On Monday, April 7, 2025, the SOVA Innovation Hub and gener8tor, in collaboration with Microsoft, hosted a Workforce Innovation and Program Celebration at the SOVA Innovation Hub in downtown South Boston, Virginia. The event recognized the achievements of individuals who completed the gener8tor Skills Accelerator program.

Since its launch in 2020, the gener8tor Skills Accelerator has supported over 170 residents in Halifax County and surrounding areas. This no-cost workforce training program offers career-ready education, mentorship, and job placement assistance—empowering rural Virginians to build sustainable careers. Thanks to Microsoft’s scholarship funding and the SOVA Innovation Hub’s wrap-around support, participants gain valuable skills to enter or advance in the workforce.

Pictured Above: Danielle Remmick of gener8tor Skills (far left, first row) pictured with program completers at the SOVA Innovation Hub

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The post Master Project Management Skills with gener8tor’s Spring 2025 Program appeared first on SOVA Innovation Hub.

RISE Business Bootcamp powered by CO.STARTERS

Start, grow, or scaleup your business in Southern Virginia with a community of peers and mentors. For any entrepreneur in Southern Virginia (Halifax County and the 14 localities surrounding it). Apply by December 8th, 2023.

Apply by Dec 8th

ChangeX Southern Virginia Community Challenge

Use your own project idea, or one of 12 projects from the ChangeX list of options, like starting a LEGO robotics team or a pollinator garden. For people in Halifax, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Brunswick, or Charlotte County, Virginia.

Apply Now

gener8tor Skills Accelerator

Get skills and coaching to advance your career in Project Management. For anyone in Southern Virginia who wants to learn in-demand skills to apply in local companies or as a remote worker. Apply by January 14th.

Apply by Jan 14th

Download PDF Flyer

Contact us for more information

MALLORY LAWTER

SOVA Innovation Hub Community Manager

(434) 570-1305 | hello@sovainnovationhub.com

COWORKING SPACE HOURS

• Open Monday – Friday, 8:30AM – 5:00PM
• Closed for Holidays & Weekends

 

 

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Registration has opened for the Southern Virginia gener8tor Skills Accelerator Spring 2023 Administrative Assistant program.  This program is a free, 6-week, self-paced skills training program that is designed to help Southern Virginia residents enhance existing skills or develop new skills for today’s ever-changing workforce and receive a job as an Administrative Assistant.

Members of the Administrative Assistant program cohort will: 

• Master communication techniques and interpersonal skills that will propel their ability to work in multiple industries;
• Explore a great entry level position that allows them to learn all areas of a company before deciding what aligns with their passions
• Learn how to coordinate information across stakeholders that is impactful and drives business revenues;
• Discover the value in being a key player who makes sure day-to-day business operations are efficient and smooth.

The spring cohort will take place from May 22, 2023 – June 30, 2023.  Register online here by May 14, 2023.  

Anyone accepted into the program can use the SOVA Innovation Hub coworking space for free during regular business hours, Monday – Friday, 8:30am – 5:00pm for the duration of the program. 

What is gener8tor Skills? 

 The gener8tor Skills Accelerator is a virtual, rapid reskilling program for people looking for jobs in high-demand roles in their communities or working remotely for companies across the country. The program utilizes the LinkedIn Learning platform to provide high-quality instruction in fields ranging from Customer Service to Software Development.  

The program offers:  

• Self-paced, virtual curriculum from Microsoft and LinkedIn to learn skills for a career as an Administrative Assistant
• One-on-one career coaching & long-term job placement support
• Lunch & Learns with industry experts 
• Resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile coaching
• Job Interview preparation including mock interviews.

Learn more about the program on the gener8tor website. Please contact Mackenzie Herro, Skills Recruitment Manager for gener8tor at mackenzie@gener8tor.com for more information.  

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SOUTH BOSTON, VIRGINIA – August 10, 2021 – SOVA Innovation Hub, Microsoft and gener8tor announce gener8tor Upskilling Southern Virginia’s next free fully virtual training program to help Southern Virginia residents get critical digital skills for in-demand jobs. Program registration is open now and closes on August 23.

gener8tor Upskilling Southern Virginia is open to all Southern Virginia residents seeking to develop new skills in project management.

This six-week, cohort-based program will include:

• Self-paced virtual curriculum from Microsoft and LinkedIn to learn skills for in-demand Project Management roles while earning certifications and badges;
• One-on-one concierge support from the gener8tor team on the skills content, plus career coaching on resume and cover letter writing, LinkedIn profile creation and interviewing;
• Virtual access to a network of peers for support and community;
• Access to SOVA Innovation Hub’s coworking space and community network during the program;
• And opportunities to interview with companies ready to hire candidates with these skills.

At the end of the six-week program, participants will have the ability to leverage access to gener8tor’s national portfolio of companies hiring for remote roles, local hiring companies and Microsoft’s Career Connector. Microsoft’s Career Connector is a new service that will help place 50,000 job seekers skilled by Microsoft’s nonprofit and learning partners in tech-enabled jobs in the Microsoft ecosystem in the next three years. Career Connector will have a specific focus on women and underrepresented minorities in technology.

“The pandemic has forced us to look at the widening digital divide in our community. Through Microsoft TechSpark, we are committed to helping people gain the skills they need in order to move into available jobs within the digital era,” said Jeremy Satterfield, Manager of TechSpark Southern Virginia at Microsoft.

“gener8tor is focused on helping communities invest in themselves in projects just like this,” said Joe Kirgues, Co-founder and Partner at gener8tor. “We are excited to continue our partnership with SoVA Innovation Hub and Microsoft to help people learn new digital skills and get the experience they need to succeed in jobs with local and national employers.”

“We are really excited to begin the third cohort of the gener8tor Upskilling program. Project management is a skillset essential to every business. We hope this training will be really helpful to people who want to move up within their current job, or who want to find a remote work opportunity using these new skills,” said Lauren Mathena, Director of Economic Development & Community Engagement at Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation, who supports program development for the SOVA Innovation Hub.

For more information on how to participate, visit gener8torupskilling.com/southern-virginia.

About gener8tor

gener8tor’s turnkey platform for the creative economy connects startup founders, investors, corporations, universities, job seekers, musicians and artists. The gener8tor platform includes accelerators, upskilling, corporate programming, and conferences with content on community growth, impact investing, diversity, equity and inclusion, and innovation across education, agriculture, insurance, healthcare, and more. Recently, gener8tor was named one of Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators.

About SOVA Innovation Hub

The SOVA Innovation Hub is a non-profit organization created to spark economic transformation in Southern Virginia.  We bring together business and education partners to offer innovative programs that inspire people to pursue digital careers and entrepreneurship. Our state-of-the-art facility in South Boston, Virginia includes a coworking space, a training space, and the Microsoft Experience Center.

The post Free Job Skills Training Opportunity in Southern Virginia appeared first on SOVA Innovation Hub.

The goal of gener8tor Upskilling Southern Virginia is to help Southern Virginia residents get critical skills for in-demand jobs. The Upskilling curriculum is self-paced and virtual so you can complete it on your own time from home, the library, or anywhere with WiFi. Even though completing the curriculum is done independently, participants are part of a cohort, a network of peers who support each other and form a community. Cohort participants also get one-on-one coaching support for help with job searches, resume writing, and interview practice. At the end of the program, participants will have the ability to leverage gener8tor’s resources to access a job in their community or at national companies hiring for virtual jobs.  

Even though she never expected to be impacted by COVID since her job was already remote prior to the pandemic beginning, Cathy was laid off in April of this year. The quality assurance and monitoring company she worked for lost one of their large contracts and had to trim their workforce – closing one chapter of Cathy’s career. Thankfully, the timing could not have been better as the gener8tor cohort began just at the right time for her to brush up her skills and start searching for a new job.  

Cathy chose to take the customer service track to expand on her existing customer service experience, and she found the program immensely valuable. She said it’s important to learn soft skills to be prepared for the workforce, especially “learning how to listen”. It’s one of those things that everyone should be taught in high school but somehow gets missed. Have no fear – gener8tor Upskilling is a way to plug the gaps in your knowledge and learn soft skills that are beneficial to customer service jobs. If you’re still on the fence about applying for the gener8tor Upskilling program, let Cathy persuade you. She says “take it – it will change your life!”  

Additional gener8tor Upskilling cohorts are being planned – sign up for our newsletter to be notified once the program application opens.  

Want to find out when the next gener8tor Upskilling application opens?

Sign up for our email list: bit.ly/signupSOVA

Want to explore digital skills to help your career? 

LinkedIn Learning is offering free access to in-demand skills: sovainnovationhub.com/digital-skills/linkedin-learning

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 25, 2020

MEDIA CONTACT

Lauren Mathena
hello@sovainnovationhub.com                                                                                                

gener8tor, SOVA Innovation Hub and Microsoft Announce Job Skills Training Efforts in Southern Virginia

Alliance Uses Cohort Model to Offer Job Seekers Training, Support and Placement

SOUTH BOSTON, VIRGINIA – gener8tor, SOVA Innovation Hub, and Microsoft today announced an effort to launch gener8tor Upskilling, a free training program to help Southern Virginia residents get critical digital skills for in-demand jobs. The program will kick off its first, virtual class on Oct. 19, 2020.

gener8tor Upskilling Southern Virginia will be open to all Southern Virginia residents seeking to develop new skills or enhance existing skills in Customer Service or Sales.

This five-week, cohort-based program will include:

• Self-paced virtual curriculum from Microsoft and LinkedIn to learn skills for in-demand Customer Service or Sales roles, and earn certifications and badges;
• One-on-one concierge support from the gener8tor team on the skills content, plus coaching on interview skills and resume, LinkedIn profile and cover letter writing;
• Virtual access to a network of peers who can support each other and form a community;
• And opportunities to interview with companies ready to hire candidates with these skills.

At the end of the five-week program, participants will have the ability to leverage the resources of these organizations to access a job in their community or at national companies hiring for virtual jobs.

“The pandemic has forced us to look at the widening digital divide in our community. Through Microsoft TechSpark, we are committed to helping people gain the skills they need in order to move into available jobs within the digital era,” said Jeremy Satterfield, Manager of TechSpark Southern Virginia at Microsoft.

“gener8tor is focused on helping communities invest in themselves in projects just like this,” said Joe Kirgues, Co-founder and Partner at gener8tor. “We are excited to partner with the SOVA Innovation Hub and Microsoft to help people learn new digital skills and get the experience they need to succeed in jobs with local and national employers.”

“We are excited to be working with gener8tor and Microsoft to bring this opportunity to the citizens of Southern Virginia,” said Lauren Mathena, Director of Economic Development and Community Engagement for Mid-Atlantic Broadband and SOVA Innovation Hub. “The goal of the SOVA Innovation Hub is to inspire people to pursue digital careers and entrepreneurship, and the skills taught in this program are critical to success in these fields.”

Microsoft recently announced its global skilling initiative, which seeks to help 25 million people worldwide whose jobs have been affected by COVID-19 gain new skills by the end of the calendar year. Nationally ranked startup accelerator gener8tor will leverage its proven accelerator playbook, which provides individualized mentorship and coaching to startups across the country, to help individuals get upskilled.

For more information on how to participate, visit gener8torupskilling.com/southern-virginia.

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About gener8tor

gener8tor’s turnkey platform for the creative economy connects startup founders, musicians, artists, individuals, investors, universities and corporations. The gener8tor platform includes pre-accelerators, accelerators, corporate programming, conferences and fellowships.

About SOVA Innovation Hub

The SOVA Innovation Hub is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization created by Mid-Atlantic Broadband (MBC) and Microsoft to spark economic transformation in Southern Virginia.  By bringing together business and education partners to offer innovative programs, the goal of the Hub is to inspire people in Southern Virginia to pursue digital careers and entrepreneurship. The new, state-of-the-art SOVA Innovation Hub facility in South Boston, Virginia includes a coworking space, a training space, and the Microsoft Experience Center.

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