Future Academy

Bringing knowledge about the future of work to classrooms and ensuring that young people can develop skills and capabilities needed.

Automation, globalisation and more flexible working arrangements are rapidly reshaping our economy and work. Compounding this more dynamic and complex world of work is the reality that many jobs of the future don’t exist today. The World Economic Forum has argued that in many industries and countries, the most in-demand occupations or specialties of today did not exist 10 years ago. It is estimated that

15 year-olds in Australia today will make 17 job changes across 5 different careers. In order to effectively prepare young people for this future of work they need to understand the skills and capabilities that will be most portable and in demand in the new economy.

Future Academy recognises that teachers play an integral role in preparing young people for the future of work. A high performing teacher can actually account for up to 30% of the achievement differences in students. Australia needs to cultivate teaching as an expert and highly sought after profession in order to attract teachers that will be able to prepare our young people for the future. Professional development is crucial to doing this, in order to embed continuous learning in our young people we need to ensure the culture of lifelong learning exists in schools for our teachers as well.

This digital community for teachers will provide access to professional development on the skills and capabilities that young people need to navigate this complex future. High quality professional development for teachers is sorely lacking in Australia, according to OECD statistics up to 42% of Australian teachers report their professional development particularly on skills that are necessary in the future of work such as problem solving had little or no impact on their teaching. Australian teachers also report spending less time on different sources of professional development when compared to other OECD countries. The most utilised source of professional development for teachers is workshops or formal courses, making it extremely difficult for teachers from rural and remote areas who are often not able to travel to metropolitan areas to attend such training. By developing a digital community through a co-design process with teachers that can be utilised both online and offline we are expanding the reach of the professional development.

The digital community will provide teachers in Australia with the ongoing professional development needed to maintain their accredited teaching status and embed a culture of lifelong learning in the classroom. As well as providing interactive activities for them to do in the classroom that is mapped to curriculum for ease of use.

Future Academy will improve teachers understanding of the future of work and the skills and capabilities needed to navigate it, and cultivate an enthusiasm of lifelong learning that will be transferred from teacher to student. Through shifting the mindset of teachers to thinking about how their students can develop a portfolio of skills that are transferable across jobs and careers, students Australia-wide will understand their future work opportunities and feel more confident about navigating their future.

Future Academy brings together the research, resource development and professional development for educators we have done on the ground into the digital space. It utilises and amplifies the Foundation for Young Australians’ highly valued New Work Order research series by bringing teachers tools, skills and curriculum mapped learning resources, to their classrooms, regardless of postcode. Our work has huge reach, and has resonated with teachers in particular, they have identified their need to understand how they can best prepare their students for the future, we want to fill that gap and better prepare our teachers.

The solution will be provided in the form of an app, that will have both on- and offline capabilities, as many teachers live in regional and remote areas with internet access that is sporadic and unreliable. By providing a solution utilising technology we will be able to bring Future Academy to scale nationwide.

Future Academy will turn our New Work Order research series into an interactive online resource for teachers. This would include videos, online presentations, and articles relating to integrating the future of work into the classroom. We will also work through a co-design process to create a working prototype that will be tested with teachers and students to gain user feedback. Alongside this process we will utilise already existing connections with schools, and create partnerships with other software providers to ensure the solution can be brought to scale once successfully trialled and launched.  

We will develop a conversation hub for teachers to test their learning, and provide mentoring to each other on embedding the future of work in the classroom. This would be supported by a series of webinars provided by FYA supporting the engagement.

The Foundation for Young Australians will continue to research the skills and capabilities that young people need to be able to thrive in the future of work to ensure our professional development is evidence-based. We would continue to grow the reach of Future Academy by digital storytelling that can demonstrate the impact of the digital community and resources provided.

We will utilise our current digital and school based networks and research engagement to inform teachers about Future Academy. We have seen an outstanding engagement with our research both online and in-person. We have delivered over 73 presentations on our research this year, reaching over 7000 people and our reports and related tools have been downloaded over 17,000 times this year. In 2017 we had over 150 presentations of our research reaching more than 30,000 people.

The digital community will be provided on a subscription basis, teachers will be able to access the tools and resources available.

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There is approximately 9,500 schools in Australia that enrol 3.9 million students. We anticipate that through our current networks of schools we would see a 70% conversion rate within 12 months, this would ensure we would be reaching at least 175 schools and 70,000 students. We anticipate that we will be able to reach 5-10% of schools Australia-wide within 3 years approximately 950 schools and 400,000 students.

Once the digital community is joined the effects will be almost instantaneous as teachers will begin their professional development and will be equipped with knowledge about the future of work.

We have a cross-disciplinary team with a wide variety of skills and capabilities that ensure we are uniquely positioned to deliver the digital community. Our team consists of people who have backgrounds in teaching, digital, research and business development. Due to this variety of experience we can ensure we can build partnerships and communicate with people and organisations across education, software and broader stakeholders.

FYA is a partner powered organisation and as success of this project will rely on our ability to build successful partnerships that create shared value, this is project is best tackled by our team.

Future Academy will utilise a subscription model with two tiers of pricing levels:

• Tier 1 - Subscription Only (School leadership and teaching staff at the relevant school will have access to the digital community and the professional development, activities and research contained within it)

• Tier 2 - Subscription + New Work Order Masterclass (same as tier 1 with the additional of access to send 2 teaching staff members to a yearly face-to-face session held in different regions throughout Australia that covers our New Work Order research and activities relating to embedding it into school curriculum)

We are uniquely positioned for long-term sustainability as we are leveraging our already existing research and intellectual property at no cost. Our organisation funds our research which is updated yearly or bi-yearly. This would ensure that the digital community would be up to date with the most recent future of work research.

Through successfully gaining the backing of MIT Solve we will be able to access mentorship for building effective technology solutions through access to digital experts that have experience in creating seamless user experiences that can engage with a range of audiences. MIT Solve will also provide a platform for us to be able to apply for funding to further create impact within the education sphere in Australia.

Teachers in Australia are overburdened with administrative work and often feel like they do not have time to teach anything outside the curriculum. The biggest risk of Future Academy is that teachers do not have the time to use Future Academy. Solve can help to provide mentoring on creating a seamless user experience that encourages regular use.