You lost your job. Businesses are closed and no one is hiring. This is the new reality for the 26 million Americans who have filed for unemployment in the last four weeks. To help address the deepening unemployment crisis in the U.S., and to empower all those facing financial insecurity, leading education nonprofit Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) has taken its highly effective entrepreneurship curriculum for high school students and adapted it to help adults in need across the country.

NFTE Career Relaunch is a free, two-week online course designed to teach unemployed or underemployed adults the essentials of entrepreneurship. The 14-lesson course prompts participants to think creatively about the skills and talents they can leverage to build a new career.The course offers interactive digital lessons, assessments, and video content on topics such as evaluating a business opportunity, performing market research, providing value to customers, targeting customer segments, and financing a startup. People who take the course will also have access to expert advice from speakers in NFTE’s alumni network, which includes executives from Google, Microsoft, and a wide variety of entrepreneurs. After taking the course, participants will have developed a sound business idea, as well as a business plan they can use to take the operational and financial steps needed to bring their idea to life.

“The tidal wave of unemployment has revealed the precariousness of most people’s livelihoods. People are learning that they don’t own their futures in the way they thought,” said NFTE president and CEO, Dr. J.D. LaRock. “NFTE is all about owning your future. That’s what we teach in middle and high school classrooms, and it’s equally relevant in addressing this crisis, which is not just an economic crisis, but a crisis of social capital and personal empowerment. NFTE Career Relaunch gives people agency in a time of uncertainty.”

At least 26 million people have filed for unemployment since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Historically, small businesses and startups have jumpstarted job creation following a severe economic downturn. NFTE’s Career Relaunch program will be a valuable tool to help people navigate an unprecedented jobs crisis.

To access NFTE Career Relaunch, visit nfte.com/relaunch.

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