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Future Anything : Activate

place Australia

Bending the future; one youth-led idea at a time.

Future Anything's Activate program transforms young people’s passion and creativity into innovative ideas that make their world a better place. Our mission is to create enterprising students, empowered educators, and future-ready schools. What do we mean by ‘enterprising’? “Enterprising (adj) : marked by an independent energetic spirit and by readiness to act.”

Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Web presence

2018

Established

6K

Children

1

Countries
Target group
Students upper
Updated
April 2023
A transformational shift from pedagogy that privileges knowledge to a deeper 'real-world' focus on skills and capabilities that will enable young people to thrive in a complex world. We believe that with supported educators leading authentic, ‘future ready’ curriculum, we really can bend the future; one youth-led idea at a time.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

The world of work is changing. In their lifetime, the average young Australian will have seventeen different jobs across five different industries (McCrindle 2015). Employers are listing more enterprise skills than technical skills in job advertisements (FYA 2016) yet research indicates that over 1/3 of young people are not proficient in these areas (FYA 2016).

What does your innovation look like in practice?

Activate is Future Anything’s flagship in-curriculum program that empowers teachers, schools, and young people to build innovative ideas and enterprising mindsets. Delivered over a Term or Semester, Activate integrates fully with the mainstream curriculum delivery as an assessable unit of work. Activate includes face-to-face professional learning (train the trainer), a fully-resourced curriculum (based on our proprietary curriculum) via our online platform, access to your school's very own 'Entrepreneur in Residence', and the opportunity for students to pitch in our National Grand Final for $20k in prizes and funding.
We know FA works. Analysis of the change in Activate students’ confidence showed increases across all six core future capability measures:
- Communication: +10%
- Collaboration: +3%
- Problem-Solving: +3%
- Critical Thinking: +5%
- Innovation: +10%
- Adaptive Mindset: +6%
And in our 2022 Post-Workshop Teacher Survey, 99% would recommend the program to others.

How has it been spreading?

Future Anything’s business portfolio has expanded through both the expansion of existing products (eg expanding Activate to multiple subject streams + creation of a new Primary school, offering) and the introduction of new products (eg an extensive teacher PD portfolio)
As a result, FA has scaled significantly in the last two years with our customer base growing from 2020 to 2022 as follows:
From 42 schools 97 schools
From c.69 teachers to c. 936 teachers
From c.2400 students to 11,000+ students
From a strong but largely QLD-focussed base in 2020, Future Anything expanded into SA & NSW in 2021, scaled there in 2022, and has recently secured its first customers in VIC, TAS and WA.
Our intention in the next 2-3 years is to expand internationally.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

For more information on Activate , our flagship program, head here: https://futureanything.com/activate/

You can download the brochure, register for the program or contact one of the team to chat further about how Activate might unleash enterprising thinkers and doers in your school.

Implementation steps

Induction Program
Schools engage in a tailored induction program with the Future Anything team to ensure that the program is set up for success
Professional Learning
All educators who are delivering the program engage in a day of face-to-face professional learning unpacking the pedagogy of Project-Based Learning, how to build enterprise skills (creativity & innovation, project management, critical thinking, communication, adaptive mindset, and problem-solving) in the classroom as well as networking with other like-minded educators delivering the program nationally.
Activator: Entrepreneur in Residence
Schools are introduced to their Activators who act as 'Entrepreneurs in Residence' to support teachers and students with mentoring and support. Each Activator provides 5+ hours of mentoring to support their matched school. More on our Activate program here: https://futureanything.com/meet-the-activators/
Program Delivery
Schools are provided access to our online platform that houses our curriculum. Each learning resource is designed by experienced educators and includes learning objectives, success criteria, a 'hook' activity, learning blocks, level up and level down activities to support differentiation as well as an 'exit ticket' to enable a portfolio approach to assessment.
Unlimited Coaching and Support
Each Activate school is partnered with a Future Anything Program Manager that supports the teaching team with the delivery of the program. Activate teachers can also dive into weekly 'drop in' sessions for support, our monthly Live Learning sessions, engage in our Enterprising Educators FB group and organise unlimited 1-1 (virtual) coaching sessions with the Future Anything team.
School Showcase
At the conclusion of the program, each school hosts their own 'Showcase Event', enabling participating students to share their innovative ideas with the broader school community. Many schools run these like 'Shark Tank' pitching events, or as live Marketplaces where students sell their innovative products.
Future Anything National Finals
All participating Activate students have the opportunity to apply for our Future Anything National Finals. The top 40 ideas (nationally) compete in our Semi- Finals, with the top eight youth-led ideas pitching in our National Grand Final (November each year) for the chance to secure $20k+ in prizes and funding for the ideas. See last year's Grand Final here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzs2lrirUjQ&t=3s
Post-Program Evaluation
Students and teachers complete both pre and post-program feedback surveys that enable us to provide detailed evaluation reports that analyse and evaluate the increase in our six key capabilities (problem-solving, adaptive mindset, critical thinking, communication, project management and creativity and innovation).

Spread of the innovation

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