KnoPro is powered by NAF, which is a national education non-profit. While KnoPro itself is a CTE platform built to give students in-demand skills, it also offers companies solutions thanks to those student ideas.
Essentially, this is a place where companies with problems can set tasks for students to work on and solve -- getting valuable work experience in the process. In that way, it should be a win-win scenario and is likely why more than 120,000 U.S. high schools work with this system.
Businesses have real problems identified, while students gain real-world experience that's great for both college and work applications in the future.
This guide lays out all you need to know about KnoPro to see how it could work for your class.
What is KnoPro?
KnoPro is a CTE-friendly platform developed to help students work on real-world skills by solving problems of businesses that could use their help. By using a points-and-prizes system, it allows kids to feel invested in this way of learning and developing.
Thanks to partners working with the platform that include American Express, Fleischer Scholars, Lenovo, Merck, and others, it allows students to connect with real businesses. The result is that a student or group could come up with a solution to a problem that is genuinely used by actual companies -- a great line to add to the resume.
The system works using challenges to give it a competition feel but also to help break down sections on which for students to work. This can include setting tasks to individuals or groups as a way to help develop specific skills based on each task's demands.
How does KnoPro work?
KnoPro can be signed up for by individual students as long as they go to high school. They are then met with a selection of challenge topics to pick from where they can choose to work solo or in teams.
Teachers can also sign-up and search through the projects as well as monitor student progress and feedback as they go.
The system uses virtual mentors to provide feedback so students can work independently of teacher assistance, largely. They are then able to submit their work to earn points and potentially win cash prizes.
Non-major entry options are also available through which students can try out the Daily Skillbuilders, as these are called. These are designed to help build skills and also win prizes but on a smaller scale, generally only taking about 10-minutes or less to complete.
What are the best KnoPro features?
KnoPro is about as real-world as it gets. So despite being safely digital and accessible, students are able to affect change in actual business scenarios. This is a tremendously empowering experience for the students in and of itself.
The monitors who offer feedback are recruited from the major companies working with the platform. This means students are getting direct feedback as they might do in a future job, providing invaluable experience and skills.
The gamification of all this makes it super accessible in a non-frightening way -- which a straight-work task might otherwise mean. Students get points and have the potential to win those cash prizes, incentivizing it perfectly.
This is getting internship-style experience for students without costing them anything or requiring them to have to go anywhere. And thanks to the Daily Skillsbuilder challenges, there are prizes and points up for grabs on a regular basis.
KnoPro is for students age 13 and up only, so while teachers could work through problems with a younger class, they won't be able to sign up for their own working accounts.
How much does KnoPro cost?
KnoPro was created by NAF, the nonprofit, as a way to get work experience to more kids and as such it has done this for free. Students can win prize money but taking part does not cost them anything aside from their time and effort.
KnoPro best tips and tricks
Do daily
Get students into the habit of taking part by encouraging those daily challenges, for in class and on their own time.
Team up
Set groups so students can encourage and support each other while learning to get to grips with the process of how this all works.
Give prizes
Give your own class based prizes to help students feel like winners even if they don't win overall on the task.
