Young people need career mentors so they can see what they can be.
Take a moment to think back to when you were 16. How much did you know about the real world of work? When you were trying to make decisions about your future, who offered you the most useful career advice?
Research shows that access to career and industry mentorship can be the most powerful determinant of a young person’s career pathway choices, workforce opportunities and aspirations for their future.
Unfortunately, not everyone has an equal start in life, or equal access to industry mentors, professional networks, personal connections or the workforce opportunities they need to succeed, especially when living through a pandemic, and especially when living and learning in marginalised communities or in remote, rural and regional areas.
This disadvantage has been impacted further during the remote working and learning environments of the past 18 months, and the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions which are preventing opportunities for face-to-face industry mentorship, work experience, WIL placements and real-world learning.
In order to continue to extend access to career and industry mentors to secondary and higher education students and institutions across Australia, Future Amp is working with education providers, tertiary partners, schools and our education for impact partners to support students with access to our market-leading, all-in-one, data-driven proprietary career exploration platform.
The Future Amp platform connects young people anywhere, anytime, with 100’s of inspiring virtual career mentors, personalised Career Passports and 100+ skills-based, industry-aligned courses to help students build in-demand skills and shape their thinking about what’s possible in their future career pathways.
You can’t be what you can’t see, and you don’t know what you don’t know.
Today’s jobs require constant updating of knowledge and expansion of skills, but when you’re a young person, it’s hard to know what’s out there and to keep up with the world of work so you can make more informed decisions about your future.
Future Amp provides every student with anytime equity of access to differentiated, real-world opportunities to discover global workforce insights, develop and gain critical in-demand skills, learn from 100’s of inspiring virtual mentors from leading global and local companies, and plan career pathways well before they enter the world of work, not just once they’re in it.
Students can learn at their own pace, in the one place, and get a genuine career early start advantage through learning from real people, in real companies, who share their career stories, and showcase their employability skills.
We know that frame of reference and equity of access to a range of role models matters most when students are undertaking their early career exploration and discovery.
By showcasing a diverse range of real-world career mentors in the Future Amp Career Mentors video library and learning courses, we can connect more young people across the country with amazing virtual mentors who can positively influence their choices, ignite their interests and ambitions, and help them access knowledge about a range of industries, jobs, courses and future career pathways they would not otherwise get. This can help students then make more informed choices about how they can translate their passions, interests and skills into future industry and job pathways.
Covid-19 has catalysed a step change in the way we live, work and learn.
Our global economy, the jobs market and education systems have undergone enormous change during the pandemic, and will continue to as we move forward. The way we traditionally learn in classrooms and lecture halls no longer meets the demands of the modern workforce – learning and work are integrating, skills-based hiring approaches are driving the new labour market, and hybrid education models are here to stay.
To meet this new world of education, today’s students need access to digital bridges to the real world of work. We are excited to be part of this change, and will continue to partner with leading global and local companies and brands across Australia to bring their people, pathways and skills to students everywhere, so they can get job-ready before they get a job.
Through our partnerships, we can continue to extend access for young people across Australia to 100’s of virtual mentors to help them discover what’s possible, build their employability skillsets and see what they can be. This in turn will contribute to a thriving, inclusive, diversity-led economic and social future for Australia.