Ashley Leon Ramirez, CCSD elementary counselor specialist, facilitated the workshops.

    Emerge is our signature employability skills curriculum, and Aspire is a growing library of career exploration videos. Both products are available in Canvas, the learning management system CCSD uses to provide instructional content to its more than 300,000 students.

    CCSD is the nation’s fifth largest school system.

    In the workshops, Rubin founder Danny Rubin and Director of Instruction Alexis Kruemcke directed 100+ counselors to locate Rubin Emerge and Aspire in Canvas. The Rubin team then demonstrated how to access a piece of Rubin content within Canvas without signing in traditionally.

    The counselors found value in topics like social media etiquette, email writing, resume help and interview prep.

    Live trainings (virtual or in-person) are a critical part of how Rubin delivers instructional materials to large districts like CCSD or smaller school divisions.

    Book a demo to see Emerge and Aspire in action, and discover why many of the nation’s largest districts choose Rubin for employability skills training.

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    In the image above, Rubin founder Danny Rubin leads a virtual training for elementary school counselors across Clark County School District (Las Vegas, NV), the nation’s fifth-largest school system. Clark County is a Rubin customer and employs our Emerge and Aspire products for employability skills training and career exploration, respectively.

    Fifth largest school district in the nation.

  • Here are the Finalists for America’s Next Great Intern!

    Here are the Finalists for America’s Next Great Intern!

    The Rubin team is excited to announce the 2025 finalists for our America’s Next Great Intern contest.

    In the annual contest, students showcase employability skills that employers nationwide value in new hires.

    Rubin, the leader in online resources for employability skills training, hosts the competition.

    The contest is 100% free. All participating students receive a certificate of completion and a ready-made portfolio of their submitted contest materials. The first place winner (high school division) will meet virtually with Scott Kaufman-Ross, an executive with the National Basketball Association (NBA).

    The free contest is open to middle school, high school and postsecondary students in any CTE or project-based (hands-on) class or program.

    Students were asked to 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.

    Demand for intern and job applicants with “soft skills” is a top priority across all industry sectors. According to a 2022 survey of employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), 76% of respondents want to hire young people who can work on a team, 73% want ones with strong written communication skills and 58% seek new hires who can speak well.

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

    Voting is now open! Visit rubineducation.com/vote to pick America’s Next Great Intern.

    Here are the 2025 finalists!

    • Kainat Ahmadzai, 10th Grade

    Prince William County Schools (VA)

    • Kris Basa, 12th Grade

    Nacogdoches ISD (TX)

    • Jordan Blair, 12th Grade

    Anoka-Hennepin School District (MN)

    • Ailey Bolson, 12th Grade

    Oconomowoc Area School District (WI)

    • Rakshana Damodaran, 9th Grade

    Fairfax County Public Schools (VA)

    • Da’moni Gosha, 10th Grade

    Phenix County Schools (AL)

    • Asher Hoffman, 11th Grade

    Laguna Beach USD (CA)

    • Shannon Jenkins, 12th Grade

    Boone Community School District (IA)

    • Anvith Narayana, 9th Grade

    Wake County Public School System (NC)

    • Jocelyn Osborne, 12th Grade

    Botetourt County Public Schools (VA)

    • David Sheffield, 12th Grade

    Montgomery ISD (TX)

    • Sofia Tovar, 12th Grade

    Allen Village School (MO)

    • Eliana Wehrle, 11th Grade

    Clark County School District (NV)

    See who made the cut!

  • Rubin-Trained GA CTAE Student Lands Job During Mock Interviews

    Rubin-Trained GA CTAE Student Lands Job During Mock Interviews

    Whether it’s a mock interview or an actual interview, opportunities can happen.

    That proved true for a Dawson County Schools CTAE student. Dawson County incorporates Rubin’s Emerge curriculum for employability skills into its CTAE curriculum. Students use Emerge units for job interview prep, resumes, cover letters, email etiquette and more.

    Dawson County Schools held a day when employers from the community visited the school to help students practice job interviews. One employer, who manages an insurance company, was so impressed with a particular student’s poise and maturity during the interview, that he hired her for an administrative position on the spot.

    Mind you, the experience was a mock interview. There was no initial plan for job offers.

    The student’s job interview performance speaks to the high-quality instruction students receive through Rubin Emerge.

    Kristy Moore, the work-based learning coordinator in Dawson County, believes Emerge made the difference during the mock interview.

    Rubin = Job offers.