The Edge Foundation (Edge) – an independent education foundation dedicated to making education relevant for life and work in the 21st Century, are announcing a partnership with Ashoka, the largest global network of leading social entrepreneurs in the world.
One of Ashoka’s aims is to inspire changemaking behaviours in young people, to ensure they grow up to be empathetic, creative and community-oriented leaders no matter what career path they choose to follow. Changemakers are people who can see the patterns around them, identify the problems in any situation, figure out ways to solve the problem, organise fluid teams, lead collective action and then continually adapt as situations change.
Ashoka Changemaker Schools enable all students to become changemakers—young people who have the skills and confidence to change the world for the good of all. There are already 14 schools and colleges in the UK network.
Edge believes all young people need to be equipped with the skills that today’s global, digital economy demands, through high quality training, a broad and balanced curriculum, interactive and engaging real world learning and rich relationships between education and employers. Through Edge Future Learning, the Foundation supports schools and colleges to help young people develop these skills.
Both organisations firmly believe that to be fully prepared for the future, all young people need access to rich knowledge, to skills like team working and communications and to the behaviours and mindsets that will help them put these to use for their communities – the essence of changemaker education.
Alice Barnard, Chief Executive, Edge Foundation“Through this exciting partnership with Ashoka we will be working together to embed the wider skills and behaviours inherent in changemaking into the education system. This will give the young people of today the tools to be successful in their lives, careers and communities forever.”
Nikki Gravning, Country Co-Director, Ashoka UK“We need to make big changes in the way young people experience education so that they can thrive in the modern world and find solutions to our most complex problems. With help from Edge in the UK we will build on our international successes in countries like Brazil and Italy to trigger fundamental changes in the educational experience of young people so that everyone can become a changemaker.”