We have been developing our digital capabilities since 2019 with the aim of increasing program accessibility and scaling student and mentor impact. We have fast-tracked this work during the COVID-19 pandemic when school excursions to member company workplaces have been postponed.
Creating digital versions of our traditional face-to-face programs will also allow ABCN to bring our programs to students in regional and remote areas in future. Our digital programs also remove barriers to mentor participation since they can join from their home, office or wherever they happen to be at the time.
The aim is to provide a new path forward in how ABCN programs are experienced and delivered.
Digital GOALS
Supported by Accenture and Fjord, we ran two successful pilots for a digital version of our GOALS program in 2019. As with the original face-to-face program, digital GOALS aims to widen the life choices and aspirations of students in their middle years of high school, encouraging them to complete their schooling by focusing on goal-setting, self-management and critical thinking. We ran our first 2020 digital GOALS pilot in South Australia, and have since run pilots in a number of other states.
Other core programs
Digital GOALS is part of a suite of ABCN digital programs being rolled out over the second half of 2020. Other digital pilots we ran in the first half of the year include Focus (leadership skills for girls) and Future Thinkers (innovative problem solving through design thinking). The next digital program we are working on piloting is Aspirations (awarenessof post-school career pathways).
EY SolveIT
EY SolveIT is a digital pilot program that aims to create authentic learning experiences linked to the Year 9 mathematics curriculum. The goal is for students to connect what they are taught in school with real-world business challenges, in this case around sustainability. This is the first time ABCN has explicitly mapped content to the curriculum.
