<client>
Kedge & Aether
<team>
shielaugh divelbiss, joe owens
<role>
futurist & service designer
<challenge>
How might we create professional training that successfully combines strategic foresight and design thinking?
<approach>
Through collaboration with Kedge & Aether, our team sought to discover how innovation culture might rely on teaching human skills in a new way. Over the course of the project, we interviewed 13 SMEs, used strategic foresight to discover 40 trends, and facilitated 3 different co-creation sessions with over 44 participants. We summarized our research and discoveries in a 120-page document along with presentation materials, business plans, journey maps, personas, combined curriculum design, and infographics.
<key insights>
The future of education and certification is entering a paradigm shift with student loan debt rising above $1.5 trillion dollars as it becomes a looming crisis
There are workforce gaps that employers can’t fill due to a lack of educated candidates with over 7.6 million job openings
The trends of polyskilling, fear of obsolescence, and workism are combining to strangle Millennial and Gen Z belief in an optimistic future
Radical self-awareness and core human traits (grit, elasticity, persuasion, imagination, critique, exploration, integrity, and intuition) can make people adaptable and ready for the future.
<outcome>
The effort resulted in an MVP of a certification curriculum to teach working professionals and middle management the soft skills they need to develop and adapt for the future.
