Clasp founder and CEO Tess Michaels joins Wealth! to discuss her mission of connecting students with employers who will invest in their education and careers.
“I actually founded Clasp from a student-first perspective. I was a graduate student at Harvard and the sticker price was hefty… But the problem isn’t student debt, right? The problem is that people take that leap of faith with the anticipation of great outcomes. And when I say outcomes, I mean job outcomes, I mean long-lasting careers,” Michaels tells Yahoo Finance.
“But the reality is that most products, if they’re bad, you can return them. Student loans don’t work that way. And our mission is to help tackle critical workforce shortages in industries like healthcare by bringing employers into the equation, to sponsor that education and to set up multiple years of retention on the back end while really helping students where they need it most.”
She calls this a “win-win” situation for both employers and students as students get investments into their careers and education while employers invest in their workforce and talent retention.
After leaving her career as an investment banker to found Clasp, Michaels encourages anyone considering a career pivot to understand their interests and strengths and see if it aligns with industries where there are opportunities for growth. She explains, “A career is a long journey, and you want to make sure that you’re in the right home.” She also stresses the importance of being compensated fairly, so it is key to find an employer that will offer both an appropriate package and upward mobility for career growth.
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This post was written by Melanie Riehl
Bridging the gap between education and employment.
Our next guest connecting students with companies willing to invest in them.
Class formerly Stride Funding is a venture based FINTECH, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
The goal.
To connect students looking to help fund their education with employers willing to pay for their schooling and hire them as well Here.
Now we’ve got Tess Michaels, who is the founder and CEO of class.
Tess.
Great to have you here in studio with us.
Thanks for having me, Brad.
Absolutely.
All right, so let’s talk about this and start high level.
Just explain to us what is the need here.
The need behind a company like yours.
And what prompted you to start it?
Yeah, absolutely.
So I actually founded class from a student first perspective, right.
I was a graduate student at Harvard and the circuit price was hefty.
I remember going through my own back and forth and being like, God, is it worth it to go back to school?
And everyone talks about student debt.
You know, it’s $1.7 trillion crisis that we’re in.
But the problem isn’t student debt, right?
The problem is that people take that leap of faith with the anticipation of great outcomes.
And when I say outcomes, I mean job outcomes.
I mean long lasting careers.
But the reality is that most products, if they’re bad, you can return them.
Student loans don’t work that way.
And our mission is to help tackle critical workforce shortages in industries like health care.
By bringing employers into the equation to sponsor that education and to set up multiple years of retention on the back end while really helping students where they need it most take us into a student’s journey.
If they are engaging with clasp, how does it go?
Yeah, absolutely so.
First of all, what we’re really doing is taking the order of operations and flipping it right.
Right now the way it works is a student says I wanna become a nurse.
Great.
They find a great school.
They then look at the financing options.
They take all of the risk up front and then hopefully meet a great employer and find a good job.
We actually work with large leading health care systems, help them meet this talent while they’re still in school, build that pipeline of talent almost in a way like what ROTC has done for the military.
Meet that talent, lock them in, set up a multi year retention period.
And over that retention period, once they join that health care system, they will help pay down their student loans.
So it’s a real win win for both sides of the equation.
I mean, you’ve made a career pivot yourself a transition from being an investment in in health care at Goldman Sachs and to now founding your own company.
I mean, give us some actionable tips as well for people who are looking to make their own career transitions, too.
Absolutely.
So first and foremost, I mean, figure out your strengths, right?
Know what you’re good at and understand your interest?
Because again, a career is a long journey and you wanna make sure that you’re in the right home.
Second is understand what industries their real needs and career growth, right?
I mean, take health care.
For example, it is expected by 2026 that there is a 3.2 million person shortage.
I mean, look at our calendars.
We’re in 2024.
OK, so that is a pretty pretty don’t throw away amount of time that we’re waiting on.
And so when we think about these shortages, understand there are a lot of different career paths in health care alone.
You could become a nurse.
You could be a rad tech.
You could be a nurse anaesthetist.
You could be a Sur Tech.
So understand what roles exist when you think about that career.
And then, of course, a lot of careers require education, education, costs, money and so think about smart ways to finance your education.
At CLASP.
We’re really figuring out ways to bring the employers into the equation, to actually help you sponsor it so that you leave school feeling lighter, feeling freer and feeling committed to both your career and to an employer who cares for the right reasons.
I only got 30 seconds left.
I got a sprint to the finish here.
But when you are making career pivot or transition, how can you go about making sure that you’re not sacrificing on your wage on your compensation as well, knowing that you might have less experience than is looked for, but you still have a skill set that can apply to that new position.
That’s a great question.
So first of all, when we think about compensation, it’s not just salary, right, it’s total compensation.
What am I bringing home relative to the expenses I have?
And so finding a package that makes sense for you is real important, finding an employer that’s also gonna give you upward mobility, and that’s giving you real career growth is also critical.
And so, again, that’s the real mission.
Here is finding a way to have individuals and employers reimagine what the relationship looks like so that it really is about lasting bonds and, um, and a strong future.
Excellent advice.
Tess Michaels, who is the class founder and CEO joining us here, live in living colour.
Appreciate.
Thank you so much, Brad.
This is wonderful.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
