SkillUp Sacramento – Professional Skills E-Learning Platform

Project Overview

SkillUp Academy, Sacramento's leading nonprofit workforce development organisation, required a digital transformation to scale their coding and professional skills training beyond in-person classroom delivery.

The Challenge

COVID-19 forced an abrupt pivot to online learning, but their only tool was Zoom calls. They needed a purpose-built platform that could replicate the collaborative, hands-on feel of their highly-rated in-person training.

Our Solution

We built an interactive LMS that brought the physical classroom experience online:

• Browser-based live coding environment with real-time code collaboration between student and mentor
• Peer review and project submission system with structured feedback templates
• AI-powered mentor matching based on learning goals, schedule, and technical stack
• Employer partner job board with application tracking and interview scheduling
• Progress dashboards for students, mentors, and program administrators with skills gap reporting

Key Results

• Student enrollment increased by 340% as geographic barriers were eliminated by online access
• Job placement rate of 87% for graduates — substantially above the national 60% average
• Onboarded 62 employer partners who actively recruit from the platform
• Platform success enabled $2.1M in new grant funding based on demonstrable impact metrics

Technologies Used

PHP 8, MySQL, CodeMirror Live IDE, WebRTC Collaboration, Stripe Payments, AWS CloudFront, Chart.js