29 Jan 2017

Currently, Google and PricewaterhouseCoopers are predicting that Australian tech startup businesses will be worth more than 100 billion dollars in 2023. That’s 4% of the economy, with over 540, 000 employed because of it. In June 2015, 340 new small and micro-businesses, those with up to five employees, were created on average every single week. Welcome to the future!

Alan Noble, the Engineering Director at Google Australia says that our country will need to encourage over 2000 tech entrepreneurs each year to join the industry. He hopes that by 2023, the options for school leavers will be ‘vastly different- indeed better than today’. ABOUT TIME.

You’ve probably noticed this boom, which began in 2010. Our cities are populated with co-working spaces focused on innovation, collaboration and community. They’re donning funky workspaces, indoor plants and awesome opportunities for pitching business concepts to rooms of investors.

But the thing is, this new world is overwhelming and intense. A lot of us don’t have safety nets or mentors or family who are aware of the business world and how it operates. A lot of it is down to trial and error, and often this can be disheartening. Maybe some of us have no interest in becoming a CEO but have great interest in tech or engineering or product development. The startup space needs everyone who is keen in investing their time into wild new projects that don’t already exist, or change the game in some way. It’s exciting, it’s terrifying and it’s the future.

The question you need to ask yourself is this: where do you fit? When will you start thinking about your future and the future of jobs and figure out where your interests and passions sit within that landscape? Do you have an idea? A strong desire to influence an industry with something new?

Global Game Changers is a two year degree delivered by Ducere Global Business School in partnership with the University of Canberra that prepares people like us for the future. It sets you up with a Bachelor of Applied Entrepreneurship or a Bachelor of Applied Entrepreneurship (Social Entrepreneurship) while providing you with actual life experience so you don’t need to do the whole ‘intern lyf’ thing for a million years. You just build your business, get qualified and get serious advice and assistance along the way. KWL.

Through practical insights and dynamic case studies, coupled with venture-focused projects and assessment, you’ll learn exactly what it takes to succeed in both the business world and the startup sector. Throughout your study (which is primarily online btw), you’ll work on projects relevant to you and your venture – instead of exams, you’ll create real business plans, and gain the enterprise skills to make these plans a reality. Grades and exam marks? Ha! Talk about refreshing.

The degree features TWO international study tours designed to immerse you in the most innovative and fastest growing economies on the planet. All the while you’ll be building core graduate capabilities like leadership, mindfulness and resilience. In your first year you’ll travel through Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and China in a five week horizon-building tour. In your second year you’ll jet over to the United States to hit up Silicon Valley. Over 3 weeks you’ll discover how innovators and investors are succeeding in the digital age, and pitch your own ventures to a panel of experts and entrepreneurs.

Did I mention you’ll have access to over 250 Global Leaders such as former Prime Ministers, Nobel Prize winners, global humanitarians and CEOs?

You can also access Commonwealth supported places and HELP. Yeah, that means no upfront payments for study OR travel. Wicked.

Ducere’s pioneering setup is the perfect example of the current economy changing the future for young people and their career options. Because while we at Year13 often critique the education system, we don’t think degrees are pointless. Degrees have a place, and they teach your infinitely more than just knowledge. They teach life skills that will be invaluable in business and any other sector you venture into in your lifetime. Thank the flipping lawd that there’s a degree out there that’s adapted to this new market.