Building Capability-Rich Curriculum
by Nicole Dyson, Founder and CEO, Future Anything
As the world shifts to an innovation economy, young people need the capabilities to think critically, adapt, and lead. Nicole introduces Future Anything’s new Capability Framework, which is designed to embed these essential skills into curriculum, equipping students with the agency to shape their own futures.
For the better part of the last century, the purpose of education has been clear: prepare young people with the knowledge and skills to succeed in the workforce. But as technology accelerates—particularly through artificial intelligence—the foundations of this ‘knowledge economy’ are rapidly eroding.
According to LinkedIn’s Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman, we are now entering the era of the innovation economy—a world where human capabilities like curiosity, creativity, communication, critical thinking, and agility matter more than content recall or task automation.
The question is no longer whether young people need these skills—but how schools can meaningfully and measurably embed them into the learning experience.
Why a Capability-Rich Curriculum Matters
This isn’t new; the General Capabilities within the Australian Curriculum have signposted this since 2010.
But, as industries shift, education today demands a far more explicit focus on capabilities. Employers globally are identifying “power skills” as critical for success. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report consistently ranks analytical thinking, resilience, and leadership as top skills.
These shifts are driven by a common understanding: that capability-rich learning doesn’t just improve employability—it improves life outcomes.
Introducing the Future Anything Capability Framework
Over the past five years, Future Anything has worked alongside educators, researchers, students, and system leaders to design a research-informed framework that puts agency at the heart of teaching and learning.
© 2025 Future Anything. All rights reserved.
This framework may be shared for educational purposes with attribution but may not be modified or used commercially without permission.
The Future Anything Capability Framework identifies six key capabilities that empower young people to bend the future—rather than just inherit it. Each capability also consists of three measurable competencies that students can develop over time, through scaffolded opportunities to ‘practice’ within their curriculum.
Curiosity is the drive to explore, ask questions, and seek new understanding about the world around us.
Competencies include:
- Inquisitive: Asking questions to engage in discussions and clarify understanding.
- Open-Minded: Exploring diverse perspectives and challenging assumptions.
- Explorative: Seeking out new knowledge independently, across varied contexts.
Anchor Research: Facilitating Creativity by Regulating Curiosity
Creative Thinking is the ability to generate, refine, and apply novel ideas in meaningful ways.
Competencies include:
- Imaginative: Generating bold, original, or unusual ideas.
- Optimistic: Iterating on ideas and staying open to solutions—even in the face of failure.
- Experimental: Testing and refining ideas through trial, error, and feedback.
Anchor Research: Defining Creativity
Critical Thinking is the process of analysing, evaluating, and synthesising information to make reasoned judgments.
Competencies include:
- Reflective: Drawing on knowledge and experience to guide decisions.
- Analytical: Identifying patterns, evaluating sources, and assessing relevance.
- Evaluative: Applying criteria to make well-informed and defensible conclusions.
Anchor Research: Teaching Critical Thinking and Why it Matters
Communication is the ability to express ideas clearly, listen actively, and engage in meaningful dialogue across diverse contexts.
Competencies include:
- Expressive: Articulating thoughts and ideas through a range of formats and media.
- Responsive: Adapting communication for different audiences and supporting inclusive dialogue.
- Relational: Collaborating effectively and recognising the strengths of others.
Anchor Research: Communicative Competence
Action is the ability to take initiative, set goals, and follow through on tasks to make things happen.
Competencies include:
- Organised: Using tools, strategies, and systems to structure work and manage time.
- Self-Aware: Recognising personal limits, asking for help, and balancing roles in a group.
- Responsible: Setting goals, showing initiative, and following through without prompting.
Anchor Research: Project management education: The human skills imperative
Agility is the ability to adapt, persist, and stay resourceful in the face of change or challenges.
Competencies include:
- Resilient: Staying calm under pressure and learning from mistakes.
- Persistent: Continuing to take action—even when things feel difficult or uncertain.
- Adaptive: Changing strategies and applying feedback to improve.
Anchor Research: Adaptive Intelligence: Its Nature and Implications for Education
How the Framework Was Developed
The framework was designed through a multi-year process shaped by three key elements:
- Informing Research Base
We grounded our design in a deep review of literature—from seminal works in education theory to contemporary insights from the future-of-work and youth development sectors. We’ve included an anchor research piece alongside each capability above, but note that this is a sliver of the research base that was amassed through this stage in the process.
- Situatedness
We engaged directly with schools, systems, and students to understand how capabilities are defined and described in context, testing the tools through our Activate program. This kept the work practical, authentic, and adaptable – evolving in real time over the past five years in response to feedback and practice.
- Visual Synthesis
In a field crowded with jargon, we aimed to bring clarity. The final framework is simple enough to live on a classroom wall, yet robust enough to underpin whole-school strategy. Simplexity.
Designed for Students, Not Surveillance
From the outset, the Future Anything Capability Framework was also designed to be student-led.
In a time when teachers are increasingly time-poor, we deliberately avoided building a framework reliant on teacher observation or endorsement. Marking and reporting are complex enough in schools, without adding more of the same.
Why? Because the entire purpose of the work is to unlock student agency—not to build another teacher-dependent structure.
We focus on growing students’ confidence in the capabilities, not teachers’ assessment of them.
Students self-assess using language-aligned tools and reflective questions. These tools are designed to be accessible, repeatable, and embedded within learning—without needing to add significant load to classroom teaching.
In fact, our research indicates we can see growth of 5-8% in target capabilities in secondary school students, doubling to 10-16% in primary school students, from simply spending 10 minutes a week for ten weeks on embedding a chosen capability.
The curriculum is crowded. We know. We never wanted to add to the juggle, all we do is re-orientate your ten-minute Hook, Brain Break or Exit Ticket activities to have a capability focus.
This approach also addresses a deeper equity concern. Systems reliant solely on teacher endorsement tend to privilege extroverted individuals who are confident and visible—students like Jack who express themselves overtly and obviously; often asking for what they want. But these systems risk overlooking students like Jill, who may be demonstrating deep curiosity or creativity in quieter, less observable ways.
By shifting capability development into students’ hands, we make it more equitable, accessible, and authentic.
If we want young people to lead their future, then we must give them opportunities to lead their learning.
This aligns with emerging global research on learner agency and metacognition. Studies show that when students reflect on and track their growth in capabilities, they are more likely to set meaningful goals, engage deeply, and persist through challenge (Zimmerman, 2002; OECD, 2019; Boekaerts, 2010).
From Capability Framework to Practice
Schools working with Future Anything use the framework to:
- Guide school-wide strategy through staged multi-year implementation plans
- Map curriculum and identify target capabilities for each unit of work or phase of learning
- Engage staff in professional learning to build shared language and pedagogical alignment – you can’t have confident teachers, without investing in professional development.
- Use our student-friendly measurement tools to build a whole-school approach to learner profiles
- Build capability micro-credentials and learner portfolios to make capability development visible
We’re currently partnering with a select group of schools and systems across Australia through multi-year, whole-school partnerships that build capability-rich curriculum into the DNA of learning.
These partnerships go beyond individual programs. They include strategic planning, capability mapping, professional learning, and middle leadership coaching—ensuring capability-rich curriculum becomes a sustainable, achievable and embeddable priority.
To what end?
If we want young people to step up, we must be brave enough to step back.
To create classrooms where students don’t just consume content—but create insights.
Where learning is less about “what’s on the test” and more about what’s possible.
That’s what our Future Anything Capability Framework is designed to do.
To build a capability-rich curriculum that unlocks student agency.
To build students who are confident, capable, and curious enough to shape their own path forward.
And if we get this right—they won’t just be ready for the future.
They’ll bend it.
About the author: Nicole Dyson
Nicole Dyson, CEO and Founder of Future Anything, is a multi-award-winning educator and entrepreneur, and a global authority on project-based learning and youth entrepreneurship. Nicole has received numerous accolades, including the 2023 ‘Gamechanger Award’ in Queensland’s 40 Under 40, The Educator’s ‘Most Influential’ list, and multiple business and education awards for Future Anything.
Nicole passionately believes that youth-led ideas have the power to bend the future and supports educators, schools, and systems to design and deliver future-focused learning that unlocks young people’s passion and potential.
Future Anything’s Activate in-curriculum program and student workshops build confident communicators of all ages, by empowering young people to develop, and then persuasively pitch, innovative social enterprise solutions to the problems they care about.
Find out more about our programs here.
