About 4wardFutures

4wardFutures is a Warrington based charity that is working to empower young people of all backgrounds to take control of their future careers and progression opportunities by engaging with employers, universities and professional organisations against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world through the impact of the innovation and technology.

4wardFutures will achieve this ambition by helping young people understanding the impact this disruptive technology is having on their current and future progression career pathways. Provide greater understanding of identifying and applying their passions and abilities by giving them the opportunity to meet and collaborate with employers, apprentices, students and individuals who are working with and developing this technology, through such things as team-based challenges, project work, employer and university engagement events and visits.

Young people cannot see themselves in careers they do not know about and cannot see and understand for themselves.

Our ambition is further bolstered by giving young people the opportunity to take part in exciting projects and workshops. Through these interactive hands on opportunities, we will help them appreciate that in addition to qualifications, future employers will value employees that can confidently engage with and apply this disruptive technology. That employers value and look for qualities such as passion, commitment and creativity, teamwork and empathy; and that these can be developed and demonstrated to potential employers they meet, in both formal and informal encounters, through participation in such things as part time work and sporting, creative and volunteering activities.

Constructing a Life on Mars (CALOM) is one of a suite of projects 4wardFutures are working on with young people in Warrington. CALOM is utilising the increasing international interest in humans travelling to and living on Mars and the challenges they will face, as a metaphor through which they can gain an up-to-date perspective on the innovation and technology referred to by Otero, the impact this is having on their future progression and career opportunities, whilst developing teamwork and soft skills.  Through participating in CALOM and other 4wardFutures projects such as

Constructing a Sustainable Life on Earth (CASLOE), Gaming to Development (G2D), young people will also benefit in understanding how industrial sectors such as engineering, construction, technology and advanced manufacturing need future employees not just with STEM[1] related qualifications and qualities, but also from the social sciences, humanities and creative sectors.

Due to the professional background and personal experiences of a number of our team, 4wardFutures has a special interest in working with young people who for different reasons may have had or are having difficulties in mainstream education, are neuro diverse and may not find a purely academic curriculum exciting or engaging.

For example, 4wardFutures recently enabled two 3DFutures workshops with fourteen neuro diverse young people and twenty-one young people from an area of Cheshire West from an underprivileged background.

During these workshops, the young people were shown how to set up a £15 second-hand Xbox Connect with free software included in the Windows 10 operating system. They then scanned and made 3D models of their fellow classmates and inserted these models into a virtual reality art gallery.

[1] Science Technology Engineering Mathematics