Dr. Jack J. Kendall

CEO & Co-Founder, nordfen · Lecturer, ETH Zürich

Portrait of Dr. Jack J. Kendall

Skilled work takes years to learn. We don't have years.

I’m scaling the solution to teach technical and skilled jobs.

10 minutes a day × 365 days= 60 hours of practice a year
Problem

The skilled worker shortage is not a knowledge problem. It is a time problem.

72%

of employers worldwide struggle to find the skilled people they need.1

460’000

workers Switzerland will be short by 2035. 297’000 of them are retirements.2

3–4 years

to qualify through a Swiss vocational apprenticeship (EFZ).3

Training a skilled worker still takes years of courses and supervised practice, and working adults can't stop earning to study. Experienced people retire faster than new ones qualify, and the gap keeps growing.

  1. ManpowerGroup, 2026 Global Talent Shortage Survey: 39’063 employers in 41 countries.
  2. economiesuisse and Swiss Employers' Association, 2024.
  3. Swiss federal vocational education and training (VET), Federal Diploma of Vocational Education and Training.
Approach

Learn a trade a few minutes at a time.

Short daily lessons, instant feedback and a habit you keep. Jack’s vision is to make it work for the most demanding jobs.

Minutes

not semesters

Lessons short enough to fit into a break, a commute or the end of a shift.

Practice

not lectures

Every lesson is something you do, with immediate feedback on what you got wrong.

Streaks

not exams

Progress builds daily and is measured continuously, so skills stick.

Background

Teacher, researcher, founder.

YearsRoleWhere
2025–CEO & Co-Foundernordfen, simulation training for drone crews
2026LecturerETH Zürich, Imaging and Computing in Medicine
2022–25Head TutorETH Zürich, led the teaching assistant team and exams
2021–26Dr. sc. ETHETH Zürich, Laboratory for Bone Biomechanics
2021Visiting ResearcherBoston University
2017–21Teaching AssistantETH Zürich
2019–21Founding EngineerScyon Orthopaedics, full development of a class IIb medical device
2019–21MSc Mechanical EngineeringETH Zürich, with distinction

Doctoral thesis: In silico micro-multiphysics agent-based modelling of bone regeneration and mechanotherapy in the prematurely ageing mouse. Publications on Google Scholar.

Contact

Skilled worker shortage? Let’s sort it.

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