Please tell us a little bit about yourself and about hundo!

I am the Founder & CEO of hundo.xyz – the world’s first on-chain learn-and-earn campus for Gen Z to upskill for the future of work in web3 and beyond.

hundo is the product of my life’s work. I have spent two decades working in and around youth issues including; young male suicide, teenage self-harm, mental health and homelessness.

At the core of all my work, I see time and again, children and young people who have the least power, impacted the most by the decisions of those in power.

At heart, hundo is a social impact business on a mission to tackle global, systemic and structural youth unemployment by giving young people access to the skills they need for the future of work.

I grew up in the North of England on free school meals and in a single-parent household. I know about the challenges of growing up in poverty without access to opportunities. I’ve seen it replicated time and again and I am bored of young people like I was always being at the hard edge of bad choices made by adults.

Children receiving free school meals like I did, are 3 x more likely to be unemployed later in life. Something fundamental has to change and we are mobilizing our community to make that happen.

What inspired you to start hundo?

I was fascinated by the possibility of an emerging and nascent economy in web3, metaverse and the fundamental way in which tech is disrupting societal norms especially learning and work.

During the 2020 covid-19 lockdowns, young people lost their jobs at 3-5x the rate of every other age group. They were already in low pay, zero hours, and vulnerable jobs. At the same time, major global and local employers were (and are) constantly facing a growing skills gap and shortage advertising $150k/pa tech jobs. I found it utterly heartbreaking.

So, we are focusing on web3 and the broader tech industry because one billion roles are needed by 2030 presenting educators and employers with a huge challenge and a huge opportunity for young people (digital native) to get ahead of the curve with access to the right skills they need.

The education system isn’t teaching young people the skills needed for these jobs and the future of work while at the same time the cost of living and inflation are out-pacing entry level wages and automation is creating rampant job losses. It’s a perfect storm.

Why do you think it is so important that young people especially get the opportunity to find careers in the Web3 space?

Many young people struggle to find a decent paying job. Youth unemployment is a key issue for society and the economy, costing nearly £7 billion to UK PLC alone and a multi-trillion dollar problem in the US and other major territories. If we give young people the opportunity to find careers in web3 and tech more broadly we provide an access point for a more diverse group of people to access well paying entry level jobs that meet the skills needs of employers and build their career from there.

Why are GenZ in particular so well suited to a career in Web3 and the metaverse?

Gen Z are the first generation of digital natives, they’ve grown up using web2, immersive gaming and social media apps. They have seen the emergence of new jobs, careers and ways of working and are well placed to take advantage of the growing career opportunities in web3. Creators, builders and community makers are needed in droves for an open metaverse to be fully realised and we want to provide the tools.

How do you think jobs in general will evolve through Web3 and the metaverse?

I see that Web3, metaverse and the core technology that underpins (from AI/ML to cyber, blockchain and cloud) are set to transform the way we live, work, learn and earn over the next century. They already are. Digital identity, self-sovereign data, anonymity and decentralized systems and finance are nascent and emerging conceptually but will continue to grow as what is now around 3% of the tech market grows over the next decade.

Job opportunities should not be limited by your physical location, background or ethnicity if you have the skills, connections and connectivity to access this new sector.

You have an event coming up in November called CareerCon2022, can you tell us a little bit about that?

CareerCon22 is the launch of hundo.xyz, the world’s first learn and earn campus for Gen Z.

It’s a two day immersive event for a global Gen Z audience to learn about the future of work, featuring unmissable talks, panels, drops and metaverse meetups as well as ongoing content to discover the future of work.

It’s free for U25s to attend.

All attendees get lifetime access to hundo.xyz and can register at hundo.xyz

What outcomes are you hoping to achieve at CareerCon2022?

That young people, parents, educators and employers come away with a more coherent understanding of what web3 is and look beyond crypto crashes and hype and start to think differently about the future of learning and work.

How do you think hundo will evolve over the next few years? Do you have any other exciting projects coming up aside from CareerCon2022?

I think hundo won’t look anything like it does now in three years time but I would like to look back and see that we provided a solution that had tangible benefits to young people.

We built the platform with around 200 gaming students who informed our work but ultimately we are building it to solve one of the biggest global issues of our time and will need to pivot and adapt to what works best to solve the problem.

We are setting out to onboard one billion learners into web3 – not something we will achieve on our own – along with forward thinking partners across the tech, education and wider landscape.

We are at One Young World in Manchester in September, Leeds Digital Careers Festival and Athens Democracy Forum and will no doubt be back at SXSW2023 (we won panel picker this year), Slush Helsinki and Istanbul Blockchain Week. hundo never sleeps!

Don’t forget: the 12th Annual Lovie Awards Finalist Announcement is happening 20th September! Get ready to VOTE for you favourites.