Our Program Development team is focused on innovation, design and development of new programs. 

It enables us to work beyond our core programs, collaborating with our member companies and schools to pilot new programs and concepts, with the aim of adding them to our core program suite. In this way, our program curriculum is responding to the greatest needs of the changing world of work to maximise our impact. 

Thank you to our partners, with whom we collaborated with on the following initiatives: 

Career Mentoring Curriculum for First Nations students

Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students is a key ABCN priority. In 2020 we began working closely with the NSW Department of Education to co-design and pilot a three-year Career Mentoring Curriculum for First Nations students. The Curriculum continues to expand and now supports First Nations students in NSW, QLD, WA & SA.

Hear from students and teachers in these videos :

Tech Careers Program 

Funded by Microsoft, the Tech Careers Program aims to inspire young people from low socioeconomic backgrounds to better understand and pursue tech careers in line with industry demands. In March 2023, ABCN ran the Digital Careers Expo, where over 200 Year 10 students from Western Sydney schools visited 3-4 member companies for an exclusive look into what careers in tech look like across a variety of industries. A big thank you to our participating member companies for hosting the students: Microsoft, PwC Australia, nbn Australia, EY, Westpac, Accenture and KPMG.  

Financial Capability 

ABCN, in partnership with the Ecstra Foundation, aims to support young people from low socio-economic backgrounds to build their financial capability skills and resilience as they transition from school into adulthood. ABCN has embedded financial capability into three of our core programs: Aspirations, Focus 2 and GOALS. Mentoring plays a valuable role in supporting students to build the skills they need to have confident conversations about money and to make more informed financial decisions.  

Read how one student is using the learnings here. 

Full STEAM Ahead 

Full STEAM Ahead is a three-week program delivered in partnership with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Powerhouse Ultimo. The Full STEAM Ahead program aims to engage students from Years 5-8 (10-14 years of age) with interactive, STEAM-based activities. Students develop skills such as design thinking, problem solving, collaboration, coding and prototyping, as well as beginning to understand how these skills can translate into careers. Schools that participate in this program are invited. 

See the design thinking projects of the 2023 cohort here.