Apprenticeships are among the oldest forms of job training in the world, but the practice has often been limited in the US because of burdensome paperwork. That’s where GoSprout comes in.
The software startup from Miami has developed a platform that simplifies documentation for employers, apprentices and funders, boosting compliance and opening up millions more dollars in support for the training. Its results are multiplying fast.
Not only has GoSprout digitized more than 500,000 training records to date, it recently raised $1.2 million to grow operations. It’s also been chosen to run the tech portion of a new three-year, nationwide Jobs for The Future program backed by Google. And its clients – including United Airlines – now use its platform even outside the US, said co-founder and CEO Carlos Vazquez [pictued above].
What’s more, GoSprout this April was awarded a coveted fellowship from the Bravo Family Foundation for entrepreneurs of Puerto Rican heritage, complete with mentoring from founders and investors in the Thoma Bravo network.
“In a world changing so much, apprenticeships have momentum. They’re the last frontier of talent development,” Vazquez said. “Our goal is to build the infrastructure that makes apprenticeships easier to create, simpler to scale, and accessible to millions more people. We’re working to expand opportunities to high-paying, debt-free career pathways and to increase economic mobility.”
Helping underrepresented minorities find well-paid jobs
The training initiative is personal for Vazquez, a New York-Puerto Rican from the South Bronx who is the first in his family to graduate from college. He’s been working for decades to help underrepresented minorities succeed in school and in tech.
Vazquez first mentored high school and college students through programs in New York, then earned a master’s degree in education, and taught in several states. After launching the Year Up program in Miami, he founded nonprofit Miami EdTech in 2017 to boost skills training in South Florida.
Soon, Vazquez realized that millions of dollars in funding for apprenticeship programs in the US was going unused because of problems with compliance. Documenting the training was so complex that many employers simply opted not to seek cash from federal, state and county governments and other funders.
Vazquez teamed up with software developer Roger Rodriguez, who he’d met in Miami. The two launched their cloud-based platform in 2023, and since then, have helped employers mobilize millions of dollars for job training, he said.
Miami-Dade Public Schools among GoSprout’s clients
Today, GoSprout serves clients as diverse as Amgen pharmaceuticals, Duncan Aviation and University of Virginia, and it’s partnering with employment agency CareerSource South Florida. The venture supports training in fields from aviation mechanics to advanced manufacturing and data marketing, said the CEO.
Miami-Dade Public Schools, the third largest school district in the US, now uses GoSprout for students in some dozen job-training programs, including air-conditioning mechanic and pharmacy technician. The app makes the tracking of job-training hours easy, replacing a system that had been manual, time-consuming and inconsistent, said Maria Gutierrez, executive director of the district’s Office of Postsecondary Career and Technical Education.
“It’s been a marriage made in heaven,” said Gutierrez of the GoSprout partnership with the programs she oversees. She’s hopeful that three-way cooperation with CareerSource South Florida to train students, track their training hours, and help them find jobs after graduation can serve as a model nationwide.
Indeed, growing partnerships should help push GoSprout’s revenue above $1 million this year, Vazquez said. The company operates on a Software-as-a-Service model, with customers typically paying a subscription based on the number of learners they support.
An initial $1.2 million to grow and seeking more
To expand, GoSprout raised an initial $1.2 million this summer from investors including Education Innovation Ventures of Los Angeles, Robin Hood of New York and LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator of Boston, Vazquez said. Backing also came from the Bravo Family Foundation named for Miami-based tech financier Orlando Bravo, described by Forbes magazine as Puerto Rico’s first billionaire.
Today, GoSprout employs about a dozen people, about half in Miami and some in Colombia, where co-founder Rodriguez was born. Vazquez says he wants to grow the company to support 1 million apprentices, building a continuum that connects learners from high school into a well-paid career, “rather than treating education and work as separate chapters.”
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