Words by Smiley Team
Award-winning educational-tech charity Founders4Schools and leading social learning platform Future Learn have joined forces to create a ground-breaking online course to equip educators with the digital tools they need to deliver careers education to young people, with new and improved support for teachers advising students on their careers.
Mapper: Navigating Digital Career Tools, is open for enrolment on FutureLearn.com and learning began on the 1st of June. Mapper helps young people navigate an ever changing job market which has changed substantially in the last few months, let alone over the past decade or so. As a result, the information given to students by schools is often out of date; Mapper helps provide insight to educators about the world of work as it currently is, meaning that these teachers can then empower young people to make informed decisions about their futures.
The course is appropriate for all teachers in schools and takes two hours per week for 4 weeks to complete with the opportunity to apply for CPD certification.
With support from J. P. Morgan, the collaboration has created content that highlights and explains the work and services of a coalition of expert partners: Workfinder, Apps for Good, Worldskills UK, LifeSkills created with Barclays, The Skills Builder Partnership, Start, UCL, The Creative Industries Federation and The Centre For Education and Youth.
“The tools and knowledge provided within the course will help educators steer young people to consider their future career options with clarity and purpose.” Michalea Eschbach, Managing Director at Founders4Schools, said. “This is an uncertain time, but learning is a wonderful way of arming ourselves against risk. That’s why I’d encourage educators to sign up now so they can give their students a head-start planning their futures.”
Mapper covers a huge variety of topics including how the world of work has changed and the need to be adaptable, how digital tools and skills help people succeed in work and what tools are available to educators to help teach around this topic. After taking the course, educators will have mastered the wide range of digital career tools used by their peers to make their transition into work easier for their pupils - equipping them with the most up-to-date knowledge on everything from work experience opportunities to employer engagement.
Finola Lang, Global Education Lead at FutureLearn, emphasised how “Now more than ever, teachers and educators need access to the best resources so they can keep up with job market developments and expand their knowledge of the digital tools available to help guide the careers advice they’re giving to their students.”
“We are proud to partner with Founders4Schools, who play a leading role in improving the employment chances of young people, to deliver the ‘Mapper: Navigating Digital Career Tools’ course to help teachers effectively prepare their students for the world of work.”
