SIM Ventures · Solution Discovery
Discover the careers your learners are built for, by how they solve problems.
Not by a questionnaire. Learners work through real-life challenges with AI, and the way they think it through points to careers that fit them and that employers are hiring for, so they can choose an education pathway worth committing to.
- 1Learn AI. Practice asking good questions with SIM's private AI.
- 2Solve Real-Life Challenges drawn from everyday life and real careers.
- 3See how they solve problems across nine problem-solving profiles.
- 4Explore ranked careers with pay and current demand, then choose a path.
Why it matters
Most learners are placed in training. Few get to choose it well.
Seats get filled by interest or availability, and aptitude tests measure answers to questions, not how someone works through a real problem.
Placed, not matched
Learners land in whatever program has seats. Without a sense of fit, engagement and completion suffer.
Tests miss how people think
Multiple-choice assessments rarely show curiosity, planning or practical judgment, especially for learners who don't test well.
Reentry needs real demand
A good fit only helps if employers are hiring. Learners need to see current demand and pay before they commit.
What we've seen in every facility we've taught in
Participants have always been chosen by their own interest. There has never been a scientific way to select them, or to connect that choice to the job market.
- No measure of how a learner actually solves problems
- No link to careers that are in demand
- No view of realistic entry points into those careers
How Solution Discovery works
Real-life challenges, solved with AI.
A guided 60 to 90 minute session that feels like solving everyday problems, not taking a test.
Learn to work with AI
Learners practice prompting and answering in the app, using SIM's private AI.
A shared first challenge
Everyone starts with the same Real-Life Challenge, so every learner has a common baseline.
Learners choose what's next
More challenges from career areas they pick themselves.
Profile and careers
The whole session is analyzed to build a problem-solving profile and ranked careers.
The challenges are something you have to see in person.
How a learner works a Real-Life Challenge, and what that reveals, is the heart of Solution Discovery. We'll walk you through it live when we meet.
Example results
Every career, ranked for each learner.
Learners see all of our careers ranked by how well each fits their problem-solving profile, with pay and current demand alongside. They explore and choose; we don't choose for them.
Example learners Invented to show what a result looks like. The careers, pay and demand are real data. Pick one:
Loading careers…
How we measure demand
Real hiring data, every quarter. Not a 10-year guess.
Most career tools rely on 10-year projections. Those get the direction right, but miss the size of change and can't see shocks coming: AI, new technology, policy, war. We judge demand from what employers are doing now.
10-year projections miss the size of change
Average job growth for 2014–2024: BLS's own evaluation of its projections. Of 22 major job groups, BLS expected 6 to grow faster than average. 14 did.1
Right now: the biggest moves in hiring
Built for second chances
Careers learners with a record can actually pursue.
Every career shows how open it is to someone with a record, based on licensing and federal rules, so learners invest in a pathway they can finish. It's information to plan with, never a reason to hide a career.
In your state
Hiring incentives employers already have
Work Opportunity Tax Credit
Federal tax credit per qualifying hire within a year of a felony conviction or release.6
Federal Bonding Program
Free fidelity bonds covering the first six months of employment, at no cost to the employer or employee.7
Second-chance employers
Large employers committed to hiring people with records through the Second Chance Business Coalition, including:8
Built for your facility
Designed for secure and residential settings.
Private AI, no credit limits Available now
Learners use SIM's own private AI through SIM Ventures. It never runs out of credits and adds no per-learner costs. It can run fully offline, or on your network with a simple allow-list of approved sites.
Connects to training and credentials Available now
Results lead into SIM courses and industry certifications, so a career of interest becomes a concrete next step.
Solution Discovery and career results In development
The problem-solving profile and ranked careers are being built now, on the evidence shown here.
Private and consent-based In development
Learners agree before their work is analyzed. Results support their choices and are never used for discipline, hiring decisions or to screen anyone out.
Let's meet
See Solution Discovery in action.
In our meeting we'll walk through a Real-Life Challenge together, show what it reveals about how a learner thinks, and how that turns into careers worth pursuing.
Solution Discovery is exploration, not a test or a hiring filter. SIM Ventures helps learners choose an education pathway wisely; job search will be offered as an add-on, but it isn't the purpose. Record-friendliness ratings are general information, not legal advice; outcomes depend on the offense, time since release, the state and the employer. Rankings show possibilities and the evidence behind them; learners make their own choices. The nine profiles are SIM Ventures' research framework, which we continue to refine and validate with real learners. Our demand rule is reviewed as each quarter of data comes in.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Projections Evaluation: 2014–24.
- Indeed Hiring Lab, Job Postings Index by occupational sector (method).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics and Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
- U.S. Department of Labor, O*NET 31.0 database: tasks and work activities by occupation.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, occupational employment and median wages, 2025.
- Internal Revenue Service, Work Opportunity Tax Credit; U.S. Department of Labor, WOTC quick reference for employers.
- U.S. Department of Labor, Federal Bonding Program.
- Second Chance Business Coalition, membership announcement.
- NCSL, Barriers to work in licensed occupations; Collateral Consequences Resource Center, Fair chance employment and occupational licensing survey; CSG Justice Center, National Inventory of Collateral Consequences.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State and Metro Area Employment; Indeed Hiring Lab, job postings by state.