The students and teachers you’ll be working with as an Activator are all taking part in The Future Anything Challenge program. formally called ‘Activate’, it’s an in-curriculum program delivered by teachers that replaces their usual teaching in their English, Business, Science, STEM and Civics & Citizenship classes.

Students are challenged (and supported) to create enterprising ideas or for-purpose businesses that solve a real-world problem that matters to them.

The Challenge usually lasts a whole school term and it culminates in students pitching their innovative, scalable and sustainable ideas in their school’s own ‘shark tank’ style showcase event. Students can then also go on to apply for the Future Anything Finals events.

Check out the short video here to hear about the program from students first-hand.

The Future Anything Challenge is designed to build enterprising mindsets, and build capability in six core capabilities: Communication, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Action, Agility and Curiosity.

During the Challenge, students are given a version of the mission: “As an entrepreneur, pitch an innovative idea that makes your world a better place”.

Depending on their Challenge stream, this ‘Driving Question’ may be adapted to align with a specific subject area. Check out other Driving Questions here.

Every school is encouraged to hold their own showcase event with students pitching and/or exhibiting their ideas in a ‘shark tank’ or market style setting. This is an inspiring and energising way to celebrate and showcase students’ hard work and accomplishments during the program.

Students all have the opportunity to apply for the Future Anything Finals. Check out past pitches here. 

Activators will act as an industry mentor for the school(s) they’re matched with, providing advice, mentorship and support for their young people and/or teachers. This may be a physical or virtual presence.

The main ways schools use an Activator is through:
·      Spending time 121 or with groups of Challenge students listening to their business ideas, asking questions and providing constructive feedback to help them improve their idea or pivot their thinking (NB this is generally the most popular type of Activator/school engagement)
·      Acting as a judge at a school’s ‘shark tank’ style pitch event and showcase

Other ways to support your school might include:
·      Running a short workshop or leading discussions on topics relating to your experience or area of expertise
·      Joining a school-led Q&A or panel discussion
·      Helping teachers make connections to the local business/innovation/ industry ecosystem.
·      Sharing knowledge or your personal experiences (where appropriate) or the world of work.
·      Engaging your own personal networks to connect passionate students/ teams of students with industry professionals or mentors that could help them progress their business idea further.

No, though founders are very welcome to apply too! 

We’re looking for people that have diverse life experiences, and can apply their unique perspectives, insights and industry knowledge to help young people to think more broadly about the world around them, and how they could solve problems through developing innovative new ideas.

The role of the Activator is to be the conduit between school and the real world, to be a catalyst for thinking differently and to be a sounding board for building better ideas.

Some areas of expertise that might be helpful for Activators to share with students include (but are not limited to):

• How a business works
• Marketing/ branding
• Finance/budgeting
• Tech or product development
• Prototyping
• Testing an idea 
• Pivoting ideas
• Pitching/ Presenting

Please note all Activators will be required to provide evidence of a current Working with Children Check.

No formal professional qualifications are required.

Instead, Activators are required to be able to demonstrate that they can offer an experience of life and work in the real world; a good ear for listening; the ability to ask great questions, pivot and solve problems; and an open mind. 

A short online workshop will be held for all Activators prior to their residencies to help prepare them for their work with schools, teachers, and students.

Please note that all Activators are required to provide evidence of a current valid Working with Children Check.

Each Activator residency is 5-7 hours.

How these hours are committed is mutually agreed upon by the Activator and the school. For some, this could be a single day engagement, or for others the time could be in smaller sessions spread out over the course of a term or semester.

The key times for Activator/school engagement is likely be be in weeks 6-10 of the Term the schools is delivering the Activate program.  

Future Anything will introduce you directly to the key contact at your school, usually late in Term 1. 

We recommend you arrange a short call with them to connect, get to know each other and to discuss the timings that will be most convenient for you and the teacher/students. 

No, this is a volunteering opportunity.

Most schools deliver Activate in Term 2 or Term 3 of the school year, and we encourage schools to engage their Activator in around  or 7 of their school term.

Most Activator residencies will therefore occur in May and June, and mid August to mid September. 

Future Anything will introduce you to the key contact at your school directly, likely early in Term 2 (mid April).

We recommend you arrange a short call with them to connect, get to know each other and to discuss the specific timings that will be most convenient for you and the teacher/students. 

No. Future Anything will match Activators with schools participating in the the Future Anything Challenge program.

Matching will be based on a range of factors including the school’s needs and subject stream, Activator availability, and the Activator’s skills, experience, and availability.

We do recommend you provide any relevant preferences regarding your matched schools (e.g. visiting in person, supporting regional schools etc) in your application or email hello@futureanything.com

Yeah! Jump onto our short registration form here, pop in you details and we’ll be in touch!

There will be be a short (30 minute) online briefing session for all Activators early in the year. All Activators must commit to either attending the session live or watching the recording before commencing their residency.

Following the briefing session, Future Anything will introduce you directly to the key contact at your matched school.

We will support you to arrange a short call with the teacher at a mutually convenient time to get to know each other and to chat about your residency and to lock in the timings and arrangements that work for you both.  This will normally involve in person or virtual support in the classroom providing feedback on student ideas.

No.

We anticipate the majority of Activator residencies will be delivered remotely via Microsoft Teams, Zoom or other school-based platforms. 

Future Anything has done a lot of virtual mentoring with students over the last couple of years and we have found that this works extremely well.

However, in some cases, Activators may visit a school (for example to attend their school’s showcase [pitch] event) but this is not required.

If you do arrange to visit a school , please note that you must comply with with the school’s COVID-19 guidelines and safety/risk management procedures. Please check these before arranging to visit.

We suggest you discuss the location/delivery model for your residency with your liaison teacher contact during your initial call. 

All schools have protocols around sharing images of their students on social media. Please be sure to check in with your key teacher contact before sharing any images of students.

It is generally fine to share images where students cannot be individually identified.

The Working with Children Check (WWCC) is a screening process for assessing or re-assessing people who work with or care for children. Authorities take a detailed look at the criminal history and relevant professional conduct findings of applicants to assist in protecting children from sexual or physical harm.

Every State has its own application process. You should apply for the relevant WWCC from the State in which you reside. You will be asked to provide evidence of a valid WWCC before commencing your Future Anything Activator residency.

In most States you can apply online and the check is free if you’re using it for volunteering purposes. If a charge is applicable, unfortunately  Future Anything is not able to cover costs for this.

• ACT WWCC – click here for info
• NSW WWCC – click here for info
• NT WWCC – click here for info
• QLD WWCC – click here for info (NB if you are applying for a Blue Card for the first time, you will need to be linked to Future Anything via the online Blue Card portal. Please begin your application and when prompted, send details of your online account number and Date of Birth to hello@futureanything.com).
• SA WWCC – click here for info
• TAS WWCC – click here for info
• VIC WWCC – click here for info 
• WA WWCC – click here for info

Please send a photo/ copy of your valid WWCC to hello@futureanything.com as soon as possible.

You are in amazing company! A full list of Activators will be released soon.

We’ll host an online briefing/networking session to bring Activators together at the start of the program, and there will be other opportunities during the year for the group to get together in person or virtually, not least at the epic Future Anything Grand Final in November!

Don’t panic! The Future Anything team is here to support you on every step of your Activator journey, and to help make it the best it can be for you, and your school.

If you get stuck or have any questions, get in touch with us at hello@futureanything.com. We can even be part of your initial call with your school to help shape your residence to ensure it works for everyone.

If you’re not sure who to contact or have another question, just email us at hello@futureanything.com and we’ll help out!

Great! We love enquiring minds!

Shoot us an email to hello@futureanything.com and we’ll be in touch!

Activators will act as an  industry mentor for the school(s) they’re matched with, providing advice, mentorship and support for their young people and/or teachers. This may be a physical or virtual presence.

The most important way we suggest you support your school is via “speed mentoring” student groups. This involves spending time 121 or with groups of Challenge students, listening to their business ideas, asking questions and providing constructive feedback to help them improve their idea or pivot their thinking.

This might not seem like much, but our educators and young people report huge improvements in ideas and engagement through this kind of support.

You are also welcome to support your school in other ways if this works for you and your school. For example:

• Running a short workshop or leading discussions on topics relating to your experience or area of expertise 
• Joining a school-led Q&A or panel discussion
• Acting as a judge at a school’s ‘shark tank’ style pitch event and showcase
• Helping teachers make connections to the local business/innovation/ industry ecosystem.
• Sharing knowledge or your personal experiences (where appropriate) or the world of work.
• Engaging your own personal networks to connect passionate students/ teams of students with industry professionals or mentors that could help them progress their business idea further.

The key in-school program milestones for students include:

1. Ideating a range of different problems.
2. Identifying the problem that they want to solve.
3. Digging into that problem to better understand it.
4. Ideating a range of different possible solutions.
5. Identifying the solution (or combination of solutions) that they want to develop.
6. Identifying the “X-Factor” element of their solution.
7. Building a prototype of this solution.
8. Getting feedback on this initial prototype and adapting it accordingly.
9. Preparing their pitch to articulate their problem, solution and next steps.

The types of questions to ask students will depend on the stage of the program that they are up to when you visit (virtually or in-person). 

The main juncture we recommend schools engage their Activator is when students have an idea they want to develop. Normally they won’t “pitch” their idea to you formally, but should be able to describe the problem they are solving, their preferred solution (or top 2 solutions) and what makes it interesting.

Here are some examples of questions to ask them at this stage:

1. What is the problem you are trying to solve? Why have you chosen to solve that particular problem? How does this problem connect to your passions and/or lived experiences?
2. Why have you chosen that particular solution? How does this solution connect to your passions and/or lived experiences?
3. What makes your solution stand out from others? Why should someone invest in your solution? What’s your point of difference?
4. How have you prototyped your solution? What feedback did you receive about your prototype? Was there any common themes or any outliers in your feedback? How are you going to improve your solution based on this feedback?

As this is likely the first time that the students will be engaged in this type of program that is underpinned by design thinking, it is best to keep the feedback simple and constructive.

We like to encourage feedback using the following prompts:

• The things that I really like about your idea/solution are…
• The things that I wonder about your idea/solution are…
• If you’re open to it, I’d like to help you by…

Students may also become ‘attached’ to their original idea/solution so encouraging them to loosen their grip, stay open and not have ‘tunnel vision’ could also be helpful.

You may also like to have an example up your sleeve of a moment in time where you were given constructive feedback that really helped you propel forward.

Most of all, please be kind. Challenge students are encouraged to build ideas based on their personal passions and lived experience and it is important that they feel safe and supported when sharing these ideas with others.

Future Anything  finals judges are interested in the following areas

• INNOVATION – Does the idea identify a compelling ‘need’, or a local/ global challenge? Does the idea provide a clear solution to the problem?, How bold or fresh is the idea driving this project?
• POTENTIAL – Is there potential for this idea to grow and scale? Does the team have the ‘wow’ factor?
• IMPLEMENTATION – Is launching this idea financially realistic and well planned?

Note: The financial planning and implementation become more important the further students progress through the finals process. In the initial stages, it is more important that students have an innovative idea that is linked to their passions.

Check out students pitching at past Future Anything Finals on our website here. 

We certainly encourage leveraging your networks to assist with advancing the students’ ideas but similarly to sharing images, schools will have protocols around this.

We therefore recommend that you check-in with your key teacher before making any external connections, because they may need to be involved in the interaction and/or notify the students’ parents/caregivers.

We would recommend treating this on a case-by-case basis and ensuring that it is discussed with the key teacher to ensure all necessary protocols are adhered to.

We encourage all our schools to organise prizes for their in-school showcase (where appropriate) so if you are interested in investing in students’ enterprises, perhaps you could consider offering a prize. Remember, prize money/investment is of course valuable, but so is ongoing coaching or mentoring, and/or other support such as financial advice, branding, or tech support; internships or even visits to an interesting workplace or innovation hub. 

Don’t underestimate the impact this kind of support can have on an emerging innovator! 

Great! We love enquiring minds!

Shoot us an email to hello@futureanything.com and we’ll be in touch!