As the future of work continues to change at a rapid rate, education and industry leaders are getting increasingly vocal about the importance of micro-credentials. The idea of micro-credentials is that they are certifications to support your capability to exercise certain skills. Instead of doing a large body of study, experts forecast that in the future of work, professionals will be able to complete short courses on specific skills to collect micro-credentials certifying their ability to demonstrate that skill.
At BOP we have had the pleasure of working with Methodist Ladies' College Claremont to explore what micro-credentialing could look like for students in the classroom today. One such example of this is with the MLC Flourishing Futures Programme. Flourishing Futures is a week-long program that gives Year 10s the opportunity to experience a workplace, as well as learning new skills through micro-credential courses. With a number of courses on offer ranging from photography to research, barista training and more, at BOP we had the pleasure of offering a on day virtual Business Builders course that would see students developing their entrepreneurial skills.
Due to border restrictions, our Brisbane-based team were unable to travel to Perth to deliver the program, but we did however manage to deliver the program virtually with girls joining from a central learning space in MLC. Over the course of the day we worked with the students explored how they could build their own businesses ready to launch for under $100.
Our team had the pleasure of working with students to identify a business idea, define their target customers, design their product or service, create branding and marketing materials, and finalise their business model, before having students pitch their ideas at the end of the program.
To ensure the day was as engaging as possible for students, our team worked hard to incorporate numerous brain break activities with platforms such as Kahoot, as well as using platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Notion to help students bring their business ideas to life in one central place.
At the conclusion of the program, students received a micro-credential from BOP and MLC to certify that they had developed a specific set of skills. Throughout the program, we also worked with students to explore how they could showcase these skills to employers, and how these skills could help them find employment opportunities.
To find out more about how you could organise a program like this in your school, make sure to head over to our Incursions Page and fill out a contact form.