Our Why.
The future of work around the world is looking increasingly unpredictable. The job market has become noisy and crowded. Competition for opportunity has become fierce. The value proposition of your skills, qualifications or experience is being challenged as never before. Everybody wants an edge. This constant change and uncertainty makes many traditional career development models ineffective. Young professionals that lack deep pockets are forced to rely mostly on the strength of their career development strategy and creativity. You could be the best, smartest, and most capable professional in your industry. And in all likelihood, you could still end up unemployed.
Even if you do manage to get hired, you’re not guaranteed long-term employment. The employer-employee pact has fully disintegrated. Today's employers do not offer lifetime commitment to their employees. Traditionally, students would first graduate from high school or university, after which, they would seek to work a full-time job with regular hours that they would remain in for the rest of their lives. Work, today, however, has already moved from this traditional model, and is now constantly under disruptive pressure.
In light of such changes, young professionals should not be left to their own devices when it comes to navigating this newly emerging world of work. There are skills young professionals can acquire to better navigate the uncertainty of the economy and capitalize on their skill set to make it work for them. As disruptive as the world of work has become, this isn't to say that career growth opportunities don't exist anymore or that they can't be created. It more likely means that there are great opportunities than ever before.
It is in this spirit of the changing future of work, that Becoming a Willing Student® was founded. We believe that young professionals today need to become somewhat their own entrepreneur. This requires some form of entrepreneurial training, not just for those with a background in business or enrolled in a business program at a college or university, but for all young professionals regardless of their background. It has become increasingly clear that all workers will spend a part of their whole careers being entrepreneurs, whether by choice or not. It is important therefore that all young professionals, not just business professionals or business students, learn entrepreneurship.
Becoming a Willing Student® is on a mission to help aspiring, first-time, early-stage, and mid-career young professionals launch and grow authentic careers that inspire and prosper. We are a holistic career coaching company for young professionals who want more from their lives.
Becoming a Willing Student® programs are also relevant to youth who are about to enter the job market, and therefore can be delivered to students at both high school and university levels. We help young professionals develop an entrepreneurial mindset when facing the job market and the global workplace. We believe new jobs and careers are being created just as old ones are being rendered obsolete.
As work becomes increasingly precarious for newer generations of workers, it is not only young professionals that have an educational background in business that are in need of learning entrepreneurial skills, but in fact, all young professionals as newer workers are increasingly expected to take matters into their own hands.
Whether your goals involve launching and growing a thriving career, deciding what's next in your career journey, landing the right career growth opportunities, making a successful career transition from employee to entrepreneur, learning to get to the point with prospective employers, figuring out what your unique competitive advantage is, or learning to make an instant sales or elevator pitch, Becoming a Willing Student® will help you laser-focus on the things that get you results.
You’ll walk away with tangible insights, bold ideas, fresh thought processes and proven strategies that will help you feel better, do better, and get what you really want out of your career and life.
The last two decades have seen several bouts of economic instability and fluctuation, including the recession of 2018. In response to this, employers have adjusted their hiring practices and the benefits that come along with being a traditional full-time employee. Given such circumstances young professionals today are forced to navigate an ever-disruptive economy where work has become more precarious. The social contract of working hard as the sole prerequisite to building a sustainable career and livelihood has ostensibly been broken. As a result, workers of the future are increasingly being required to become their own career managers.
Becoming a Willing Student® was born from the vision that authentic career coaching is the key to giving young people hope. We believe authentic career coaching helps young people learn how to lead themselves in the face of uncertainty. It helps them envision a concrete path to a better situation which empowers them to set goals and make plans to reach those goals.
Studies have shown that higher levels of hope are connected to improved well-being and can help people find meaning and purpose. We’re on a mission to operationalize hope in the workplace through authentic career coaching and empower young professionals to build resilience in the face of uncertainty. We use a holistic career coaching approach to empower young professionals to develop an authentic leadership mindset and transform their careers and lives.