“I don’t want to wait 10 years to be a citizen. I want to be a citizen of tomorrow today. The world needs me!”
The last two decades have witnessed a snowballing of technological developments and, allied to this, a shift to a gig society. As a result, the qualities of both creativity and entrepreneurship have become ever more vital for our young people. Yet this poses a challenge for educators; how do we keep pace with this speed of change and bridge the skills gap? For as Professor Richard Foster, Yale, pertinently states, by the time our current Year 7 students graduate in 2025, ‘more than three-quarters of the S&P500 will be made up of companies we haven’t heard of yet’.
Our aim is to equip our young people, to build their individual and collective capacity to be prepared for and affect change. We work towards this through focussing on six global competencies: those of character, citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. These same tools that will prepare ESF students for the future are also those that will enable them to act proactively to change the world. In the words of renowned educational reformer Michael Fullan, we need to ‘engage the world to change the world… This is not just a moral question; it is a matter of survival, and even better, prosperity’.
With the old system only working for the minority and an ever-increasing gap between said minority and the disadvantaged people in our community, we need to attack this inequality and deliver visionary alternatives. This mission is a bold one, but it is one that grows organically from ESF’s undertaking to inspire creativity and nurture global citizens and leaders of the future. ESF is committed to a culture of continuous improvement and widening of opportunity. Our core duty is that of achieving the moral purpose of all children learning.
The Alliance is part of our strategic response to these challenges.
The Alliance – shaping the future.