AI is changing every job — including yours. The AI Workforce Builder (Core AI & Digital Literacy Curriculum) is an 8–10 week, hands-on training program — about 100 hours — that takes you from wondering what AI means for your career to confidently using AI tools in real work, and proving it with a credential employers can read.
No technical background required. $0 cost for WIOA-funded participants.
Who It’s For
Adult learners and dislocated workers: people re-entering the workforce, changing careers, or watching AI reshape the job they already have. You don’t need a coding background or a degree — the curriculum starts from zero, and it’s built for every occupation, not just tech roles.
What You’ll Learn
The program builds five competencies, and you’re assessed on each one:
- Conceptual Understanding — what AI is, how it works, and how it differs from traditional software
- Tool Fluency — hands-on skill operating today’s AI tools in real work contexts
- Applied Problem Solving — using AI to analyze real problems and critically evaluate what it gives you
- Ethical Judgment — knowing when to trust AI, when to question it, and when not to use it at all
- Domain Application — applying AI in your own industry, tied to real job roles
Training is blended: on-demand coursework you complete on your own schedule, live facilitator-led sessions, and a capstone project where you build something real with AI tools.
What Makes It Different
It’s not a coding bootcamp. Most AI training either teaches programmers to build AI or bolts an “AI module” onto one specific occupation. This program builds cross-occupational AI readiness — the fluency, judgment, and hands-on skill that apply to the job you have or the one you want next.
Ethics is a core skill, not a footnote. Employers don’t just need people who can use AI — they need people they can trust to use it responsibly. Responsible use is trained and scored like every other competency.
You leave with proof, not just attendance. You get an AI Readiness Score at the start — a baseline of where you stand — and finish with the NAWI Score: a 0–100 AI workforce readiness credential based on the capstone project you actually built, evaluated by expert human reviewers, not auto-graded. It’s verifiable on LinkedIn and comes with a downloadable Certificate of AI Workforce Readiness carrying your credential ID.
How It Helps You After You Finish
You walk away with a portfolio-ready capstone project, a scored, LinkedIn-verifiable credential you can put in front of any employer or career counselor, and documentation of your competencies mapped to the same skill language used across the public workforce system. For job seekers working with a workforce agency, the program also produces the records your case manager needs to document your skill gains.
Program at a Glance
| Format | 8–10 weeks, approximately 100 hours; blended on-demand coursework, facilitator-led instruction, and a project-based capstone |
| Cost | $0 for WIOA-funded participants — students funded under the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act are not charged tuition or any institutional charges (as defined in Cal. Ed. Code § 94844) for attending and participating in the program |
| Credential | NAWI Score — a project-based, expert-evaluated AI workforce readiness credential, verifiable on LinkedIn — with a downloadable Certificate of AI Workforce Readiness issued upon completion |
| Audience | Adult learners and dislocated workers; no prior technical background required |
| Delivery | DataEthics4All facilitator/instructor network, under the direction of Founder Shilpi Agarwal (former AI Adjunct Faculty, Stanford Continuing Studies) |
The Platform and the Credential
NAWI Compass
The platform your training runs on. Compass delivers your baseline assessment (your starting AI Readiness Score), the curriculum modules, and the capstone, then administers the post-curriculum assessment — documenting your progress from start to finish in one place.
NAWI Score
The credential you earn. Your baseline AI Readiness Score shows where you start; the NAWI Score shows what you can do by the end. Each of the five competencies is scored 1–4 against a fixed rubric by expert human evaluators — based on your assessments and the capstone project you built — and the five scores convert to a single composite on a 0–100 scale. The credential is verifiable on LinkedIn: a portable, employer-readable signal backed by documented work, not just a certificate of attendance.
Mapped to O*NET
Each competency maps to skill categories in O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor’s national database of occupations and skills — so your NAWI Score describes your abilities in the same language employers and workforce boards already use.
Program Status
DataEthics4All has submitted a training provider registration with the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA) through the CalJOBS system and has applied for placement of this program on California’s Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL). Enrollment for WIOA-funded participants will open once the listing process is complete.
DataEthics4All does not award degrees, and this program does not lead to any state-issued professional license.
About the Organizations
The AI Workforce Builder is offered by DataEthics4All, a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation based in Sacramento — it is the sole postsecondary educational program the organization offers. The program is delivered on NAWI (National AI Workforce Infrastructure), a joint initiative of DataEthics4All and DataEthics4All Foundation, a Delaware public benefit corporation; the curriculum and the NAWI Compass platform are provided under license from the Foundation, NAWI’s Training Partner. Everything else described on this website is a charitable or community initiative of the two organizations — not a postsecondary educational program.
Contact
Questions about the program? We’d love to hear from you.
Email: [email protected] • NAWI: [email protected]