About Us

We Approach Education Differently

Skills Academy

Our approach

Traditional education programs often do not provide students with the experience and real-world skills they need to hit the ground running in workforce. At Skills Academy, we believe a great education should provide applicable, experience-based skills taught by people who have been-there-done-that... and were successful at it!

Skills Academy was founded by Business and Higher Education experts as a supplement to traditional education. Our mission is to address the skills gap in our workforce by equipping every student with the skills they need for success.

About The Founder

Darren Manzari

founder and ceo

Darren has spent over 30 years as an entrepreneur and business owner in multiple industries. He has also worked has a Profitability and Efficiency Consultant on hundreds of projects in more than 20 countries and developed a training curriculum that was used across the world. Darren is an expert in identifying and tracking key performance metrics, personnel organization and management, and leadership. He has a John Maxwell certification as well as a Six Sigma certification.

If you ask Darren what he does for a living, he will say, "I'm a developer of people."

OUR METHOD

Creating excellent value for our clients through our unique style of delivery

LEARN FROM EXPERTS WHO "DO"

Through weekly, live online courses with instructors and peers, students will learn MUST HAVE skills to be successful in college or to land the job they want.

Students will also learn how to market themselves and their new skills--how to speak the "skills language" that employers use.

At Skills Academy, we teach the most sought-after skills and we teach resume-building and interviewing to highlight those skills. Homeschool students now have the opportunity to become better at communicating, collaborating, critical thinking, time management, leadership, emotional intelligence, research, using common office software, and much more.

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The Skills Academy way

Our "why"

Only 66% of high school graduates enter college. Of those who do, the four-year graduation rate is only 33.3%. That means less than 22 out of every 100 high school graduates will graduate college four years later. Something's obviously wrong…

Our background

As homeschool parents, entrepreneurs conducting business in over 20 countries, consultants, and experts in higher education, we began to realize that there had to be a better way to prepare children for either College, or for their Career. This is where the idea for Skills Academy was born.

We have designed custom programs to teach students the critical skills business owners look for and college professors would be thrilled to see.

Our methods

Through our live, 9-month, group-learning curriculum, students learn from instructors, grow alongside peers, gain valuable insight into themselves, and have opportunities to put their new skills to work. Then they are taught to market themselves by speaking the "skills language" in their resumes and interviews.

What's so important about SKILLS?

Working and doing research in higher education for almost 20 years allowed us to identify skills gaps in the workforce as well as a disconnect between what's taught in school versus what's expected by employers. As business owners and consultants, we also understand why those skills are critical to a student’s success.

We identified commonalities in skills sought by employers across most industries, and we designed programs to teach these skills. We also help students understand why the skills are in fact critical to their success and how to put them to use. In other words, we provide them with the formula for success in either college or their career.

Have Questions? Visit our FAQ Page