How can we prepare teens for real life? Meet Factor
A program to find your career & build the skills companies require
One big cause of stress for teenagers is not knowing what the world will look like for them after high school. Can you imagine – or rather, do you remember? – being told for 12+ years that you’re getting prepared for… something… that neither you nor your teachers have any clue what it will look like?
Factor solves that. In 16 weeks, they give students experience in solving real world problems and building meta skills, all while discovering various industries.
I chatted with the inspiring Caleb Hicks, previously co-founder & the school builder of Lambda School (BloomTech) and now founder & CEO of Factor. Caleb has been in the education industry for 10+ years, including experiences as a teacher for junior high on entrepreneurship, and building a coding program for students at Apple.
Caleb and I share a passion for and knowledge coming from our work with teens. So we had a lot to discuss regarding the question: what does it take to prepare teens for real life? Let’s dive into it!
1/ Give them the time and space to explore
Between classes lasting all day and additional assignments, high school is a busy time. It’s not designed to give you the space to explore who you are.
Yet the system also makes the teenage years a crucial chapter for deciding what to do with your life – all without giving you any opportunity or resources to think hard about it!
Caleb created Factor to bridge this gap. Factor offers teenagers an environment to make those difficult decisions with more awareness and support. It also plays down the gravity of their initial career choice, letting them meet unique individuals that challenge the myth of a “conventional path”.
To broaden your horizon beyond the only way of living you’ve known (yours, the one crafted for you by your parents & teachers) is critically important. It’s the only way you can make truly conscious choices about what you want for yourself.
2/ Provide peers, mentors and guides
Having amazing people around you as supportive resources is the greatest asset when preparing for real life. And it’s something that, again, is not provided nor encouraged in traditional schooling.
When I dropped out of high school, I was able to find that kind of support in the startup ecosystem: people from my generation who were just as curious as me, experts providing inspiration, and a few guides to help orient me when I felt lost.
This helped me navigate the complexities that come with entering work life, finding my path, and being happy.
Community is one of the most important aspects of Factor: during the program, you have the opportunity to meet learners who share the same questions and workers who love what they do, as well as having a guide who gets to know you and supports you throughout the process.
3/ Teach them meta skills
How will you build confidence if you’re convinced that you’re the only one in the world to suffer from imposter syndrome?
How will you learn to communicate if you’re never encouraged to do collaborative teamwork?
How will you solve real life problems if you’ve only been presented with workbook exercises?
That’s the reality of school, and it looks like it’s going to stay that way for a while longer. So what can we do until our millions of teens finally have access to the high quality education we’re all dreaming of?
Although the system was built in a way that leaves students lacking in soft skills, there is another way: getting into an environment where they have no other choice than to master them.
You can do that the hard way, like I did: working a full-time job in a startup at 16 years old, and figuring it out as you also learn to do 100 other new things. That’s very overwhelming at times! A different way is to go to Factor and learn by using all those skills without even necessarily realizing you lacked them before, thanks to collaborating with your peers and working on hard problems.
This is incredibly valuable for companies, too. Having juniors autonomous and proactive from day 1 makes a huge difference in terms of the value they’ll add to the team.
Teens really need help. Millions of them are facing mental health crises that aren’t being addressed. As a teenager, I’ve gone through that, too. And I remember when I finally got the opportunity to be in touch with “real life”: work that made me feel useful, peers to relate to, and space to get to know myself. It was a game changer.
This is why I believe Factor’s program has the potential to transform the life of so many youngsters!
Learn more & apply on their website.
How did you live the experience, as a young person, of discovering what real life is in contrast with school?
As always, thanks for reading. Your comments and thoughts are super appreciated, I can’t wait to hear your experiences!
From the internet with love,
Zelda
Subscribe for more insights on Social-Emotional Learning, the Future of Education & the people building it:
Hi, Zelda here. Just wanted to say hello from Paris, France! I’m looking to connect with founders in the Edtech scene to write about their project. If you’re one or know someone interested, contact me here: zeldapoem@gmail.com or on Twitter.
