Girls can't be what they can't see. Why we need virtual Career Mentors now more than ever.
It was Oprah Winfrey who once said: “A MENTOR IS SOMEONE WHO ALLOWS YOU TO SEE THE HOPE INSIDE YOURSELF”.
It is true that mentorship can be a powerful determinant of a young person’s life and career trajectory, access to 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 learning opportunities they need to succeed, especially when living through a pandemic, and especially when living 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 opportunities.
Like many education businesses, girledworld has pivoted to digital delivery models where possible during the pandemic.
But in order to continue to extend reach to students across Australia, we knew we needed to look at more scalable, on-demand, personalised solutions that could connect young women anywhere, anytime, with real-world industry role models to help them shape their thinking about what’s possible in their future career pathways.
To meet this challenge, we have partnered with Future Amp - a market-leading, seamless, all-in-one, data-driven proprietary platform to support secondary and higher education students and institutions across Australia with workforce readiness, access to 100’s of incredible virtual mentors and 100+ skills-based, on-demand learning courses.
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 skills.
While girledworld remains more committed than ever to building the workforce capacity of young women, increasing their participation in STEM industries and bolstering the visibility and opportunity for women’s leadership across Australia, we know that frame of reference and equity of access matters most when students are undertaking their early career exploration and discovery.
By showcasing many of our girledworld mentors in the Future Amp Career Mentors video library and learning courses, we can connect more young women across the country with amazing industry role models who can help positively influence their choices, ignite their interests and ambitions, and help them access knowledge about diverse future career 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 Future Amp, and 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 this digital education partnership, we can continue to extend access for young women 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.
If you are a business, corporate, startup, co-working space or institution who would like to talk to us about digital partnerships and virtual mentor programming as part of this Future Amp partnership, we’d love to hear from you!